How to make a double boiler with a pot and a bowl is featured in the third season of Rachael Ray's show.

The Basically Guide to Better Baking is a 10-week, 10-recipe series designed to help you become a cooler, smarter, more confident baker.

My mom kept a double boiler in the kitchen.As her official sous chef, I would watch her take out the set of nearly identical pots, one stacked and locked in perfectly on top of the other, and know that we were about to make brownies.She used to make her go-to recipe with butter and chocolate.

No shade to my mom, but I now know that the double boiler is just as useless as buying a nine piece knife set or an avocados slicer, and all that is required to get the job done is a sharp knife.

When warming up temperature-sensitive ingredients that require gentle, indirect heat, the double boiler is essential.It's easy to assemble your own with equipment that you already own.A medium-sized pot and a heatproof metal or glass mixing bowl are all you need to make a double boiler.

Bring an inch or two of water to a boil and then place the bowl with your ingredients inside over top.It will get too hot if it dips into the water, so you want it to fit snug.There you go!There is a double boiler at your service.

The cheaper version is easier to put together and take apart, making it better for cleaning and storage.The pieces often stick together in a one-trick-pony double boiler.There is an unnecessary lid.You don't need a lid.There is a good reason you don't want a lid: It promotes condensation, which can spell disaster for melted chocolate.

In the case of Basically's Camouflage Chocolate Fudge Brownies, you use the double boiler twice, first to melt cream cheese, which is too delicate for direct heat, and then to slowly melt butter, cocoa powder.This mixture needs to get hot so the sugar can start dissolving, but you don't want the butter to brown or the cocoa to heat up.

You need to put together a double boiler if you want to cook egg whites and sugar for a meringue that will hold stiff peaks, or a hollandaise sauce where you could break the precarious emulsion if the egg yolks overheated.When you're melting chocolate or working with cocoa powder.The bowl and pot are available for many other uses.Can a double boiler claim that?

I will excuse myself while I send this article to my mom, who will be freeing up some cabinet space very soon, and hopefully making brownies to celebrate.