How to Melt Chocolate Chips

Chocolate chips are made to hold their shape in a cookie, which means they resist melting a little more than a bar does. They still melt perfectly well — you just need gentle heat, a dry bowl and some patience.

Microwave

• Use a dry, microwave-safe bowl. Heat at 50% power for 30 seconds.
• Stir. Heat again in 15-second bursts, stirring between each one.
• Stop while a few chips are still visible and stir until smooth — residual heat finishes the job.

Double boiler

• Bring an inch of water to a bare simmer, then set a dry heatproof bowl over it. The bowl must not touch the water.
• Add the chips, stir slowly and remove the bowl as soon as they are nearly melted.
• Keep steam away from the chocolate — a few drops of water will thicken the whole bowl.

Bain-marie

• Take a pan of hot, not boiling, water off the heat and rest the bowl of chips in it.
• Stir occasionally until smooth. The slowest method and the hardest to ruin.

Why chocolate seizes, and what to do

Seizing is chocolate turning thick, dull and grainy. Two causes: water, or too much heat. Water is the unfixable one for a coating — but you can still rescue a seized bowl for a ganache or a hot drink by whisking in warm cream until it comes back to a smooth emulsion. Overheated chocolate that has not scorched will usually recover if you stir in a handful of unmelted chips off the heat.

Melting more than a bowlful, or melting every day? Wafers and callets melt faster and more evenly than chips.