How to melt almond bark without a microwave is a question I asked myself after countless recipes using this confection. Online tutorials are great for using the microwave like the video from this guy, but not so much with stove top. Most insist you must use a double boiler or microwave to melt the confection. With a shoulder injury a double boiler is proving to be a bit dangerous at the moment, so I stuck with the microwave. It’s a great way to melt compound chocolates, but I started thinking: what if I didn’t own a microwave? How would I melt almond bark?
You use the stovetop. This can also be used for candy wafers, white chocolate chips or regular chocolate chips as long as it has some form of oil in the ingredients.
Oil has a higher melting point than cocoa butter and can tolerate direct heat at lower temperatures without too much worry of burning or ruining the texture. Since every stovetop is different, start out at the lowest setting, use the smallest pan and experiment with a small portion of the almond bark or chocolate chips until you get to know how your stove works.
The key is to keep it moving. Within 5 – 10 minutes, you’ll be ready for your next step in candy making. Looking for recipes that use almond bark? I remember as a kid buying hunks of it at the grocery store and gnawing on it in delight, but didn’t realize it was a candy coating until a few years back. I always thought of it as a posh white chocolate bar. Nowadays, I don’t really recommend treating it like a giant candy bar because you don’t want the health concerns that comes with eating hunks of sugar and fat. How about some puppy chow or white trash snack mix instead? Yes, I did a shameless plug, there. Enjoy!
How about a video for more explanation? You can use as little as 1 ounce or as many pounds as your pan will fit. One or two pounds takes roughly 9 minutes to melt on low. You can try increasing your temperatures as you get comfortable with your stove, but risk burning the candy coating. I recommend sticking with the lowest heat that you start to see melting within 3 minutes of the candy being placed in the pot.
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