What is “melting” chocolate?
Melting Wafers, are you familiar with them? This is the chocolate used to make candy. It’s also the type you use for dipping truffles or other sweets. It’s also known as candy-making or dipping chocolate. You can get it in white, milk, and dark varieties. It’s available in a variety of colors that you can use to celebrate all holidays with chocolate. For example, pastels and pinks for Easter and Valentine’s Day.
Wafers are usually used to melt chocolate, as they melt easier than larger chunks. It is available in many grocery stores and online.
What makes melting chocolate different from baking chocolate and Chocolate Chips?
Stabilizers help chocolate chips keep their shape even at high temperatures. They are a poor choice for melting and making candy because of the dull texture and finish the stabilizers create.
Baking chocolate has a broader range of uses. You can use meting for chocolate recipes, like cakes and brownies. Add 5% cocoa butter by weight for best results, and temper the chocolate if you want a shiny finish.
What is Tempering?
It is a complex process to heat and excellent chocolate to make candy. It is essential to temper chocolate because melting can change its structure. If it’s not fortified, cocoa butter will separate and cause a dull grayish coating instead of a shiny, pretty shell. To temper chocolate, it must be heated gently to a specific temperature–this varies slightly for dark, milk, and white chocolate. Then, the chocolate is rapidly cooled. This can be tricky, and this is why candy-making has a reputation for being complex.
Here’s a video on how to temper your chocolate:
Good News: Melting Wafers Don’t Need Tempering
You don’t have to temper your chocolate if you use melting wafers. These wafers are made with vegetable oil instead of cocoa butter. The oils do not separate from the chocolate as cocoa butter does.
One More Option: Couverture
You can melt real chocolate and natural cocoa butter to melt it: Couverture chocolate. Click to view it on Amazon. It is expensive, almost always needs tempering, and can be difficult to work with.
Melting wafers do have some disadvantages compared to couverture. There is a tiny amount of chocolate in them and some vegetable oils that could be better. If you choose a quality brand, the final product will be almost identical in taste, texture, and appearance. If you want something quick and easy, melting wafers will be the best choice.
How do you melt the melting wafers?
The easiest way to do this is in the microwave. The chocolate burns quickly, so give it up to 30 seconds at a go. Be sure to stir well before deciding whether they require more time. A good stir should be enough to finish melting the wafers if still a few are left.
What do you do with your melted chocolate?
Here are a few suggestions:
Bark. Pour the chocolate melted over any combination of toasted seeds, nuts, and dried fruits for an elegant, easy treat. The classic bark is white chocolate poured over almonds that have been freshly roasted, but you can use any combination of dried fruit, nuts, and seeds.
Dark chocolate bark with fruit and nuts.
Candy molds. Pour the mixture into These easy-to-use Trays to make holiday chocolates. For Easter, use pastel-colored melting wafers.
Chocolate-covered frozen bananas. Roll the bananas into the chocolate, then freeze them on waxed or parchment paper. You can also roll the bananas in cocoa, nuts, coconut, or other ingredients.
Fondue. Use it to dip tiny treats: grapes, strawberries, vanilla wafers, or pretzels. You can also use it for small bites like donuts, sugar cookies, or jelly candies.
Chocolate “chip” cookies. Instead of baking chips, you can swirl melted dark chocolate into the batter to create an entirely different texture.
Frosting and icing. You can use it as icing to quickly cover desserts or mix some heavy cream in a double-boiler for a Ganache.
Drizzle. Drizzle over an iced or unfrosted cake, cream pie or cheesecake like icing. Fill a plastic bag with chocolate, and cut a hole in one corner. This will create a fancy pattern. Use a strong bag (like one from a freezer) for best results.
Toffee. Spread unmelted wafers on top of warm toffee, and let it melt as you spread. Or pour melted wafers. Add chopped nuts to the top for a stunning finish. The recipe for Saltine Toffee Cookies is easy to make and delicious.
Toffee Bars and Blondies. Toffee bars/blondies can be melted over and used instead of chips. This will give you a shinier, smoother coating than baking chips.
Chocolate Truffles Make delicious chocolate truffles–this requires a recipe but is easier than you think. Try this easy recipe.
Pour it over ice cream. Pour it on top of the ice cream. It will become a delicious candy shell almost instantly.
Bacon covered in chocolate. This is not a recipe. Pour the chocolate (any flavor works) over nice, flat, well-cooked bacon strips on parchment paper. Let it harden, and then put it in the refrigerator. You can also dredge your bacon in chocolate to get a better coating. It makes an excellent gift for the holidays. Who would make bacon covered in chocolate?
Cake batter: Use a table knife to swirl it into the cake batter or cheesecake batter.
Hot chocolate: Decorate hot chocolate with a swirl. Add whipped cream to make it fancier.
