Melting Chocolate

Melting chocolate for baking needs to be done carefully to avoid ending up with a burned or grainy mess. There are 3 ways you can melt chocolate successfully. Each requires work and care but you will be well rewarded with smooth glossy wonderful chocolate!

In The Oven

Melting chocolate in the oven is probably the easiest method, however you can very easily get caught up in your other baking chores and ruin the chocolate. It also takes quite some time so you'll probably want to start the melting early. Heat the oven to 110 degrees. Chop the chocolate and put in a dish inside the oven. Keep the oven door open and an eye on the chocolate. It will take about an hour to melt.

Double Boiler

This traditional method of melting chocolate uses a double boiler - one pot on the bottom with hot water in it and another smaller pot that rests inside the bigger pot. When using this method you need to be very careful not to get any of the water in with the chocolate once it starts to melt as this will make it grainy. Heat the water in the bottom pot so it is almost hot enough to simmer (but not quite). Chop the chocolate and put in the smaller pot. Place smaller pot on top of larger pot. You’ll need to stir the chocolate almost constantly.

Microwave

This method of melting chocolate is the fastest and can be very successful to it if you pay attention to the chocolate. Chop the chocolate and put in a microwave safe bowl. Microwave it at 50% power for 1 to 4 minutes (of course the time will depend on the amount of chocolate and your oven so keep a close eye as you don't want to over heat it!). When you see it turn shiny, and before it is fully melted, remove from the oven and stir constantly until it is fully melted.