Water & Chocolate v. Chocolate & Water

[gfron1]

So if water gets in your chocolate it seizes, but if you make water based ganache its nice and smooth.

Why does one seize and the other doesn't? Is it quantity? Agitation? Can someone please explain the science behind this? Thanks.

[Tri2Cook]

It's quantity. If you overwhelm the chocolate with enough liquid it can't do it's little "screw this, I'm outta here" thing.

Edited to remove irrelevant babbling.

Edited December 20, 2008 by Tri2Cook (log)

[Chocolot]

So if water gets in your chocolate it seizes, but if you make water based ganache its nice and smooth.

Why does one seize and the other doesn't?  Is it quantity?  Agitation?  Can someone please explain the science behind this?  Thanks.

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An old-time commercial chocolate dipper told me they used to add a little bit of water to the chocolate to thicken it when they were dipping. If the chocolate was a bit too thin, they would "whip" in a bit of water. Never tried it, but she claimed it worked very well.

[Edward J]

[McDuff]

shirley corriher or alton brown once made the analogy that chocolate is like a sugar bowl into which you put a drop of water. the part that gets wet gets crunchy. if you dump a whole lot of water in, the sugar melts.

You can tighten up melted chocolate by flicking water at it with your fingertips. this works great if you need to write with chocolate as it will pipe out better than plain melted chocolate. Cocolate by alice mederich has guidelines for the amount of water needed when you want to put water into chocolate without having it seize.