Melting cooking chocolate

thecornflake

I know you have to use a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, but I've found that I don't actually have the correct combination of bowl and saucepan to do this very well. Currently using a small shallow oval pyrex bowl over a very small saucepan, but it isn't big enough for the amount I'm melting.

What's the easiest way to do this?

1) Buy a bigger glass bowl - won't there be issues with pressure building up though if this blocks off the top of the saucepan???

2) Buy a specific pan/bowl set that is designed to do this (if so where from?)

3) A really obvious solution I haven't thought of.

lindens

thecornflake wrote: »

I3) A really obvious solution I haven't thought of.

put the chocolate in a microwave bowl and microwave it, it melts fine. i do this in 30 second bursts and stir in between to avoid burning.

lolarentt

thecornflake wrote: »

1) Buy a bigger glass bowl - won't there be issues with pressure building up though if this blocks off the top of the saucepan???
quote]

This won't be a problem, you just want a Pyrex bowl that sits with say 1/4 to 1/3 of it below the saucepan rim. Don't let the bowl actually touch the water. You wont be fast boiling water and there wont be a seal so pressure build up wont be an issue.

You used to be able to buy double saucepans (ie little saucepan sits inside bigger saucepan with tailor made fit) but I don't think they still exist. Hardly worth it for the use it'll get - the bowl and saucepan bain-marie is fine

thecornflake

lindens wrote: »

put the chocolate in a microwave bowl and microwave it, it melts fine. i do this in 30 second bursts and stir in between to avoid burning.

I tried that a while ago, it even said on the chocolate wrapper it could be microwaved. Twenty seconds later, smoke and flames and a very burnt lump of chocolate. And yes, I had removed all packaging and put it in a bowl.

Anyway, I don't have a microwave any more so I think I'll go with the larger bowl method.:rotfl:

nodwah

I melted chocolate tonight and I just used a cereal bowl in a large pan of hot water, not even boiling (you don't want any water splashing into the choc it goes funny)