Chembake wrote:
> On Feb 1, 5:41 am, "Janet Puistonen" > wrote:
>> Cheesecake Lady wrote:
>>> Have a question about melting chocolate.....
>>
>>> Does adding butter or shortening thin the consistency of it --
>>> making it easier to pour?
>>
>>> Thanks everyone!
>>
>> Yes, but people usually use Paramount Crystals to thin compound
>> chocolate (ie, candy melts), and cocoa butter to thin real chocolate
>> (couverture). It really depends what you are planning to do with it.
>
> To be exact....Its about compatibility issues....
> Compounded chocolates and chocolate coatings are made usually with
> lauric fat( from palm kernel oil) and need to be thinned down with the
> similar type of fat( lauric fat based)
> Real chocolates having the base fats made with cocoa butter should be
> thinned down with the same fat although cocoa butter compatible
> fats( non lauric type cocoa butter extender CBEs ) can do it
> satisfactorily in commercial situation.

Of course you are correct. But what I meant by "what you're going to do with
it" was that sometimes people are instructed to thin melted chips or other
non-compound "baking" chocolate with vegetable oil to do things such as dip
cookies. It means that they don't have to worry about tempering (although
they don't get any snap, of course).