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Melting chocolate

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Oleanda | 15:29 Mon 09th Feb 2009 | Food & Drink
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I have just tried to melt a bar of milk chocolate, I put it into a bowl over a pan of hot water, but it has not melted, it's just gone crumbly. What's going on?
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Was the bowl dry before you put the chocolate in? I would expect it was, but even if there were a few drops of water I would not have thought that would be a problem. All I can say is that, when my wife was making a chocolate sauce to pour over profitteroles, the instructions said to melt the chocolate (which was plain) and that went OK, but the next step was to add a spoonful or so of water and stir. As soon as she did this, it all went crumbly. She panicked a bit, as there was no mention of this in the recipe, but I just carried on stirring and added more water, and it quite quickly went to a smooth sauce. Is your milk chocolate unusual in any way? Which country are you in? What does the ingredients list say about cocoa solids and cocoa butter?
Is the chocolate of a high cocoa content,it has to be high to achieve a decent melting consistency!!!
Ive done that so many times too, apparently its because you have heated it too quickly and too high. Try a lower heat and take it slowly - it does work, good luck
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I'm in UK. It's just an ordinary bar of Morrison's milk choc, 30% cocoa solids. I was hoping to use up some rice krispies by making cakes. I'm sure the bowl was dry.
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Is it too late to rescue it, maybe by adding some golden syrup?
whenever ive done it, ive just totally knackered the chocolate and had to buy more
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Thanks all, I'll get some more choc tomorrow and try again, slowly this time.
stick it in the microwave....

ive never had any trouble with that method
Hate to say this...but try to get a better quality chocolate next time.....one with a higher cocoa solids content. I had the same problem when I had to use Morrisons chocolate where I was working.
Do you mean milk chocolate or white chocolate?
just sit on it......it'll soon melt
I don't see that you can heat it too fast over boiling water, especially if you are using a ceramic or glass bowl. Possibly if you used a metal container it might heat up too fast.
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