Melting chocolate in a microwave..

[auntyjo]

If you have really good plain chocolate (with high cocoa solids) then it's unlikely to go grainy and yuk whether you melt it in a bain marie, a microwave or down your cleavage.

 

The problem comes with the lower cocoa solids chocolate- white chocolate is really hard to melt without it seizing (the grainy mess) so the golden rule is- the paler the chocolate the slower and more gently you have to melt it.

 

Bain marie over (not in) almost boiling water is the most gentle method, but even that's not guaranteed with very pale chocolate. A couple of kettle loads of water is all you'll need to have an effective bain marie for long enough to melt some choccie for rice crispie cakes though.

 

i treated my self to a kilo bag of thorntons choc chips coz i've bought some choc moulds and thought it might give me and kids something to do, the choc tasted nice but after the moulds had set in fridge the choc went all grainy????????????????????

[tweet]

Yes take the tip from foxforcefive, 'a few seconds at a time', if you do it on the hob with boiling water the trick is to avoid steam getting into the chocolate (good quality or otherwise).

[Darth Vader]

I have a powerful 900w microwave. I melt a large family sized bar of dairy milk by breaking it up into individual squares and then microwaving on full power for 20 seconds. At first glance it looks as if it's not melted at all really. But when you take it out of the microwave and start to stir it up gently, after a little stirring, it's usually perfect.

[carly83]

anyone that likes galaxy chocolate try melting minstrals the shells stay who with melted chocolate inside:D

 

stick them in a bowl and microwave for about 30 seconds then put it in ya mouth gently crack open the shell and lovely warm running galaxy comes flooding out. just don't over heat them as its really painfull when you burn your mouth with chocolate and it makes it taste nasty