Remember a couple posts back I said I would tell you about how I found out chocolate catches on fire?
Okay... so I'm probably the last one on earth to figure this out *blushing*. I guess I need to be fair and post embarrassing things about the stupid mistakes I've made if I'm going to be posting about everyone else I know.
In my defense, I have been learning to cook since my oldest was born and I've not had anyone teaching me, so most of my learning has been through moments like these.
I decided to make some Hershey's Pie for both sides of the family for Christmas dinner. The instructions said to use the double boiler method, but I don't have a double boiler and didn't think about using two different sized pots at that time. So I figured I could just as easily melt chocolate in the microwave.
I get a glass bowl... break up a large Hershey bar in it and stick it in the microwave. I set the timer for one minute. After one minute was up I opened the microwave door and the chocolate didn't look melted so I put it in for another minute. Same thing so I tried 30 seconds this time.
Now the chocolate has been in the microwave cooking for a total of 2 minutes and 30 seconds. I open the microwave door and smoke starts pouring out. The smell was horrid and the chocolate still didn't look melted.
I left the microwave door open turned on some fans and opened the kitchen window. Uhhh did I mention that smell was horrid?!?
Once the smoke cleared I grabbed a towel and pulled the bowl out of the microwave I turned the hot water on in the sink and grabbed a spoon.
I set the bowl down in the sink and slice the chocolate with the spoon. The chocolate was black as night in the middle and looked like tiny black crystals clumped together. I spooned some up and stuck it under the hot water *don't ask me why I did this, I still don't know* The clumped black crystals started sizzling and smoking so I did what any normal person would have done (with raised eyebrows). I put hot water in the bowl full of burnt chocolate.
More smoke and sizzling! Who would have guessed it?!
I call Lee and ask him to pick up more chocolate from the store because I screwed up and tried to burn the kitchen down. He of course laughs at me and says that he will get more. Then he tells me to put down the chocolate and step away until he gets home.
Lee gets home with more chocolate and tells me that you can melt chocolate in the microwave you just have to know how to do it. "Okay so show me how.", I say thinking he has done it before.
Then Lee takes one chocolate bar breaks it up into a bowl and sticks it in the microwave for one minute. ;D We can all see this one coming....
After the one minute is up I tell him, "Trust me the chocolate is melted, even if it doesn't look like it." So what does he do? He puts it in for another minute. I was giggling like a little school girl when he did this because I warned him.
So that minute was up and he pulls out the chocolate. "See" he tells me, "the chocolate looks shiny now and that means it melting."
"Okay, just do me a favor and put the bowl in the sink when you go to mix it up." I was shaking my head the whole time.
Thankfully he did what I asked.
Of course he cut into the chocolate with the spoon and seen those tiny black crystals. So he did exactly what I had done; runs water over all of it and creates more smoke.
While he was trying to clear the room I asked, "So how do you do the double boiler method again?"
In the end the pies turned out wonderful and my husband and I learned how not to melt chocolate.
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