How to Melt White Chocolate Without Seizing It

To keep white chocolate from seizing, stick to four rules: low heat (45 °C / 113 °F at most), no water, small pieces, frequent stirring.

1. Keep the temperature at 45 °C (113 °F) at most. Callebaut gives a melting temperature of 45 °C for its W2 white chocolate; in practice, aim for 40–45 °C (104–113 °F).

2. The bowl and spatula must be completely dry. A drop of water or steam is enough to make the mixture pull into lumps.

3. Chop it finely, into pieces no bigger than 1 cm (about ½ in). You can use callets (chocolate pellets) just as they are.

4. Stir, and stop heating before it has melted completely. Residual heat will melt the last few pieces.

If you stick to these four points, it doesn't matter whether you melt it over a double boiler or in the microwave. For the general method for dark and milk chocolate, see our article How to Melt Chocolate Without Lumps: Methods, Temperatures and Rescue.

White chocolate seizes for two reasons: it overheats, or a little water gets into it. They look similar, but each has a different cause.

• Overheating. White chocolate is cocoa butter, sugar and milk powder. Above roughly 45 °C (113 °F), the milk proteins and milk sugar start to brown: the mixture thickens, turns yellow, begins to crumble and finally scorches. Dark chocolate has more cocoa solids and handles heat better.

• Water. A few drops of water (steam from the pan, a wet spoon, condensation from a lid) dissolve the surface of the sugar crystals. They stick together and the cocoa butter separates from them. The result is a dull, grainy mass that holds its shape like wet sand.

Paradoxically, a small amount of water is worse than a large amount. A few drops make chocolate seize, whereas plenty of liquid, such as the cream in a ganache, dissolves the sugar completely and forms a smooth emulsion. Hence the rule for liquids: either a lot, or none at all.

A double boiler is the safest way to melt white chocolate, because the temperature rises slowly and is easy to control. Allow 5–8 minutes for 100–300 g (3½–10½ oz).

1. Pour 3–4 cm (about 1–1½ in) of water into a smaller saucepan and bring it to a gentle simmer, not a boil.

2. Put the chopped chocolate in a dry glass or stainless steel bowl that fits snugly on the pan and doesn't touch the water.

3. Turn the heat down to the minimum or switch it off entirely. The heat the water already has is enough to melt 100–300 g of chocolate.

4. Stir with a silicone spatula. When just a few unmelted pieces remain, lift the bowl off and stir them in away from the pan.

5. Once the bowl is off, wipe the bottom with a tea towel so no water drips into the chocolate or onto your work surface.

If you have a probe thermometer, keep it at 40–45 °C (104–113 °F). Without one, use your lip as a guide: melted white chocolate should feel only lukewarm to slightly warm, not hot.

The microwave is the fastest way to melt white chocolate, but only in short bursts at lower power, stirring in between. For 200 g (7 oz) at 600 W, expect roughly 1–1½ minutes of actual heating.

1. Put the chopped chocolate or callets in a dry glass or ceramic bowl (plastic holds heat unevenly).

2. Set the power to 600 W (or roughly half the power of your microwave).

3. Heat the first round for the time given below for your amount, then take it out and stir, even if the chocolate still looks solid. Pieces keep their shape even when they're already soft inside.

4. Carry on in 10–15 second bursts, stirring each time.

5. Stop once most of it has melted and just a few pieces remain, and stir in the rest away from the microwave.

Approximate times at 600 W, glass bowl, callets or pieces up to 1 cm (about ½ in):

• 100 g (3½ oz): 30 sec, stir, then 2–3 rounds of 10 sec, stirring each time. About 50–60 sec in total.

• 200 g (7 oz): 30 sec, stir, then 3–4 rounds of 15 sec, stirring each time. About 1:15–1:30 min in total.

• 400 g (14 oz): 45 sec, stir, then 5–7 rounds of 15 sec, stirring each time. About 2:00–2:30 min in total.

