Melting Chocolate - Serious help needed!

[Steve Kroll]

If the recipe does not call for milk, use the microwave, but do so gently. TURN THE POWER LEVEL DOWN to below 50%. Nuke it for 20 seconds, then stir. Repeat until smooth. As it gets close to being melted, shorten to 10 or 15 seconds at a time.

Skip the double boiler entirely.

Exactly.

 

[S7ewie]

Thanks folks

I'll give these methods a try. Guess I was just baffled that after managing before without any troubles I still seem to be overheating it even on the lowest settings. But I guess it can't be any other reason.

Thanks for all your help

 

[jennyema]

The chocolate is getting too hot for too long

it shouldn't take 5 min to melt it

But it will if your cream isn't very hot before you put the chocolate in it

Like others have said, heat your cream to quite hot but not simmering. Take it off the heat. Add your chocolate and stir gently to melt and combine it.

 

[Roll_Bones]

Microwave.

 

[RickTee]

I'm baffled as to where the idea that the bowl should not be in the water came from, I guess someone miss heard rather like Chinese whispers. The bowl should not touch the bottom of the pan but should be in the water. If you're heating the bowl with steam your pan is far too hot, your chocolate will burn and steam will condense in your bowl.

I'm no expert but I melt chocolate regularly as I love chocolate eclairs filled with whipped cream and am partial to fresh doughnuts with chocolate topping.

 

[S7ewie]

That's interesting.
I used to let it touch the water and never had a problem (mostly darker chocolate though). But everything I've read including the instruction on the bar of chocolate itself said don't let it touch the water.

Maybe it's a myth?

 

[RickTee]

You can always Google 'how a bain marie works'.

 

[S7ewie]

Hmm,
There's a lot of info online that backs up your theory. It certainly makes sense.

I'm going to have another go later. I'll warm up the cream so it's not cold. Let the bottom of the bowl touch the water and slowly heat it up, as soon as it starts to melt I'm taking it off the heat.

Fingers crossed :p

 

[S7ewie]

Attempt no.5 .. FAIL!

Im getting so sick of this! I've melted chocolate loads of time and never ever had this much trouble before. I've never had to be this careful. What am I doing that's so different?!

This time I let the cream warm up to about room temperature. I could have heated it right up and used that to melt it but I was nervous about it overheating and wasn't sure whether I was supposed to stick with half of the cream or do it all and then whether I'd have to put it on the hob and heat it up too.

I boiled the kettle and poured some of that into the saucepan (mothers idea). Let it cool down for a few mins, no simmer, no bubbles nothing. Placed the bowl in so that it was just touching the water. As soon as it started to melt I took the bowl out. Even out of the water it melted fairly quickly this time (I guess the cream was slowing it down). The melting slowed and it started to thicken, so I put the bowl back on top of the saucepan for about 30 seconds .. Took it off .. Stirred a little more .. Then boom .. It separated

This is driving me insane now. I don't know how I was able to do it so carelessly before but now I need to be in a laboratory to get it to work. I'm starting to feel like my next step is to buy a laser thermometer and use that to monitor the temps.

This is the most depressed I've felt in ages Most expensive tart I've ever made too .. Considering I had to remake the base today too.

 

[Silversage]

Numerous people here, with loads of experience, have suggested that you either use the microwave, or pour hot cream over the chopped chocolate. But you continue to try to do some variation of a double boiler. It's not surprising that you keep getting the same results.

Again, white chocolate is not the same as chocolate, and you must treat it gently. Either try one of our suggestions, or live with your results from the double boiler variations.

Why ask us if you are not interested in our advice?

 

[S7ewie]

I am listening to advice! The key thing everyone is mentioning is that I'm overheating it. So I'm doing everything I can to try and reduce the heat. I must have melted white chocolate over 20 times using this method and I've never had to be this careful with it. Maybe I was just insanely lucky.

