Melting Chocolate the Alice Medrich Way

Adapted from Seriously Bittersweet by Alice Medrich

When I decided to learn to bake cookies, I found my guru in Alice Medrich. Her Double Oatmeal Cookie is our “house” cookie, and her Whole Wheat Sable and Almond Sable are favorites around here too. 

There are three Alice Medrich rules when melting chocolate any way you choose to do it, not just this way.

 

Avoid moisture – just a little bit of moisture can seize the chocolate.

 

Chop the chocolate – this helps control the melt.

Stir frequently – and adjust the heat. Don’t let the water in the skillet go beyond a simmer.

 

She has come up with a way to melt bittersweet, semisweet, and unsweetened chocolate with butter in a water bath, and here it is.

Use a stainless steel bowl and a skillet a few inches wider than the bowl.

 

Roughly chop the chocolate and add it with the butter to the bowl.

 

Put water in the skillet and bring it to a simmer.

 

Place the bowl into the skillet and “stir frequently until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth and hot enough that you want to remove your finger fairly quickly after dipping it in to test.” Remember, don’t let the water go beyond a simmer.

 

Remove the bowl from the heat and proceed with the recipe.

That's it.

 

Pure Dessert by Alice Medrich is one of my favorite books. The recipes are excellent and the hardback book is beautiful.

 

Her three books — Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in- Your-Mouth Cookies, Sinfully Easy Delicious Desserts, and Seriously Bittersweet — would be enough dessert books in a thoughtful cookbook library.

 

Flavor Flours is a book packed with gluten-free recipes made when she decided to experiment with all the different gluten-free flours that are now easily available. (Always remember when cooking for a person with celiac disease to ensure that the flour is from a certified gluten-free facility). It’s where our house cookie, her Double Oatmeal Cookie, comes from.