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

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

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 :)

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

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.

Ooh thanks Rouge, I'll remember that for next time!

I was wondering, was the butter really stuffing it up? The first three times I persisted with the butter, as per the recipe. I guess it was supposed to help make it smooth or something. But today I ditched it and it finally worked perfectly!

No, the butter shouldn't have made any difference at all.

But you should definitley be able to get a low simmer out of a gas stove. Were you using the smallest element? Bad quality chocolate can also be a ***** to melt.
The main things though is water. Water ruins chocolate. So EVERYTHING has to be bone dry before you begin, and you need to make sure the bowl you are using fits the saucepan properly, so there is no steam coming up the sides of the bowl.

Glad you got there in the end!! :)

I used the Cadbury melts. They're delish just on their own lol. I know it was a steam issue from the boiling water the first two times, no idea about the third time with the microwave but possibly it was too hot cos it had that yucky burnt smell.

I don't know about the stove top, but the bigger the flame the hotter it is right? It's strange, because you turn it on at the highest heat, and then turn it down. My last one was opposite, you turn it on and it's on low, then turn the knob until it's at the hottest. I dunno, it's strange!

:

---

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.

---

Oh, weird then! I'm lazy though, I melt in the microwave for 1 min then stir, 1 min again and stir until it's melted.

They have to work like that because you need that amount of gas to get them lit first off ;)
There should be at least 2 different sizes to teh burners on your stove. The size of the circle in the centre will show you this. Usually there are 2 very small ones, one medium and one large. The smaller ones on low will give you a simmer.

When you use teh microwave you need to only have it on for 15-30 seconds max depending on its strength. Then you need to stir it, and put it on again. Personally, I loathe melting chocolate in the microwave, just a PITA. lol The stove you can set it there and forget about it.

Hmm, I reckon I just need to spend some more time with the stove then. I think I used the middle sized one cos it was at the front, but there is a smaller one that might have worked better.

Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk

I think you have actually cooked the chocolate instead of melting it. The wooden spoon also could be the culprit.

I usually use a glass bowl and metal spoon. Make sure you don't have too much water in the saucepan so that it doesn't touch the bottom of the bowl and produce too much heat. The water just needs to create steam to melt the chocolate. Also, make sure you keep stiring until the chocolate has melted.

Good luck!

I thought the same thing. And for me it's happened when there are a combination of chocolates that require two different temperatures to melt.

Another thing to remember when melting chocolate in the microwave is that it keeps cooking. So stir for a bit before reheating. I melt chocolate all the time in the microwave and I generally have no trouble. I very rarely have issues with water causing the chocolate to seize even when using a double boiler. But I always use metal spoons too. When I did my chocolate decorating course we were advised to use glass jars in an electric frypan on a low heat half filled with water as a perfect way to melt and temper chocolate (as Onyx suggested).