How do I stop chocolate from splitting?

Question

I just ruined 400g of chocolate :-(. I mixed butter, syrup and chocolate and heated it. It split into a weird "curdled" chocolate solids and an orangey yellow liquid. My question(s) are: What causes it to split and how can I stop it?

Answer 1

gushy gushy.... whoooo!!!! volcano!! idk... check the manual lol

Answer 2

Hello,

I think you may have encountered problems when the chocolate was melted with your other ingredients. It is always best to melt chocolate alone and then add your other ingredients. Your chocolate seized from  being heated over too high of a heat, and it separated. The orangey-yellow liquid was the cocoa butter in the chocolate. The additional fat in the butter could have gotten overheated and ruined your chocolate too.

Also, chocolate butter and syrup all melt at different temperatures, so, I always melt the ingredients separately and let them cool a bit. Then stir them together.

Once your chocolate has seized, there really is nothing you can do to make it better. It is usually hard and grainy. Sorry, I hate it when that happens. Here is a link for some information about cooking with chocolate. http://www.the-chocolate-spot.com/cookin...

Chocolate can be tricky, so the more you know about it the better! I hope this helps you out!

Genesee from www.the-chocolate-spot.com

Answer 3

Use the bain marie method and let it happen slowly without too much mixing

Answer 4

mabey you should just stick to plain chocolate without messing with it.

Answer 5

umm heres an idea...

just eat the stupid thing!!

Answer 6

Over heating causes splitting.  Bring a saucepan of water to a slight simmer (just bubbling) Break up chocolate and put in glass bowl over the saucepan making sure that the water does not touch the bowl anywhere.  Slowly melt stirring from time to time.

Answer 7

You let it get too hot, melt chocolate in a bowl standing in a pan of warm water then stir in other melted ingredients [but mind they are just melted not HOT]. You have got less chance of this happening if you use 'cooking chocolate' not sweet shop type.  

Answer 8

lol eat it instead of messing about with it.

Answer 9

You over-heated it - probably by letting the bowl it was in touch the water beneath it. (I assume you WERE doing it properly using two utensils - usually a pan of hot water over a gentle heat with your bowl of chocolate sitting over the water BUT NOT IN IT!)

Answer 10

melt it in a pyrex or similar dish over a saucepan of nearly boiling water

you cant heat chocolate in a saucepan, it doesnt like direct heat

Answer 11

Ive found that if you melt choc in the microwave for 20 seconds at a time and stir each time it saves it from splitting and a bonus is that you can l**k the spoon each time !mmmmmmyummy!!!!

Answer 12

you dont want to over heat it. that is what probably caused some of the separation. also, make sure you put the correct amounts of the other things in it.  

Answer 13

I'm a rubbish cook when it comes to baking, but you just reminded me I have chocolate in cupboard.