I'll try heating the cream on its own then with no double boiler (promise) but should I heat ALL the cream at the same time? Or should I stick to using the original 25% cream to chocolate and add the rest once it's melted (should I heat that too?)?

Also, what happens if the cream doesn't completely melt the chocolate on it own?

I'm trying to avoid the microwave method, mostlj because our microwave is extremely temporary, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

 

[jennyema]

I'd just heat up all the cream and add the chocolate shaved or broken into small pieces and stir

 

[S7ewie]

So heat the cream and pour it over the chocolate or heat the cream and add the chocolate to it?

Most people have said to pour it over so I think I'm going to try that.

I'll heat ALL the cream but carefully not to go too hot, break up the chocolate as much as I can and pour the cream over it in a separate bowl. I'll let you know how I get on :p

 

[RPCookin]

So heat the cream and pour it over the chocolate or heat the cream and add the chocolate to it?

Most people have said to pour it over so I think I'm going to try that.

I'll heat ALL the cream but carefully not to go too hot, break up the chocolate as much as I can and pour the cream over it in a separate bowl. I'll let you know how I get on :p

Don't only break the chocolate, but use a knife and shave or chop it into small pieces, the smaller the better so that the whole cream/chocolate mixture reaches about 100°F (about 37.7°C) all at the same time. Use a good instant read thermometer to be sure that you aren't overheating. If the cream is more than about 42°C before pouring over the chocolate, then it is probably too hot. Remember that cocoa butter melts at less than human body temperature, so you don't need it to be much hotter than that.

 

[blissful]

From the link I provided above:

Chocolate should never be melted with very small amounts of liquid. The amount of liquid added must be at least 25% of the chocolate. For chocolate with 55 to 60% cacao, you'd need 1 tablespoon liquid for every 2 ounces chocolate. High-percentage chocolates (60 to 70%) need more liquid, 1 1/2 tablespoons per 2 ounces. 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.​

I don't think it matters if you add the chocolate to the cream or the cream to the chocolate. Start with everything at room temperature. Heat the cream but don't heat it too much. You don't mention how many ounces (grams) of chocolate you have and how much cream you are talking about.
Does the amount of white chocolate and cream seem right--as mentioned above, the amount of liquid is at least 25% the amount of chocolate? I personally would add all the cream at one time.

How hot should the cream be? Not boiling. Not room temperature. It should feel quite warm to the touch, your body temperature is 98 degrees F, boiling is 212 degrees F (or about that), it should be some where in between. I'd aim for about 150 degrees F.

ETA: RPCookin says to use a much lower temperature for the cream. I'd use a warmer cream if the amount of cream is about 25% of the amount of chocolate. The chocolate will be at room temperature, say 70 degrees and it is about 3-4 times the amount of cream. The cream's temperature with the chocolate's temperature, in the end, needs to be about 100 degrees F to 110 degrees F.

 

[S7ewie]

Attempt no.6 .. SUCCESS!! Finally! XD

So I went and done what a lot of you folks had been telling me to do from the start. I heated up all the cream and slowly poured it over the chocolate whilst stirring.

The total cream was 100ml to 200g of chocolate. The recipe originally calls for 50ml to be melted with the chocolate and then a further 50ml to be added later once it had melted. That corresponds to roughly 25% at the start (not accounting for density) which is what most websites seemed to be suggesting when melting chocolate with a liquid. But I done it all in one go with this method.

One thing for sure is I need to find myself a good thermometer. Doing this by guess work is was too difficult.

The cream did melt the chocolate quite nicely but as I feared it wasn't quite enough to melt it fully. By the time it was half way through it had cooled way down. Maybe if I try and break the chunks down even smaller next time it might manage. But this time I had to give it a couple of minutes in warm water.

Anyway .. It worked. Finally. Thanks for all your help!

Next I need to melt the dark chocolate. Should I use the same method for this? Or is this more likely to work using the double boiler?

Thanks again

 

[blissful]

Hooray!!! I'm glad you finally got it to work! You can use the same method with dark chocolate if you are adding a liquid to it.