Cleaning a chocolate Fountain

How to clean down a chocolate fountain without destroying the kitchen!

Ok, cleaning down a chocolate fountain isn’t actually the worst job in the world, it can be pretty messy though and if you are cleaning a dark chocolate in a white kitchen, good luck!  There are some simple steps though to make your life a lot easier. Follow these and the mess will be much reduced and our best tip is to plan ahead.

The first point is that liquid chocolate is a lot easier to clean than solid chocolate.  It follows then that the best time to clean your fountain is as soon as you have finished using it, so here goes!

Have a container at the ready to poor any excess chocolate into and take this to the fountain, not the fountain to the chocolate – one trip and it could be very messy!  Also take a plastic bag and a couple of cleaning cloths. Take the central spine and the plates from the fountain basin and put them into a plastic bag, then wipe your hands.  Then tip the fountain base and bowl up and pour the chocolate into the container. Put a lid on the container and put it either outside or in your fridge or freezer to cool down to a solid state.  Leave it for a day and then you can just tap it out into a bin or keep it for later use – your choice!

With the rest of the base and your bag with the spine in it, take it to the sink and wash with hot and very soapy water, the hotter and soapier, the easier it will be to clean and make sure that you do this when the chocolate is still liquid, it is a lot easier. Scrubbing brushes are ideal for cleaning at this stage, especially to get the screw clean! Try not to get water onto the bottom of the machine itself as this will contain all of the electrics.  After you have washed, just leave it out overnight to dry and then put it away but make sure that everything is dry!

The main points to remember – Wash everything down when the chocolate is still liquid, this makes life a lot easier. Always empty your chocolate from the fountain into a container before moving the fountain itself. Make sure that everything is dry before you use the fountain again. Above all, enjoy, this is great fun and if a bit of chocolate ends up on someone else’s face – so be it!

Have a look in our articles section for more information on setting up a chocolate fountain and using oil with fountain chocolate plus many more articles in the Chocolate Fountain Directory.