Melting Chocolate

MandyT · January 19, 2010, 8:50am

I love to coat biscotti and other kinds of cookies with chocolate and also sometimes to drizzle chocolate on top of cakes of just cover them with a shiny thin coating of chocolate. The trouble I have is that when I melt slowly the chocolate over a pot of hot water (yes I wipe the bottom of the dish in which I have the chocolate so water does nto touch it etc and I add sometimes a pat of butter in it)…the chocolate is turning out too thick and also it is not shiny…making it very hard to properluy coat these sweets. Please HELP. Thank you much.

lvdkeyes · January 19, 2010, 8:54am

I melt chocolate in the microwave. I don’t nuke it until it is fully melted.Then I stir it to finish the melting.

MandyT · January 20, 2010, 8:38am

THANKS this is good advice…Do you reccomend a special type of chocolate that you had good luck with and can give you a shiny finish for coating? I also heard that some people add parafin to this? but this does nto sound tasty at all? Your thoughts? Thank you so much! - Mandy

Kitchen_Witch:

it will also depend on the quality of the chocolate and the type of chocolate you are using - and I don’t use butter - I use shortening

if your chocolate is too thick it may be stale and seizing up on you - also the tiniest bit of water or moisture will cause that to happen and this includes STEAM - the cocoa butter will immediately begin to harden

you can add MELTED butter, vegetable oil, hot milk and whisk until it is well incorporated and smooth

BUT once your chocolate seizes - it is not really good to use as a coating - used alone - it would be best used in a sauce, frosting or batter, or hot chocolate after that - seized chocolate NEVER returns to it’s normal consistency

when using a water bath or a double boiler - any steam or water that touches even your whisk will give you a problem with your chocolate

microwaving is very tricky

I have also melted chocolate in a pan over direct heat, stirring constantly with no problems at all

some have added water to the seized chocolate and stirred until smooth again using 1 tablespoon water to 2 ounces chocolate