How do you get the chocolate thick when dipping chocolates. Someone told me to add a little bit of water when you are working the chocolate on the marble slab. Is this true or can you achieve this just by the way you dip?

updated by @michael-karren: 04/22/15 22:43:43

Adding water to chocolate is going to make it seize, and then it is useless.

You may just have to try different chocolates to test viscosity, they are all different. I personally don't want my chocolate thick for dipping. I prefer a more fluid chocolate so the dipped items look better.

Thank you. Have you found anything that helps you keep more chocolate enrobed around the centers. When I dip my chocolates my chocolate isn't very thick on the finished product. I'm using guittard

I have been in a class where a small amount of water was added to the chocolate, it was stirred vigerously (immediately from when the chcolate was added) and it did not seize. It does thicken the chocolate but I think if you did that the chocolate would be too thick to work with for dipping. I asked for a scientific explanation of why the chocolate did not seize but didn't really get an adequate explanation.

The chcolate is not useless after it has seized. It can be used for ganaches. It just cannot be used for tempering even if remelted.

You might try double dipping the chocolates for a thicker coating or as Robyn suggested look for a chocolate with a thicker viscosity when tempered that would give a thicker coating. www.chocosphere.com hasproduct information, at least on some brands, about differing viscosities of the various chocolates.

I melt chocolate for fondues, I like to dip fruit and marshmallows in. I use both dark and milk chocolate, i would say what I use is pretty thick. This is one of my faves and has always done the trick for me Butlers Dark 70% Chocolate Bar . Another trick is to add a tiny bit of cornflour sieved in. Hope that helps.

Which Guittard are you using? They have many different viscousities for different purposes. You may be using one intended for molding rather than for hand dipping.

I'm using guittard old dutch milk, the 10 lb blocks

I have always found OD to be quite thick. Are you sure it is in temper?

Look for a lower % cocoa butter chocolate, ask for it from your supplier, or if looking for higher quality, a similar % cocoa butter in whatyou're using now but withoutthe emulsifier such as lecithin. Look at the viscosity given for your paste andrequest a higher one.

Water brings on problems with howthe chocolate melts downin the mouth and texturewhen eaten.Water can absorb up to twice its weight in the sugars, making a syrup, and the sugars can crystalize to larger and larger sizes over time making it gritty.

OMG. Water is an enemy to chocolate. Purchase the right viscosity for your application, and temper correctly. Gotta do it right