How to Melt White Chocolate Successfully Every Time

You’ve got dark chocolate down pat. But that pesky white chocolate…why doesn’t it ever melt as effortlessly?

White chocolate can be very temperamental. If you’ve tried to melt it on numerous occasions, I’m sure you’ve found that sometimes it works, and sometimes it turns into a thick, gloppy, unusable mess. It’s hard to melt white chocolate over a double boiler because you have less control over the temperature. So, we turn to the microwave. I learned this method from Batter and Dough and it works perfectly every time:

Place white chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl (glass is best, ceramic is also fine). Microwave at very short intervals of 10-15 seconds each, depending on the strength of your microwave. Stir between every interval. Keep melting and stirring until white chocolate is smooth. Do not try to melt the white chocolate faster.

The photo above was taken after six 15-second intervals. It looks like nothing has happened, right? Hold tight, it’s almost there.

This is after 8 intervals.

This is after nine 15-second intervals. I think we’re there…we just need some vigorous stirring…

And we’re done! Smooth, silky, creamy white chocolate. Perfectly melted. Every time. Note that every microwave is different and yours can take less or more time.

Does brand matter? It may. This chocolate is Schmerling’s Choco Blanc but I’ve also had success with Elite’s white chocolate and Alprose. Camille Bloch should also work fine.