After all the supplies were assembled, I made a make-shift double boiler for the beeswax and the chocolate. In the past, I have exploded one Pyrex container and a microwave glass trying to melt beeswax in the microwave. I decided to play it safe and make a double boiler with an old mug.Chocolate contains a large amount of cocoa butter. Traditionally chocolate needs tempering in order to make sure it does not crystallize. When chocolate crystallizes, it looks white and cracked. It’s fine to eat but not the look that we are going for with our Choco-Balms. I made a tempering bowl for the chocolate.
The chocolate tempering bowl was a disappointment. The chocolate just sat and sat and sat. It got slightly mushy but never fully melted. In hindsight, I think this is because Hershey’s Chocolate doesn’t contain much chocolate. In fact, “chocolate” is fourth on the ingredient list. It comes after sugar, milk, and cocoa butter. For comparison, the two foodie chocolate brands I used had organic cacao, organic cane sugar and and organic cacao butter for their first 3 ingredients. Neither Green & Black or Vivians have milk solids in their ingredients listing. As it turns out, Hershey’s Milk Chocolate is not a friendly product to craft with because of the milk.
After attempting to melt the chocolate for over 30 minutes on the stove, I gave up. Here is a chunk of chocolate, with jojoba oil and beeswax. It is sitting in a heat safe bowl, all ready to be put into the microwave.Check back tomorrow for Hershey’s Lip Butter Disaster and the method I picked to melt all the ensuing 9 batches.
