Pick up any chocolate cookbook and you will see the following in the instructions for melting chocolate:

“…place the chocolate in the top of a double boiler…”

or this:

“…place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl, and place the bowl over a pan of simmering water…”

For example, check out the following video:

This is a recipe for disaster!

One of the potential hazards of melting chocolate is called seizing. Seized chocolate is neither solid nor liquid; it contains hard lumps that make the chocolate virtually unusable.

Seizing can be caused by three things:

1 Melting the chocolate with too much heat
2 Adding a cold liquid to the chocolate while it is melting
3 Adding water to the chocolate while it is melting

Most seizing occurs because of the third reason. So, does it make sense to melt chocolate using the very thing that can cause failure? Of course not!

Fortunately, there is a better way. The microwave oven.

Chocolate can be easily melted in a microwave; the key thing to remember is to reduce the power setting. If you attempt to melt the chocolate at full power you will either seize the chocolate (which is what you are trying to avoid) or worse yet, burn it.

For example, my microwave has ten power settings, with ten being the strongest. It takes seven minutes to melt 200 grams at level two. Each microwave is different; consult your user manual and get familiar with your oven’s power settings.

One advantage of using the microwave is that it frees you up to do other things; you don’t have to constantly watch over the process as with the double-boiler method.

When using the microwave, please note that the chocolate will retain its shape, even when fully melted. So always check for melting by stirring; depending on your eyes may fool you!

Tags: melt, microwave, overheated, problems, seized, separated