Some like it hot. Some like it cold. Some like chocolate an awful lot, if I may be so bold.

There are more than a few ways to eat chocolate. To keep it simple, let’s narrow it down to three basic methods:

#1. Straight from the refrigerator (when it’s nice and cold and HARD)
#2. Straight from the wrapper or box (room temperature)
#3. With a spoon or a knife because it is purposely melted past being able to be picked up

This is Method #3:

Method #1 is not my style (although I’m related to people who wouldn’t have it any other way)
Method #2 is fine for certain purposes (specialty chocolates, chocolate bars with caramel, etc.)
Method #3 is my favorite, as it allows me to fully enjoy the richness and flavor of the chocolate

At my house, how to melt chocolate is a fun topic to discuss.  We “render” chocolate.   This term came about when we discovered a laptop, which was busily “rendering” a 3D animation into a watchable video format, was using up a lot of resources and therefore giving off an abnormal amount of heat.   A piece of chocolate placed near the laptop would get soft very nicely in a relatively short amount of time.

Since rendering animations isn’t a 24/7 occurrence in my household, we’ve had to be creative and devise other ways to “render” chocolate. (You’re probably thinking: “Use the microwave! Why doesn’t she just stick it in the microwave?” We don’t own one.  Long story.)

I have been known to melt my chocolate by placing it in very close proximity to a lamp with an incandescent light bulb, which we must have kept around specifically for the purpose of melting chocolate (having switched to CFL or LED in the rest of the house).   Another option for melting chocolate is placing it on top of a computer UPS for an hour or so on a warm day.  (And because I know at least one reader (you know who you are) would otherwise be tempted to comment: Yes.  There would be a plate between the chocolate and the UPS.)

Melted chocolate is fun to play with!

How do you like your chocolate?