How to Work With Merckens Chocolate Melts

One of the exciting elements of baking and working in a professional kitchen is the decorating process. You get to show off your creativity and try new designs to create beautiful finished products that immediately capture people's attention. In order to bring all of your ideas to reality, you need to have the right materials to work with. Ingredients that are easy to manipulate and give you plenty of versatility so you can create all sorts of designs for any occasion. An example of these ingredients is Merckens chocolate melts, which come in a variety of colors and can be easily used to create different designs and decorative elements for your baked goods. We not only have a great number of options here at Stover & Co, but we also have a few ideas of how you can work with your chocolate melts, to give you a head start on using this ingredient that is new to your pantry.

Basic Instructions

Working with Merckens chocolate melts can be a pretty simple process that does not take too much experience to get the hang of, but once you do, you should be free to play around with these melts any way you like. As with most new ingredients, you will want to take some time experimenting with this material at first, trying out new recipes and techniques until you get an idea of what you can do with your candy wafers and how you wish to incorporate them into your bakery selection. The basic process of handling chocolate wafers is not too difficult to get started with. You do not even have to use the stovetop if you do not want to, but the microwave instead. Place your chocolate melts into a bowl and heat them up in the microwave at low heat, stirring occasionally until you see that all of the wafers have been completely melted down and leave you with a smooth liquid that you can work with. If you are using colored wafers you can move on from here, but if you are using white chocolate wafers with the intention of creating a custom color with food coloring, this is your time to include that and mix up your new color. While your Merckens chocolate melts are liquid, you are free to use them any way you like.

Dip Small Treats

With your melted down chocolate wafers, you can create beautiful candy coated treats by dipping any sort of snack item into the chocolate. This is a super fast way of adding color and decoration to your fairly simple treats such as pretzels or cookies. Just dip your treats halfway into the chocolate and allow them to harden on parchment paper. You can also throw on some sprinkles or toppings while the chocolate is still wet for extra style.

Cake Pops & Petit Fours

Instead of partially dipping your treats into the melts, you can completely submerge them in the candy for a full coating. This is great for creating cake pops or petit fours that are great as bite sized snacks at events or small treats for customers popping in quickly for something sweet.

Custom Candy Toppers

Use your Merckens chocolate melts to create your own customized candies. The easiest way to do this is to use silicone molds to pop out candies in the designs you chose after they harden. You can also pour the melted candy onto parchment paper in the shape of a design and carefully peel it off of the paper once it dries fully. These make great little cupcake toppers and decorations for full sized cakes.

Decorative Swirls

Finally we have swirls, drizzles, and splatters as decoration for your various baked goods. This is very easy to execute and creates a beautiful impression for your treats. Drizzle your melted wafers onto your baked goods and create a zig-zag pattern to cover them in colorful lines. You might find it easiest working with a fork or whisk to get the effect you want.

With all of these ideas up your sleeve, you should feel pretty confident picking up some Merckens chocolate melts and getting started creating your own candy coated treats. Pick out some of the colors you want to work with right away and get started experimenting with this new ingredient in your kitchen. Stover & Company has quite the selection of colors available for you to shop online, so you can have all of your go-to colors on hand whenever you need them. We also have white chocolate melts and oil-based food coloring available, so you can create any color you can imagine if you would rather work with a blank slate. We also carry candy wafers from other brands like the Stover Sweet Shoppe, so you really have options to select the exact products you want to bring into your bakery kitchen. Browse over our online store to see what your options are and get started on your new baking ideas as soon as your chocolate melts arrive.