What's the best kind of dipping chocolate?
By coffeebreak
@coffeebreak (17798)
United States
November 17, 2009 5:33pm CST
I am going to try something new for T-day. I have this recipe for cake bites and you make the cake into balls and dip them in to chocolate. I want the chocolate they are dipped in to taste like chocolate, so those tablet looking ones that htey sell at the craft stores for meling and making chocolate suckers..isn't going to cut it. That doesn't taste like chocolate at all. I don't have much experience with melting chocolates and what works best, all the tips and tricks to get chocolate to taste right and melt right, so.....
Question: What is your favorite kind of chocolate to melt and dip? Hershey bars, chocolate bark, plain old chocolate chips... what have you had good luck with and also any tips for melting the chocolate, keeping it melted properly for dipping but not burning. Melting it without burning it in the first place!!
Anything tips or tricks you can offer would be appreciated and also...give me brand names if you have them. I have heard a chocolate "bark" is good for melting, but have no idea what it tastes like. I want these little cake bites to taste like chocolate covered cake so the chocolate has to taste like chocolate, be meltable and dry very nicely.... very "cook friendly"!
So...come on girls (or guys!)....what's your favorite and how do you use it?
2 people like this
5 responses
@avnieuwkerk (81)
• Netherlands
18 Nov 09
Regular dark chocolate melted along with a spoonfull of butter is my favorite. It is the best!!! YOu can use it for pancakes, strawberries & any other wonderful delight that you would like to dip in it. It is low cost and easy to make.
@drannhh (15219)
• United States
18 Nov 09
I once bought a 20 lb block of Trader Joe's chocolate for dipping and it was very good. The secret of melting it in the microwave is to know that it kkeeps the unmelted looking shape until you touch it, so you cannot tell when it is warm enough by looking. That is why many people burn it! So just take it out every few seconds and try to stir. You probably knew that. Of course they are expensive, but the semi-sweet morsels work well, too, especially when you are dipping something that is already sweet, and/or dusting with something sweet. Another way to do it, and this is my favorite, is to use sweet chocolate and then dip or roll in unsweetened cocoa powder before they are completely hardened.
You are right about that junk from the craft stores.
2 people like this
@danishcanadian (28955)
• Canada
4 Dec 09
Those little chocolate things that you mentioned are great. My husband and I are going to make a chocolate fondue in the next couple of days, and dip fruit in it. We are going to use Aero bars. Those are a bubbly chocolate bar that you get in Canada, solid on the outside, and filled with "air bubbles" on the inside, so it melts really quickly, and easily. We'd have to go all the way to the groccery store for the tablets, but the Aeros can be found anywhere, so we are going to use those.
1 person likes this
@jillhill (37354)
• United States
18 Nov 09
I found a product last winter around christmas time at the grocery store called quick candy....or something close to that....it's chocolate made just for melting and coating things.....I want to do some dipped spoons and I was wondering the same thing...it's for stirring into coffee...Hummmmmm got any ideas?
2 people like this
@ladym33 (10979)
• United States
17 Nov 09
I have used almond bark which is pretty good. Also if you go in the baking section right next to the almond bark there is some microwave melthing chocolate, it may now sound really good it works really well, I used it to make my famous bon bons and they were beautiful and it was so easy when it starts to harden a bit you just pop it back in the microwave for about 30 seconds and it is nice melted again. You can also melt chocolate chips and mix in a little canola oil, I am not sure what the ratio is though. But the canola oil gives what ever you are dipping that nice shiney surface and helps the chocolate to harden correctly.
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