Can Old Cooking Chocolate Still Be Used

[dancecaller]

It has a white bloom and won't melt for spreading. Can I do something to make it melt

[Vagus]

What method have you tried, to melt it?
I’d put it in a bowl and micro it for a few seconds, then a few more, and so on, till it’s melted. Keep stirring it too.
Or put it in a bowl over a pan of boiling water till it melts.
The white bloom is harmless....unless it’s mould, which is unlikely.

[dancecaller]

I've usually put a square of it on the cake, hot from the oven, and slide it around, and that was enough to melt and spread it. Last time I tried it wouldn't so I put it in the bottom of the oven while cooking the cake this time.
Still no joy. Seems to have changed texture.

[Old_Geezer]

Well it'd be easier to spread if melted first.
Ignore the bloom. That's normal and of no consequence.

[dancecaller]

Thanks to both of you, I'll try that

[pastafreak]

Here's some information on bloomin' chocolate...

https://www.myrecipes.com/ingredients/what-is-that-white-stuff-on-chocolate

[dancecaller]

Hmm. That article recommends using up eating chocolate with a bloom by melting it. Which is just what mine refuses to do. Won't melt in the microwave either. It has changed somehow, lost something. I can chop it up to a powder, but it just won't melt. Ended up slicing the cake and sandwiching the bits in the middle.

[Peter Pedant]

yes it is either shug-shug
or crystallised cocoa butter

(or martian fairy dew)