If you only have full power, 800–1,000 W? For that power, Callebaut recommends taking the chocolate out and stirring every 15–20 seconds. With white chocolate, stay at the lower end, so 15 sec, and stir really thoroughly. Microwaves heat differently, so treat these times as a guideline and let the thermometer (40–45 °C / 104–113 °F) or your lip have the final say.

The most common mistake is to set a full minute at full power straight away. A microwave heats unevenly, so the chocolate scorches in the middle before the edges have even melted.

The best white chocolate for melting has a high proportion of cocoa butter, ideally professional-grade couverture in callets. Check the ingredients: cocoa butter should be near the top of the list, with cocoa solids at around 28% or more. Callebaut W2, for example, has 28%.

• Callets (pellets) melt evenly and you don't need to chop them.

• Supermarket bar chocolate works too, just chop it finely and watch it more closely. It often contains less cocoa butter, so it is thicker and overheats more quickly.

• "White coating" or "white chocolate-flavoured coating" is not chocolate. It usually contains vegetable fat instead of cocoa butter. It melts easily, but tastes different and can't be tempered.

• Ruby chocolate behaves much like white. Callebaut gives the same 45 °C melting temperature for Ruby RB2, so the same method applies.

You'll find professional white chocolate callets in our white chocolate for baking category. For a detailed look at how the different types differ in composition and behaviour, see Dark, Milk and White Chocolate: Differences in Composition, Melting and Use.

Colour and flavour white chocolate only with ingredients that are fat-based or completely dry. Anything containing even a little water can make it seize.

• Colours: oil-based chocolate colours or powdered colours. Ordinary gel colours contain water and will thicken the chocolate. You'll find more about colourings in Food Colouring in Baking.

• Flavourings: oil-based flavourings or vanilla bean seeds.

• Dry ingredients: freeze-dried fruit powder, matcha, grated lemon zest (well dried), ground nuts.

Add everything to melted, lukewarm chocolate and stir in right away. Butter, cream and oil are covered in the next section.

Melt the white chocolate on its own first, and only add the fat or cream to the finished lukewarm chocolate, in these ratios per 100 g (3½ oz) of chocolate:

• With oil for dipping: 5–10 g of neutral oil (or melted cocoa butter or coconut fat). The chocolate flows better and the coating on cookies or fruit is thinner. Don't add more than 10 g, or it will stay soft and sticky once set.

• With butter for icing: 15–25 g of softened butter, added in pieces. You get a glossy, pliable glaze for sheet cakes and bundt cakes that doesn't crack when you slice it. It won't snap like tempered chocolate, though, and it softens in the warmth.

• With cream for icing and drips: 35–50 ml of whipping cream (30–33%), which gives a chocolate-to-cream ratio of roughly 3:1 to 2:1. Heat the cream until hot but not boiling and pour it in 3 additions, stirring until smooth from the centre each time. The more cream, the thinner the result.

What you should never add to white chocolate:

• water or milk by the teaspoon: a small amount of liquid makes it seize (see above),

• cold cream or butter straight from the fridge: the cocoa butter around them sets and the mixture turns lumpy,

• a few drops of liqueur, alcohol-based extract or water-diluted flavouring: it acts like a drop of water.

If your cream glaze turns out thin, leave it to thicken at room temperature for 15–30 minutes before you use it. For more ways to thin chocolate for dipping and pouring, see How to Thin Chocolate So It Flows Better.

For dipping and decorating Christmas cookies, melt the white chocolate just as above, to 45 °C (113 °F) at most, and work with it once it is only lukewarm. If you're tempering it for shine, keep it at 28–29 °C (82–84 °F); any higher and it would lose its temper.

• Dipping: the cookies must be completely cool and dry. Dip them halfway or just the tips, let the excess drip off over the edge of the bowl and set them on baking parchment. For a thinner coating, add 5 g of oil per 100 g of chocolate. It suits the ends of vanilla crescent cookies or half of a soft honey gingerbread cookie.

