How To Prevent Melted Chocolate From Turning Hard Again

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Whether you're coating some strawberries, pouring it over ice cream, or adding a little bit of it into brownie batter, it's hard to resist the sweet flavor of melted chocolate (which can be made even smoother with the addition of butter). However, even without that, melting chocolate is relatively simple — you can break out the double boiler or even just heat it in intervals in the microwave. That glossy melted chocolate looks perfect when it's ready, but as soon as you let it sit for too long, it begins to harden again. Luckily, if you want to melt your chocolate in advance and keep it that way, then there are a handful of methods that will help your chocolate stay in smooth and creamy liquid-form.

The best way to keep chocolate melted depends on what you plan to use it for. If you're just looking to keep it in its regular state and serve it alongside fruits for dipping, then maintaining its temperature is probably the easiest way. On top of this, you can also add a little bit of oil or just turn it into a chocolate sauce or ganache. That last option is best if it will be poured over a cake or some kind of dessert. No matter what you do, though, never add water. Water causes chocolate to seize up, which will quickly turn it into a clumpy mess. While seized up chocolate can be fixed, it is easier to avoid doing it all together.

To melt chocolate, it's best to heat it in a double boiler, which uses indirect heat to prevent the chocolate from burning. If needed, you can microwave it but make sure to heat it in no more than 30-second intervals, stirring in between. You can also adjust the microwave's power to worry less about burning. Once it's fully melted, the most ideal temperature for keeping chocolate in a liquid state is pretty specific: between 88 and 90 degrees Fahrenheit. To do this, you can keep your melted chocolate in a glass bowl on top of a pan with the stove on the lowest heat (use the smallest burner, which emits the least amount of heat). But if that's still too powerful, consider investing in something designed specifically for chocolate, such as the NutriChef electric fondue pot, which will keep the chocolate warm without burning it.

You can also keep the chocolate in constant motion. If you plan on melting the chocolate for fondue, then it could be worth it to invest in a fondue fountain. Motion prevents chocolate from hardening — so if you plan to do this more than once, something like this Wilton fondue fountain could make sense.

Maybe you want the chocolate in liquid form and plan to dip fruit in it or drizzle it over ice cream but don't necessarily want it hot. In this case, melt your chocolate as normal, then try adding a little oil to thin out your melted chocolate. An oil with little flavor is best, so use a type of vegetable oil; grapeseed or sunflower oil are great options, if available. Don't use too much, though. Prior to heating the chocolate, measure out how much you plan to melt. You need about one teaspoon of oil per cup of chocolate, so adjust the oil amount accordingly. The result is a glossy, shiny chocolate that will stay melted and not harden as quickly.

While a neutral vegetable oil is best in terms of flavor, most oils will suffice. However, do not use coconut oil. Coconut oil quickly changes from liquid to solid form depending on the temperature, so it can actually make the chocolate harden faster. This makes coconut oil a good choice if you're looking to make a chocolate sauce that hardens into a shell.

If you plan to use your melted chocolate to make filled pastries or glaze the top of a cake, then you probably want to make a chocolate ganache. Put simply, chocolate ganache is a sauce made from chocolate and heavy cream that turns the chocolate into a glaze. Usually, an even one-to-one ratio of heavy whipping cream to chocolate does the trick, but it's a good idea to measure both ingredients by weight rather than in a measuring cup to make sure the amounts are as accurate as possible.

For melted chocolate that's more of a sauce than a ganache, add about a half-cup of corn syrup for every 8 ounces of cream and 8 ounces of chocolate. The corn syrup will help sweeten the mixture and also make it thinner to become more of a sauce consistency. This will keep your chocolate in that perfectly melted state.