Seized chocolate

Why a little water is worse than a lot

Melted chocolate is dry particles — sugar crystals and cocoa solids — suspended in liquid fat. There is essentially no water in it at all.

Introduce a small amount of water and it wets the surface of the sugar particles, which turn syrupy and sticky and glue the solids into clumps. The whole mass stiffens into a grainy paste. This is seizing, and a single drop from a wet spoon or a puff of steam from a bain-marie is enough.

Add substantially more liquid — around a third of the chocolate's weight or more — and the sugar dissolves fully instead of just getting damp, the solids disperse, and you get a smooth sauce. That is why ganache made with plenty of hot cream never seizes.

So the two safe states are bone dry and properly wet. The danger zone is in between.

Fixing it

• Add hot liquid, a spoonful at a time, whisking hard. Cream, milk, or even boiling water. It will look worse before it comes back; keep going. Roughly a tablespoon per 50g of chocolate to start.
• Accept what it becomes. You will have a chocolate sauce or the base of a ganache. You will not have chocolate suitable for coating or setting — that is gone.
• Use it as a sauce, in a mousse, in a batter, or as a filling. Nothing is wasted.
• Do not add more chocolate, which just gives you more seized chocolate.
• Do not keep heating it dry, which will scorch it on top of everything else.

Melting chocolate without seizing it

1. Chop it evenly. Large lumps melt slowly while the small pieces around them overheat.
2. Dry the bowl, the spatula and your hands. Every one of them is a route for water.
3. If using a bain-marie, use a bowl that sits well above the water and fits snugly, so steam cannot get in at the sides. Simmer gently rather than boiling.
4. If using a microwave, go in short bursts at low power — twenty seconds, stir, repeat. Chocolate holds its shape when molten, so it can be badly overheated and look untouched.
5. Stir often, and take it off the heat while a few pieces remain solid. Stir those out in the residual warmth.
6. If you are adding liquid deliberately — for a ganache — add it hot and all at once, not in dribs.

The other chocolate failures

Grainy but not stiff

Overheated rather than seized. Dark chocolate suffers above about 50°C. Not reversible.

White or milk chocolate seizing instantly

They contain more milk solids and sugar and much less cocoa solid, so they are far more sensitive to both heat and water. Melt them much more gently.

Split ganache

A broken emulsion, not a seize. A splash of warm milk and a stick blender usually brings it back.

Dull, soft set with fingerprints

Untempered. Not a fault in the chocolate; the cocoa butter set in the wrong crystal form.

Grey streaks after storage

Bloom. Cosmetic only, and it melts out.

Common questions