Helpful Hint :-)

I have learned how to make cocoa powder!  

Not really, but I have learned what those little wafers look like when you assume you know how to melt them.  I thought I would pass this little tidbit of info on for the poor girl that thinks like I did.   I have been baking along time and I never knew this so I thought others would benefit from my mistake :-)  

We were making a chocolate covered popcorn for some gifts and I quickly relied on my own knowledge, thinking I knew the proper way to melt chocolate wafers to pour over this wonderful caramel popcorn that Mark makes.  I was wrong.  Yep, wrong.  I quickly put together a double boiler, placed the wafers in the top, turned up the burner ( because it needed to be quick you know, (after all it was Christmas season and I was trying to squeeze several things into one moment, Ha! :).   Then I stirred, it began looking nice, stirred some more, it began clumping, and before I knew it I had something that reminded me of a cake of cocoa.  

Mark said, " Is that supposed to look like that? " Haha........nope honey, it sure isn't.  So I quickly googled how to melt chocolate and my assumption of melting it over high heat in a double boiler was all wrong.  Here is what the advice from google was...

Assemble double boiler, after adding enough water to touch the top pan, turn on, bring water to a boil, and then turn off heat and add chocolate wafers.  Very different from my method and it worked MUCH better.  

However, When I tried the second time, it was such a slow go that I thought it wasn't working.  We were heading out shopping and I needed to quickly do some things before we left so I turned it off and abandoned my efforts for the time being.  After the quick chores, I came back by the stove and thought, this looks pretty good...stirred it, and low and behold with time, I had a nice consistency to drizzle over the popcorn.  We were even going to pick up some of that magic shell stuff ( last resort :-) 

If this helps you the next time you make some type of candy or chocolate covered anything, then it was worth it.  I know I will remember for the next time.  Just for the record, the google article recommended the microwave :-)  

Here is a picture of the final product: ......it was very yummy! 

We are super thankful for the friends that introduced us to a Whirley Pop years ago.  It has provided a wonderful option for snacks and gifts to bless others.  Mark's brother loves the Kettle Corn.