If you've ever dripped a little water in a bowl of dissolved ChocolateYou know what happens next: the silky mixture suddenly seizes up and become a thick, curry mass, and no amount of whisking will restore it to his stiny glory. This is because chocolate and water don't mix, right? Well, yes and no.
PJ Hamel
First, a bit of science. Chocolate is comprised of three main ingredients: cocoa bean solids, sugar and cocoa butter, which you can think of how the glue that keeps the solids and sugar together. Notabably, chocolate contains no water. So when a little water (or another liquid, such as heavy cream, vanilla extract, or licker) is added to melosco solids, plus the cocoa solir-loving sugar crystals, rush To welcome it. As the sugar crystals and cocoa particles pull off the cocoa butter, the emulsion in the chocolate broke, causing the chocolate to separately, resulting in the chunky disaster, we are also familiar with.
But here's the twist: if you add Sufficient Water (or other liquid) to the melted chocolate, the mixture will become smooth and silky once again. The cocoa bean solids and sugar crystals are no longer pulling away from the cocoa butter as evil teenagers; Instead, they floating in suspension together tiny droplets of water and cocoa butter.
In our test kitchen, we conducted an experiment, melting 2 ounces (57 g) of 62% chocolate, and add cool tap water, drop water tap water, drop-by-drop, stirring it into the melted chocolate. After each drop, the chocolate thickened a bit. At the time we would have 5 drops, the chocolate has thickened enough that it can be used for piping a message to a cake or a plan on a plate. Although more than 5 drops, though – as little as 1/2 teaspoon – and the chocolate began to seize, at first appearing greasy, afterward solidifying in a thick paste. Ugh! But if we Cautious Adding water to the seized mess, something magical happened; The chocolate re-emulsified, pretty smooth and silky once again.
Jenn Bakos
In her fantastic book BackwiceAuthor Shirley Courier explains that chocolates of different percentages require different amounts of water to prevent seizing seizing seizing. For chocolate that 55% (meaning that 55% to 60% of which is in that bar comes from the cocoa bean as chocolate liquor and semisweet, the Minimum With water type is fluid to prevent grasp is 1 tablespoon per 2 ounce (57 g) chocolate. For chocolate with a higher percentage of cocoa (60% to 70%), you need to add more liquid: 1 1/2 tablespoons to 2 ounce (57 g) chocolate. And unsetened chocolate requires additional water or water type liquid to prevent grasp: 2 tablespoons per 2 ounce (57 g) chocolate. You can add more, of course, but if you add less the chocolate is likely to seize; Therefore, an errant splash of water (or steam of a double boiler) in your bowl of melted chocolate can instantly trouble.
This is useful information, for several reasons: one, there are time that you want to thicken your chocolate just a little for piping a message on a cake or a plan on top of a chocolate barbed, for example. In this case, a few drops of water (and no more!) Thickens without seizing. It is also very useful to know that it is possible to save seized chocolate, simply by whisking in more cool water little until it smooths. You cannot use the cunious chocolate for everything (it will not work, for example, for tempering), but this is perfectly suitable for acings or fillings. Or you can leave your seized chocolate cool (it will comfortly) and cut it up and add it to cookies dough. And while you can save seized chocolate, the best defense is a good offense: preventing your chocolate from seizing in first place by EShood in favor of the water-free, King Arthur-approved Best method for melting chocolate: in the microwave.
And finally, it can be sometimes that you want to make a wonderful silky dairy-free gunache or chocolate mousse. French Hemist Thaevi this cracked the code for a water mousse (You can see his method here); If you use a chocolate that contains no milk solids, this is also vegan. What more, a mousse or gonache made with water, rather than cream (and eggs, in the case of mousse), is a wonderful way to emphasize the flavor of good chocolate.
Armed with the information, you can go out and seize the day (not the chocolate).
We have the Best chocolate for bakingAnd the Best chocolate recipesAlso!
The photo to Jen Bakos.