HELP!!! I've ruined £4 worth of chocolate!

sylphraven

I'm sure I've read somewhere that if you add 2tbsps honey it'll relax it & makes it smooth again. Worth a try & if it doesnt work it'll just be a little sweeter

jennyjelly

kazwookie wrote: »

Send it over to me, and I will eat it.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

jennyjelly

sylphraven wrote: »

I'm sure I've read somewhere that if you add 2tbsps honey it'll relax it & makes it smooth again. Worth a try & if it doesnt work it'll just be a little sweeter

I've never heard of this idea but I'm off now to try it with a bit and will be straight back with the result. Don't go away!

hollydays

Could you have burned the chocolate in the microwave by heating it for too long?It goes dark and crumbly if you do this.If so,only think i can think of is blending it and chilling it to see what texture it goes.Then consider again.er lots of chocolate fudge?

jennyjelly

jennyjelly wrote: »

I've never heard of this idea but I'm off now to try it with a bit and will be straight back with the result. Don't go away!

Nope, just stuck the grains together but didn't put it back to its original smooth flowing state. Nice idea though, thanks!

jennyjelly

hollydays wrote: »

Could you have burned the chocolate in the microwave by heating it for too long?If so,only think i can think of is blending it and chilling it to see what texture it goes.Then consider again.er lots of chocolate fudge?

I was really careful not to overheat it, did short bursts with stirring in between and could stick my finger in it when it was melted. Yep - choc cake, fudge & icing coming up. Not exactly a total disaster as long as I can make something with it.

Do you think I should have melted it in the cream rather than adding cold cream to warm melted choc maybe?

floyd

This happens if water gets on chocolate, it is unfortunately permanent and I have yet to find something that will rescue it so i will be interested to see if anyone finds and answer

jennyjelly

floyd wrote: »

This happens if water gets on chocolate, it is unfortunately permanent and I have yet to find something that will rescue it so i will be interested to see if anyone finds and answer

Surely cream is mostly water? I'm beginning to think that whover suggested cream in the first place was having a little joke with us.

floyd

Was the cream cold or room temperature? Have a look at section 3 of this text:

"2.4 I was melting some chocolate, and suddenly it changed from a shiny, smooth liquid to a dull, thick paste. What happened? As discussed before, chocolate is very sensitive. Any slight variance
from the instructions can cause disastrous results. What you have described
here is called seizing. Seizing can happen for several reasons:

1. The chocolate is burned. Even temperatures that aren't too hot
for your finger can be too hot for chocolate. When melting chocolate, keep
the heat low and keep stirring, especially for milk and white chocolates.

2. A *small* amount of moisture has been added. Chocolate is very
finicky about liquids. Even the moisture from a damp spoon can contaminate
a batch of melting chocolate. This is what happens after a while to
chocolate fondue - moisture from strawberries or cheese can ruin the
texture. Be careful if you are melting pure chocolate by itself to keep
everything very dry.

3. Cool liquids have been added. Another oddity about chocolate:
small amounts of liquid can spoil melted chocolate, but large amounts are
o.k., so long as the liquid is warmed to match the temperature of the
melted chocolate. If you add cold cream or milk, for example, the chocolate
will begin to solidify and you'll end up with a mess.

Regardless of how your chocolate gets seized, you'll have to throw it out
and start again. There is no way to "un-seize" and remelt chocolate once
it has been contaminated in this way."

jennyjelly

Ah, well that explains it then. The choc was melted but the cream was straight from the fridge. I'll put it in the micro for a minute next time. Stupid me!

I'm still going to have a go at icing and cake though - I'll do it tomorrow and let you know if it's worth the effort and ingerdients.