Cooking with Chocolate

There are more myths around cooking with chocolate than virtually any other branch of cookery. Most problems occur when, horrifyingly, your glossy melted chocolate turns into a tarry scrambled mess. The most common misconception is that ‘seizing’ is caused by overheating the chocolate. It is far more likely to be caused by incorrect addition of liquid to chocolate. And this may not be your fault - or even the recipe writer’s fault - as different chocolates can behave differently.

If - like most cooks - you have thrown away batches of curdled chocolate in despair, here is what you need to know.