Can You Buy Chocolate Curls
Melting chunks of chocolate into a silky liquid is a skill you need to learn, if you want to make chocolatey bakes and desserts. It can be beaten into a ganache, swirled through a cake batter or drizzled over ice cream.
can you buy chocolate curls
Many chocolatiers or pastry chefs will favour chocolate drops over bars of chocolate for melting. Chocolate drops are small and uniform, and come in different percentages of cocoa. Their shape means they are more likely to melt at the same time, avoiding burning.
Chocolate melts faster the higher the percentage of cocoa butter and fat, so dark chocolate melts the fastest. Once melted, it's glossy and has a good viscosity. Good-quality dark chocolate with no less than 70 per cent cocoa solids will leave you with a darker, richer flavour. Anything lower than that is usually too sweet.
Milk and white chocolate has a higher sugar content and can catch and burn quicker, so it must be stirred continuously when melting. It has a slightly thicker overall consistency than dark chocolate when melted.
Treat guests to these moreish chocolate puddings with a fruit and nut twist. Rich and deliciously decadent, they're the perfect dessert for a dinner party. Enjoy with some cold cream or impress guests with homemade vanilla ice cream.
Decorate your favourite bakes with our easy chocolate shards, made with a mix of melted dark, white and milk chocolate. Create eye-catching swirl designs, cut the chocolate into shards and use them to top this easy chocolate cake. The pretty marbled effect is easier to make than you might think.
Indulge in chunky salted caramel brownies with our easy, step-by-step recipe. Each chocolatey treat has a thick layer of salted caramel running through the centre and a deliciously fudgy texture. The mix of dark chocolates makes for an extra-rich mixture and an intense flavour.
This chocolate and orange rice pudding is the perfect warming, comforting dessert after a long cold day. Taking only five minutes to prepare, they also make an excellent dinner party pudding, as they are stress-free, rich and decadent.
I recently shared my Birthday Cake for 2015, which was covered in hundreds of little pink chocolate curls. Just in case you are looking for amazing cake recipes, feel free to try my Cream Cheese Pound Cake or Best Chocolate Cake.
I pour half of the melted chocolate over the cookie sheet and spread out with an offset spatula. This is important, as you want the layer to be as even and level as possible. Thin is good, but not translucent.
The very best way to make (and perfect) these is to practice! My first mini chocolate curls were too thick, then too long, then too thin, then too rough, then too short, etc. But I did manage a few pretty perfect spirals toward the end.
To make the filling, beat the butter and sugar together on medium-high speed in a big mixing bowl until light and fluffy, 6 to 7 minutes. Beat in the chocolate and vanilla until well combined. Add about 1/2 cup of egg substitute at a time, beating well after each addition, until all has been added and the mixture is smooth. Cover and chill the filling for 2 to 3 hours.
Spread the chilled filling evenly over the cooled crust and spread the whipped topping evenly over the top. Grate the candy bar over the top (or make chocolate curls) before serving. Store leftovers in the fridge.
If you want to take any dish from looking good to amazing, try adding a garnish. Most comfort foods do well with a green garnish, like simple chopped parsley. But for baked goods? Chocolate curls! Chocolate curls will make any dessert look absolutely stunning, and they're very easy to make.
Here you can learn how to make chocolate curls with a potato peeler to pretty up all your desserts. I've tried this with baking chocolate and candy bars of several different varieties. The only one I haven't tried yet is white chocolate, but I think it will still work because it has a similar texture to milk chocolate (which I know works!).
There are two different methods for how to make chocolate curls with a potato peeler that I'll show you, but they both start out the same way. So all you need is your favorite chocolate and a potato peeler.
I've seen tutorials that tell you to chill the chocolate before trying this, but I've found that it actually makes the chocolate break easier, crumble more, and is way more difficult to work with. I prefer to keep my chocolate at room temperature.
For both methods, all you have to do is have your chocolate bar in one hand and your potato peeler in the other. Over a piece of wax or parchment paper, simply push the potato peeler across the edge of the chocolate bar with medium pressure, and you'll have yourself a chocolate curl! Repeat until you've made your desired amount of chocolate curls.
