Wisdom Wednesday!!

Melting Carob Chips

During the Christmas break I did a lot of browsing on the Internet about food and things I might be able to help people with. Well I found there were a lot of people who have had problems melting carob chips. So for today's Wisdom I thought I could help you understand what I have learned about Melting Carob Chips.

The first thing you should know about carob chips is that they are very sensitive. They can go from a smooth consistency to a thick paste very quickly if you are not careful.

Second, there are two ways to melt carob chips. You can do in a double broiler or in the microwave. If you choose to do it in a double broiler you have to be very very careful about the heat. Just like you would with melting chocolate you don't want the top of the double broiler to touch the water. And the water should not come to a boil. You just need a little steam. When I use a double broiler I usually add a little coconut oil to help stabilize the carob so it doesn't transform into the paste. I like to use the double broiler method if I am doing something with the carob that takes a little longer such as the peanut butter cups. If you don't want to add oil then I suggest you use the microwave method. I will demonstrate with pictures.

Here you can see that I am using a glass bowl. Never put plastic in the microwave! I started with about 1/3 cup of chips, but these same rules apply if melting more than that.

I put the chips in the microwave for 25 seconds on full power. You can see that they really did not melt very much, but if you feel the bowl you should be able to feel that it is a little warm.
I then returned the bowl to the microwave for another 15 seconds, again on full power. You can see that they are starting to melt more and the glass bowl should be warmer.

I then returned the bowl to the microwave for only 11 seconds, on full power. When stirring you can see that not all of the chips are melted. At this point you might think you need to put it back in for more heat, well... DON'T! The glass bowl should be plenty warm by now. If you were to return it to the microwave for more heat the bowl would get too hot and the chips would turn into paste while stirring them.

As you can see all I had to do was keep stirring and the chips melted just perfectly. The consistency turned out just like if they were chocolate chips.

After that you can do what you want with the melted carob chips. You can dip cookies in it like I did here, you can add it to batter like I did here, or you can dip gluten free pretzels in it like I did today. :]

So just remember, don't get the carob chips too hot. They will melt with just a little heat.

If you ever have any questions feel free to ask me, and Happy Healthier Eating!!