Chocolate is placed in the top bowl and allowed to melt over gentle, indirect heat. If you do not own a double boiler, any metal or glass bowl that fits snugly over the top of a saucepan can be used. Fill the bottom pan with just enough hot water that does not touch the bottom of the top pan or bowl. NOTE: The simmering water not boiling must never touch the bottom of the pan or bowl.
Melt chocolate slowly over low heat. Chocolate is very delicate and can become lumpy or grainy if overheated. Do not let dark chocolate get above degrees F. Stir chocolate slowly and gently occasionally until melted. Begin stirring the chocolate with a rubber spatula when the outside edges start to liquefy.
Stirring prematurely will actually slow down the melting process. Stir frequently to distribute the heat evenly. Remove the pan or bowl from the double boiler as soon as the chocolate is nearly melted.
Continue gently stirring until it is smooth and shiny. Before pouring the melted chocolate into another container, be sure to wipe the exterior of the pan dry to prevent water drips.
Either break up, grate, or chop the chocolate into small even pieces. Preheat oven to a low setting — no higher than degrees F. After preheating, turn oven off. Place chocolate pieces in an oven-proof bowl, place in oven, and let stand until melted. Heat the chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl, uncovered, to prevent moisture from collecting.
Place chocolate in the microwave for 30 seconds at a time on medium power until the chocolate is melted. Be very careful not to overheat it, as the chocolate may not look as if it has completely melted, because it retains its shape.
The chocolate should be only slightly warmer than your bottom lip. The residual heat of the chocolate will melt it. Do not rely on appearance alone when microwaving chocolate. Use a rubber spatula to stir the melting chocolate. NOTE: Do not leave in microwave until all the chocolate is melted.
Chocolate can be safely melted with a small amount of liquid, such as milk, cream, butter, or alcohol if they are placed in the pan or bowl together the same time. Chocolate should never be melted with very small amounts of liquid. This prevents the dry particles cocoa and sugar in the chocolate from binding together and becoming lumpy:.
Cold liquids should never be added to melted chocolate, as they can cause the chocolate to seize. Instead, ensure that your liquids are warm but not boiling when you add them to chocolate. Either break up, grate, or chop the chocolate into small even pieces and put it in a small plastic bag. Once the chocolate is melted, cut off the corner of the bag and you can drizzle it on cakes, etc.
If you splatter water on melting chocolate or overheat the chocolate, it can be disastrous, causing the chocolate to seize or turn grainy. Note that some recipes call for melting chocolate along with liquid. This is OK, as long as the liquid is added at the beginning. If that happens, here is what you can try:. Add a taste-free vegetable oil canola, not olive , shortening, warm milk or cream, or warm melted butter by the teaspoon to the melted chocolate in a saucepan.
NOTE: The liquids added to the chocolate must not be cold — best if warmed to the same temperature as the chocolate. Stir constantly until the chocolate returns to a smooth state.
Use 1 tablespoon of liquid for every 6 ounces of chocolate; stir until smooth. Chocolate recovered from seizing should only be incorporated with other ingredients to make sauces, frostings, or batters. It is not suitable for using alone, such as for coating candy or creating decorative curls it will not have the same shine or delicate texture. When tempering chocolate and seizing occurs, once vegetable oil is added it can no longer be tempered.
Burnt chocolate is another matter. Discard the chocolate and start again. Chocolate is the secret to professional chocolate products.
Tempering is necessary if you want to make professional-quality and looking candies and truffles, you must first learn how to temper melted chocolate. Tempering is a heating, cooling, and stirring process that induces the melted chocolate to set with a glossy surface and smooth texture. Tempering is important because it determines the final gloss, hardness and contraction of chocolate.
When you melt chocolate, the molecules of fat separate. In order to put them back together — you must temper the chocolate. When you raise the temperature of chocolate above When the chocolate cools back to about 80 degrees F. The result chocolate will look dull and streaky rather than shiny and its texture will be grains rather than smooth. Tempering is a process of manipulating the temperature of melted chocolate to make the cocoa butter crystals resume their previous shape so that the chocolate returns to the stable condition it was in before you melted it.
Purchasing Chocolate for Tempering: Always purchase high-quality chocolate for tempering. Do that maybe twice, but don't stir it. Instead of throwing out this expensive mistake I decided to try something to fix it. I couldn't believe how quickly it smoothed out and the creamer added a better flavor and creaminess to my fudge!
Hope this helps. I guess that is because the butter needs to melt before the chocolate. Using frozen butter results in separation of butter and chocolate, separation of the batter, and even separation of the final baked product creating an oily feel. Still edible though. Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group.
Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Solutions for when heating chocolate and butter doesn't mix well Ask Question. Asked 11 years, 3 months ago. Active 7 months ago. Viewed k times. I also used margarine instead of butter but have never had a problem with this substitution before. Improve this question. JustRightMenus Kyra Kyra 4, 19 19 gold badges 48 48 silver badges 72 72 bronze badges.
Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. I can think of at least three things that will cause chocolate to seize - which refers to when melted or melting chocolate suddenly becomes hard again: Using too high a heat. So, in summary: Definitely stay away from the margarine. Improve this answer. Aaronut Aaronut In my experience with brownies, seizing isn't that big a deal because you end up mixing in eggs and other liquids that'll get you back to normal.
The best move here may actually just be to forge ahead undaunted and add the wet ingredients first, which would smooth out your chocolate relatively quickly. Interesting point Dennis and that may be true. I don't think I'd want to count on that, because once you get that far down, it's too late to fix it, especially if there are "medium" sized chunks as the OP says. If the seizing is fairly minimal, and the mixture is going to be exposed to slow heat later on, or if you can tolerate a lumpy texture at the end of the day, then I might ignore it.
Satanicpuppy: I'm sorry but that's not correct. Chocolate reacts to water. Any pure fat with no water content such as clarified butter or vegetable oil is fine; there's nothing special about animal fat.
If you look around, you'll see that adding vegetable oil is one of the most common "fixes" for seized chocolate. But this doesn't sound like seizing to me, it sounds like the chocolate just isn't melted all the way. Seizing produces a distinctive grainy texture that I think the OP would have mentioned. And the way to handle that: melt the chocolate gently, melt the butter separately, whisk in to emulsify.
I'll add in the point about separate melting; the OP did seem to imply that the recipe specifically called for melting them together, but it's worth pointing out regardless. Show 2 more comments. I am sorry, but the accepted answer is incorrect in many details. Of the three reasons enumerated in the original accepted answer, only one is a true cause of seizing: Using too high a heat. So of the first three gotchas, really only the third could cause seizing.
Furthermore, when melting butter and chocolate together, it is not necessary to pre-melt the butter for two main reasons I have done this enumerable times, both stove top and in a microwave : Butter melts at a lower temperature than chocolate, and so will tend to melt first anyway Assuming the heat level is low, and you stir occasionally, the mixture will not scorch, and so will un-seize when everything is fully melted and stirred together.
Coda on the science: Chocolate is normally a solid suspension of solid particles in a fat phase, with only a minuscule percentage of water. Well written, but a bit confusing to me: why are low quality chips likely the original poster's problem if it's only water content that actually matters here?
Fill a second large pot with small pieces of chocolate and place it on top of the first pot. Stir the chocolate constantly. As soon as the chocolate begins to melt, remove the pan from the heat source.
Add the butter to the chocolate, stirring to mix the two thoroughly. Work quickly to allow the chocolate to melt the butter before it cools down.
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