The microwave is great for melting chocolate much faster than in a double boiler or water bath. At the same time, the kitchen remains in perfect order, and the hostess does not need to make any special efforts to the process.
Melting rules
Before melting chocolate in the microwave, you need to choose the right product. So, the best is black or milk chocolate, which contains at least 50% cocoa, and nuts, raisins and other fillings are completely absent. White chocolate is also suitable for melting, but it can be a hassle when decorating pastries. Porous chocolate is not suitable for this purpose either.
After choosing chocolate, you should choose the dishes wisely - ideally, it should be a ceramic container without patterns and metal elements, or a deep bowl made of heat-resistant glass. It is recommended to melt the chocolate at low or medium microwave settings so that it does not boil or burn.
The container in which the chocolate is melted should remain slightly warm or even cold after a few minutes in a continuous microwave. If it gets very hot, the chocolate overheats - in this case, you need to instantly pour it into another cold container, add pieces of whole chocolate there and stir constantly until they are completely melted. Also, when using the microwave, you should take care that the chocolate does not boil from the edges.
Melting process
To melt chocolate in a microwave oven, you need to break the bar into pieces and put it in the microwave at 50% heating temperature - this will avoid burning the product. If the microwave oven model does not support manual temperature setting, the chocolate should be heated for short periods of time and stirred constantly between heating periods. Also, if there is no turning circle in the microwave, the bowl of chocolate must be turned manually each time. When melting, the chocolate must be stirred continuously until it acquires a shiny, smooth and silky appearance.
The exact melting time of a chocolate bar depends on the power of the microwave oven, the amount of food to be melted and the amount of cocoa butter in the chocolate, so it can be difficult to determine. Approximately, you can focus on 1 minute when melting 30-50 grams of chocolate, 3 minutes for 240 grams, 3.5 minutes for 450-500 grams and 4 minutes for 1 kilogram of sweet product. It is best to melt a small amount of chocolate for 30 seconds - 1 minute, stirring it constantly between heating and rotating the container with chocolate when there is no turntable.
