How To Make Your Own Double Boiler

What is a double boiler? 

Often times a recipe will ask you to melt chocolate and other ingredients using a double boiler. It’s basically a pot that sits inside another pot usually filled with water to allow a more even lower heat and prevent burning. See an example here on Amazon. 

You can always buy a double boiler like that, but who has space especially in a kosher kitchen! And it’s really not a necessary kitchen tool. It is super simple to make one with tools you already have in your kitchen. All you need is a medium sized pot and a heatproof bowl. 

How to make your own double boiler?

To start, you need to make sure your bowl and pot are proper size for each other. The bowl will be resting on top of the pot. It should not fall in, it should be larger than the pot.

Once your pot and bowl are properly sized, fill the pot with about an inch of water. Make sure the bowl does not touch the water, this will cause the chocolate to get too hot. Remove the bowl, turn on your stove on and bring the water to a boil. Once the water is boiling, turn the heat to the lowest setting.

Fill your bowl with chocolate and carefully set it on top of the pot of simmering water. The steam from the water will gently melt the chocolate.

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Using a completely dry heatproof spoon or spatula, stir the chocolate occasionally until it is completely melted. Be careful of the steam that might be escaping around the bowl. Also make sure not to drop any water into the chocolate; this will cause the chocolate to seize and will be ruined.

Once your chocolate is melted, turn off the heat, and use pot holders to remove the bowl from the pot. Be very careful, the steam from the pot can burn your hands, and the steam that collected on the bottom of the bowl will begin to drip. Immediately place the bowl of melted chocolate on a kitchen towel to dry. Carefully wipe the bottom of the bowl with the kitchen towel to remove excess water. Your chocolate is now perfectly melted, and ready to use!