Melting chocolate isn’t rocket science but it is something you need to pay attention to! The above video gives you tips and different techniques for melting chocolate (with more attention paid to microwave melting).

This video shows you how to add the melted chocolate to buttercream frosting. Who needs canned when you make the real stuff yourself?

A few days ago my neighbour stopped me out of the blue to tell me how to melt chocolate.  It didn’t seem that strange at the time, but looking back I have to wonder.  Do I look like I need to know how to melt chocolate?  I mean, aside from the constant chocolate smudges on my chin and clothing, how did she know that I am a chocoholic?  Besides, maybe I already knew how to melt chocolate (I really was just kind of winging it).

Turns out there was probably no sinister meaning behind her instructions to me.  She had simply been watching a Martha Stewart show on TV and felt the urge to share what she’d learned.  Martha Stewart is another one who makes me feel like there is a sinister plot afoot.  I think she exists just to make the rest of us feel semi-useless.  Yes, I’m jealous that she can do so many different things so well, but she doesn’t have to flaunt it!

Back to the point, how do you melt chocolate?  Well, these instructions were for those of us who don’t own a double boiler (I suspect a great many of us don’t) and who want to melt chocolate in the microwave.

The thing you need to be very careful of when melting chocolate in the microwave is that it melts faster than it looks like it is melting.  Chocolate seems to hold its shape, so you can put a bowl of chocolate chips in the microwave, nuke them, and they’ll still look like chocolate chips until you stir them.  But if you overdo the melting, the chocolate will be streaky according to Martha, or worse yet, will burn.  That last point is according to me.

So, whether you are melting chocolate chips or baking squares or chunks of chocolate, just put them in for no longer than one minute to start.  Then give it a stir to see how melted it really is.  If it is not yet half melted, put it in for another 20 seconds.  Stir again and repeat if necessary.  But, once it is about half melted, take it out of the microwave and just stir it until the remainder melts.

And that is how you melt chocolate in the microwave according to Martha Stewart with special comments from me!

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