• Shine: do you want the chocolate on your cookies to snap and not smear at room temperature? Then you need to temper it (method below). Untempered chocolate turns dull once set and softens in the warmth. You'll find more tips in Dipping Cookies in Chocolate: How to Get a Shine That Doesn't Smear.

• Decorating: pour the melted chocolate into a small piping bag, snip the tip to 1–2 mm and pipe thin lines over cookies or gingerbread. White on dark and dark on white look best.

• Colouring: use oil-based or powdered colour (see above). For a pastel shade, 1–3 drops per 100 g are enough; for a deeper colour, more.

The same method works for strawberries, dates and dried fruit: the full guide is in Chocolate-Covered Fruit: How to Dip Strawberries, Dates and Dried Fruit. And if you have melted chocolate left over, turn it into Baileys white chocolate truffles.

Seized white chocolate can usually be rescued, you just can't use it for coating or tempering any more. The way it looks tells you the cause and the fix:

• Seized (grainy, dull, stiff like wet sand). Cause: water or steam. Fix: add hot cream or milk a spoonful at a time and stir vigorously until the mixture comes together into a smooth cream. This doesn't contradict the "no spoonfuls of liquid" rule: here you don't stop after one spoonful, you keep pouring until there is enough liquid for a smooth emulsion, as in a ganache (either a lot, or none at all). You end up with a sauce or ganache that works in creams, on pancakes or in white chocolate mousse.

• Thickened (thick, pasty, slightly lumpy, but still white). Cause: it overheated above 45 °C (113 °F), or it simply cooled and started to set. Fix: if it cooled, warm it in the microwave in 5–10 sec bursts. If it overheated, take it off the heat, stir in a handful of unmelted callets to cool it quickly, and strain it through a fine sieve. If it is still thick, a teaspoon of melted cocoa butter or neutral oil will smooth it out.

• Turned yellow (beige, smells of caramel, tastes good). Cause: the milk solids started to brown because the mixture stayed too hot for too long. Fix: you can't make it white again, but you can still use it, for example in creams or mousse. Done in a controlled way, this is how caramelised white chocolate in the oven is made.

• Scorched (brown lumps, smell of burnt milk, bitter taste). There is no help for this one. You can't get rid of the bitter aftertaste.

Split ganache is a related problem with a similar fix. It is covered in Chocolate Ganache: Ratios, Preparation and Uses.

You only need to temper white chocolate if it has to stay glossy and snappy once set and not melt at room temperature, so for pralines, chocolate bars, decorations, dipped cookies or a coating that should snap.

For creams, mousses, ganache, batters or drizzling, you don't need to temper it. Plain melted chocolate is enough there.

An approximate temperature curve for W2 white chocolate according to Callebaut:

• melt to 45 °C (113 °F)

• cool to 27 °C (81 °F)

• work at 28–29 °C (82–84 °F)

The simplest is the seeding method: into chocolate melted to 45 °C and cooled to roughly 40 °C (104 °F), stir in about a quarter to a third of its weight in unmelted callets and keep stirring until it drops to 28–29 °C. All the methods are described step by step in the complete guide to tempering chocolate. Untempered chocolate turns grey once set and tends to be soft. The reason is explained in How to Store Chocolate and Why It Turns Grey.

Most often you'll stir melted white chocolate into creams and mousses, or use it for glazes and decorations. A few recipes where this method comes in handy:

• White Chocolate Mousse – Light and Fluffy: the melted chocolate is folded into whipped cream, so it must be lukewarm, not hot.

• White Chocolate and Coffee Cream – Not Just for Macarons: a smooth white chocolate cream for filling.

• White Chocolate Wasp Nests with Mango and Passion Fruit: here the melted chocolate is wrapped around the filling.

In winter, white chocolate is also great in a mug: how to keep it from being too sweet is covered in Hot White Chocolate: How to Make It Neither Too Sweet Nor Too Thin.