Dear Anne and Sue, "I love making my own chocolate candies and use the water bath method to melt chocolate. From time to time the steam from the pot under the bowl gets in the chocolate and then it seizes up and ruins.
What causes this and how can I repair the damage? Still have more questions? You'll find more answers in our archived monthly feature articles by the Inquisitive Cooks. Meet the Inquisitive Cooks. The best way to melt chocolate is to keep the water in a double boiler hot but not boiling , and to employ a chocolate or instant-read thermometer while melting the chocolate. First, you will want to cool the chocolate, as it is harder to save overheated chocolate that has been at a high temperature for a long time.
To cool the chocolate, remove the bowl from the heat source, transfer the chocolate to a dry, cool bowl, and stir in a handful of solid chocolate chunks.
Stir constantly and allow the solid chocolate to bring down the temperature of the melted chocolate. If the chocolate remains thick or lumpy, try straining it through a sieve first.
You can also try adding some freshly melted chocolate with a few drops of soya liquid lecithin an emulsifier, available at health food stores , or using a handheld immersion blender to smooth the chocolate.
If none of these tricks helps your chocolate, save it for use in baking recipes and begin again with a fresh batch of chocolate. Candy Mixture Crystallizes: Place the sugar in the bottom of the pot, taking care not to get it on the sides because it will crystallize after the sugar dissolves and approaches boiling.
After the sugar is placed in the pan, pour in the water or liquid, if applicable, carefully around the inside perimeter of the pan. If adding honey or liquid sugars, pour in the middle. Using your finger make an X in the pan to help the water gently mix with the sugar so it has the texture of wet sand. Check on whether all sugar grains are moistened. Wipe the sides with a damp, lint free towel to clean all sugar from it.
A dampened pastry brush works well, too. Make sure the bristles are not loose. The pot used needs to be spotless and dry, as well as the spoon used to stir. Any existing sugar crystals or a foreign object in the sugar syrup, such as old dried caramel, cause crystallization. Crystals will form and congregate on a foreign object. Some grease the upper sides of the pan, above the liquid level, to prevent crystallization before adding ingredients, if the recipe calls for butter.
If the recipe calls for melting the butter first, coat the sides of the pan before adding sugar and other ingredients. Always stir until sugar is dissolved. One sugar crystal can cause whole mixture to be grainy. Not washing the sides of the pot during cooking, where sugar crystals like to congregate.
After the sugar dissolves and approaches boiling, make sure the inside sides of the pot are completely clean. If not, sugar crystals could fall into the batch, crystallize and ruin it. Dark chocolate should never be heated above degrees, while milk and white chocolates should never be heated about degrees.
It is quite easy to exceed these temperatures if using a double boiler with boiling water, or if microwaving on full power.
Overheated chocolate will lose the silky shine of melted chocolate and become thick and muddy. The best way to melt chocolate is to keep the water in a double boiler hot but not boiling , and to employ a chocolate or instant-read thermometer while melting the chocolate. First, you will want to cool the chocolate, as it is harder to save overheated chocolate that has been at a high temperature for a long time.
To cool the chocolate, remove the bowl from the heat source, transfer the chocolate to a dry, cool bowl, and stir in a handful of solid chocolate chunks. Stir constantly and allow the solid chocolate to bring down the temperature of the melted chocolate.
If the chocolate remains thick or lumpy, try straining it through a sieve first. I used a small glass ramekin and took it out every ten seconds to stir with a spatula. After the 5th or 6th ten-second round in the microwave, the chocolate was workable.
Not where I can find it anyway. What did I do? My chocolate is really thick and has a slight gloss to it but it is gritty all the way through it. If you could respond to me somehow that would be cool and if you know anything about this melting chocolate stuff I could possibly have you call me or message me on messenger!
Is there anybody on this site that answers any one or is it just a place to write a bunch of stuff? Sorry to hear that your chocolate seized, Jeanie. Unrefined or virgin coconut oil with have more of a flavor to it, so this is not the best option to use. If semi-sweet chocolate is what you are going for and you are hoping to make cookies, it may be best to purchase chocolate chips to start if you are able to. And we have lots of wonderful cookie recipes that you might like to try.
Good luck! Thanks for the interesting tip Barry! It happened in an instant. A day before I used vanilla extract alcohol. That one was OK, but not the paste. I would have thought the paste had less water. But I added some cacao butter pellets around pieces , one by one, and it slowly went back to a smooth state. I read your article desperately one day when I was making Chinese noodle drop cookies. My chocolate chips seized and I was frantically looking for something to save it. I spotted sour cream in my fridge and thought…..
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