Why does chocolate only melt smoothly in a pot inside hot water, but not in a pot that is directly heated?
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Chocolate has a lot of sugar inside it
Sugar tends to breakdown into carbon and water when heated strongly, and is more commonly referred to as burning
This obviously is not desireable. Carbon is the same stuff pencil lead and charcoal is made of, so not exactly nice to eat
Putting directly over a flame is heating strongly, the pot can easily get up to 300c or above, more than enough to burn sugar
However if you put it over boiling water, the max temperature would only be 100c, since thats the boiling point of water and anything higher would mean the water is already steam
Yes you technically do not exactly **need** a pot of boiling water and can try to use a small flame, but having the boiling water bath ensures that you wont burn the chocolate and just makes the whole thing much easier
Melting something using a boiling water bath also isnt exclusive to only chocolates, its good to do this for anything heat sensitive, such as other sweets or special techniques used in baking which cook stuff like eggs while they are still fully liquid
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