How can it be so hard to melt chocolate??

I tried making rocky road today. Big fail! The chocolate just wouldn't melt properly. I had 400g milk chocolate, 140g dark chocolate and 50g butter in a glass bowl over water on the stove top. It started to melt nicely, but it just turned into this weird lump, it never went nice and smooth and runny. And it got a burnt kind of smell, yuck!

Possible issues I've thought of are:
- Too much in the bowl (but I tried again with less ingredients and the same thing happened)
- Water too hot (my stupid gas stove top is all or nothing, I had it on low the whole time and it boiled away anyway. It wasn't touching the bowl though)
- Maybe shouldn't have used a glass bowl?
- Maybe shouldn't have used a wooden spoon?

The butter was good quality, not low fat or salt reduced or anything. The chocolate was two different brands, but that shouldn't make a difference should it? Gah, how hard can it be, I've done it plenty of times before!!

What happen was you got a drop or two of water in your chocolate and it seized. You can use seized chocolate to make chocolate mousse or chocolate cakes so all isn't lost.

To make chocolate for rocky road you will need to temper it - melt it all and then chuck in some unmelted chocolate and stir it until it cools - then you get smooth chocolate with snap in it.

Exactly what Onyx said.

The only thing I can think that you should not have done is used a wooden spoon, it absorbs the moisture. Maybe once the water boils remove it from the stove and put it back on after a couple of minutes if needed.

I never use butter when I melt choccy and I do it in either the microwave or the stove. I made rocky road last Friday, no troubles!

Glass bowl and wooden spoon always work fine for me too! As long as the water isn't touching the bowl, it should have been fine. If you think it's getting too hot, take it off for a while, stirring, then you can put it on again if you need to.

Did you leave it on too long and it reduced down iykwim?

Ah that makes sense! Thanks :) Because the stupid water was boiling it was somehow coming up the sides between the saucepan and the bowl, it would have easily gotten in the chocolate. I've never actually tempered chocolate before, but I'll give that a go :)

I reckon I might have a go without the wooden spoon too, it didn't seem to be helping things. It definitely wasn't on the heat for very long, but as soon as the water started boiling it went down hill!

The water shouldn't be boiling - that burns the choc and makes it seize up. If your stove is "all or nothing", heat the water first, turn the stove off, THEN put the glass bowl with choc on it. The residual heat will melt it! Plus what Onyx said! Good luck xx

Mmmmm, all of the above. Definitely use either a metal spoon or even a plastic spreader/spatula for stirring - you'll thank us come washing up time, getting melted chocolate off a wooden spoon is a pain in the butt.

You can also melt chocolate in the microwave - low power and very slowly, stirring every 10-15 seconds, once the majority is melted and you've only got a few lumps the rest should melt on it's own while you stir.

Yeah I've got a plastic spatula, don't know why I didn't use it in the first place! I don't know what to do about the stove top and boiling the water. It's gas, and I was expecting it to be so much better than my old crappy electric one. But on the lowest setting, it still boils - and quickly too! It's a real PIA.

Easiest way is to leave the pot of water on the stove (make sure you top up the water if needed) and to shift the bowl as required. Put it on to warm up, take it off once the choc starts melting nicely, repeat as necessary. PITA, but it works as choc has to be treated gently if its not to burn and taste horrible

Do you have an electric fry pan? Maybe you could put some water in that and sit your bowl in it.

You can put a couple of bowls in for different types of chocolate just as long as they are heat proof.

Electric frying pan sounds like a good idea. We did have one, but chucked it when we moved because it was cheap and all the non-stick stuff had come off so it burnt everything. Bugger! Definitely going to have another go at this now today, I'm determined to make it work lol.

I use my microwave to melt chocolate. Just do it in 20-30 second bursts (and stir).

It can retain its form but still be melted, so check regularly. It should only take a minute or so depending on how much choc you have.

Good luck!!!!

Sooo... this is a bit embarrassing, but it took until today to get it to work. So 4 goes :redface: I've wasted far too much money on chocolate lol.

Attempt 2 on the stove with it turned right down and me taking the bowl off failed when DD woke crying and I left it. When I came back it was ruined. Attempt 3 in the microwave, after stirring it the first time and putting it back to go again, it turnoff into a lump. Somehow today it just worked! And tempered beautifully :) So I finally, finally have my rocky road :D

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WooHoo!!! :)

And yum!

I usually just use choc melts for my rocky road, which everyone seems to love. I've mentioned wanting to use fancier chocolate but everyone told me not to. Hard to mess up choc melts!

That's the thing Kimbles, they were choc melts! :rofl: I have no idea why it failed so many times this time around when I've done it so often before.

Onyx, thanks for the advice re tempering it :)

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Also I find different chocolates sometimes don't melt together well. This is because they have different amounts of sugars, oils etc. For example I never mix melts and block chocolate together.

If you find your chocolate seizes you can fix it with a little vegetable oil mixed in.