How to Melt a Cooking Chocolate without overheating it

Well, the first time I actually melt a chocolate is when I tried to decorate a butter cake for father's day. I googled about melting chocolate before I did it and I was really wise to read before doing anything.

Here's some tips on melting chocolate:

1) Remember chocolate will become unworkable when they meet water so make sure all the utensils are completely dry including the spoon or spatula.

2) Don't use wooden spoon or plastic spoon, use metal spoon instead.

3) Do not use high temperature to heat the chocolate and NO direct contact of chocolate with heat, or the chocolate will overheat and forms lumps and become grainy.

4) If the chocolate is overheated, add some oil (eg olive oil).

5) The chocolate must be stirred continuously when melting.

These tips are very important to produce smooth and successful melted chocolate.

Some people are very confused in melting chocolate especially for people who are doing it for the first time. I find it not very difficult as some people think if you follow the instruction correctly. There are several methods to melt chocolate such as using microwave or a method they called double boiler.

Double boiler is simply a method which the chocolate is melted in a water bath except the pan containing the chocolate does not touch the water contained by the other pan/pot otherwise the heat transfer will be so direct and fast that will caused the chocolate to be overheated.

Steps to melt chocolate:

1) The cooking chocolate must be broken down into small chunks of even size.

2) Heat a saucepan until it is boiled. Then lower the fire of the stove.

3) While the steam is still produced by the water, put another smaller saucepan or a heat-proof bowl in the larger saucepan. Make sure the water does not reach the smaller saucepan.

4) Slowly stir the chocolate as they will start to melt. Keep stirring them for 2-3 minutes or until they almost melt and remove them from heat.

5) The residue heat will make sure the remaining chocolate melts or else the chocolate will be overheated.

6) Let the chocolate cool down a bit but not too much then they are ready to be used.

The melted chocolate can be used as topping for muffins, cakes or you can also dip fruits or marshmallows in the melted chocolate. :)

Melting chocolate could be so easy if only you do it patiently. :)

Thanks for reading this! Have a nice day!