How to Melt Chocolate

Be it Dark, Milk or White chocolate, to work effectively with it you need to know how to melt the chocolate properly. Follow these simple steps and you’ll get it right every time.

When it comes to melting chocolate there are basically two options that we use. The first and easiest option is to use a small ramekin to heat the chocolate in a microwave oven.

Pour the chocolate into a microwave safe container and put into the microwave for 30 seconds on a low setting or about 30% power. After the 30 second burst, stir the chocolate to keep the heating is even.

Continue the cycle of heating and stirring until the chocolate is completely melted.

Direct heating is too intense to use in the melting process so the second option is to use a double boiler to melt the chocolate.

You will need a saucepan and a heatproof glass bowl that fits snugly inside it. Half fill the saucepan with water and bring it up to boiling point so that it is slowly simmering.

Put the chocolate in the bowl and place the bowl on top of the saucepan. The bowl should not touch the water, rathe rit should sit just above the surface of the water so that the steam can gently heat it.

Keep stirring the chocolate with the bowl over the water until it has mostly melted. Watch the bowl though, it can get very hot where the steam is escaping.

Important: You must not get any of the water in the chocolate. If you do it will ruin it.

That's it, there's nothing mysterious or complicated about it. You just have to take it slow and you'll have perfect melted chocolate every time.

Preperation time: 10 min
Recipe By Martin Hudson, Flavoursome Delights

Recipes using this technique:

Chocolate Mud Cake
Cherry Liqueur Chocolates
White Chocolate Coated Strawberries
How to make a Chocolate Ganache