To make your chocolate curls looser and longer (kind of like a banana curl), you will still want to move your potato peeler across the chocolate bar with medium pressure. But you'll also need to move the potato toward you just a little bit as you scrape it across the chocolate. This will keep the chocolate curl from curling around itself and give you a longer curl.
After fooling around in the kitchen for a while, I spread a thin coat of melted chocolate, paper thin, on a sheet of wax paper, smoothed a second sheet of wax paper over the chocolate, then rolled the whole thing up into a tight roll and slipped it into the fridge. When I unrolled the cold sheet quickly, the chocolate split into long wafer thin, curved shards that were wide or narrow depending on how tightly the paper-encased chocolate was rolled! Magic.
Set the bowl in a wide skillet of almost simmering water. Stir frequently until the chocolate is completely melted and the mixture is smooth. Scrape the mixture into the foil pan. Chill for at least 2 hours or until firm.
Chop 3 ounces of any dark, milk or white chocolate (but not chocolate chips) and put it into a stainless steel bowl. If using dark chocolate, set the bowl in a wide skillet of almost simmering water. If using milk or white chocolate, turn the heat off under the skillet and wait for 60 seconds before setting the bowl of chocolate into it. Stir frequently until the chocolate is almost completely melted. Remove the bowl from the skillet, wipe the bottom of the bowl dry, and stir to finish melting the chocolate.
When the chocolate is hard, clear a space on the counter and have a thin metal spatula and a tray at hand. Remove the tube from the fridge and immediately and quickly unroll it on the counter to crack the chocolate into long curved shards. Remove the top sheet of wax paper and turn it clean side up on the tray. Slide a thin metal spatula under the chocolate shards to release them from the wax paper, and slide them onto the tray. Refrigerate until needed.
The chocolate curls are delicate; as they form, place them on a clean plate in a single layer to prevent them from rolling around and breaking. These can be made several days before serving and stored in an airtight container at room temperature or refrigerated.
White chocolate and milk chocolate are softer than darker chocolates and tend to be easier to work with when making curls. Practice with white or milk to get a hang of the technique, then progress to semisweet and bittersweet chocolates.
Working from 1 edge and using a thin flexible spatula, scrape chocolate vertically into curls. If chocolate is too hard, let it sit at room temperature for 1 to 2 minutes. If it gets too soft, return to refrigerator for a few minutes.
Milk + Sour Cream. I use a combination of whole milk and sour cream in my chocolate cake. The dairy adds wonderful flavor and richness, and the acid in the sour cream makes a very tender cake crumb.
The cake tastes like chocolate, with the espresso powder enhancing the chocolate flavor. The buttercream can have as strong of a coffee flavor as you like, depending on how much espresso powder you add.
These delicious Belgian Chocolate curls are perfect for decorating cakes and cupcakes. Why limit yourself to baked goods, try them on hot chocolate or even a cappuccino. The different flavours are perfect to add bursts of flavour to your cakes too!
Make any drink or dessert look fancy with Simply White Chocolate Curls. Great for garnishing hot chocolates, frappes and mochas as well as cakes and cheesecakes. These white chocolate curls are smooth, sweet and delicious.
Make any drink or dessert look fancy with Simply Milk Chocolate Curls. Great for garnishing hot chocolates, frappes and mochas as well as cakes and trifles. These milk chocolate curls are smooth, sweet and delicious.
Mona Lisa Decorative Chocolate Curls are an all-purpose chocolate for your foodservice needs. Melt and mix it with milk for use in rich and decadent chocolate drinks, sprinkle it on top of ice cream or adorn your pastries, muffins and cakes with beautiful dark chocolate curls.
Mona Lisa dark chocolate curls work great in our Sagra Drinking Chocolate Dispensers! Simply combine and melt chocolate with half and half or whole milk and you have a deliciously rich and velvety Italian Style Hot Chocolate.
You can get acetate sheets on Amazon (follow the link above) and cut them to the size you want. I use long thin strips in order to keep the curls tight and smaller. If you use wider cuts, the curls will be larger. The larger ones might work well on full sizes cakes, while the smaller ones work better for individual chocolates or entremets.
So, if you have never made chocolate garnishes before, this is a relatively easy one to start with. Most of the trick to making chocolate garnishes is in having the experience of working with chocolate in various ways.
If you enjoying making these, you might also enjoy my Modern Raw Desserts online course. We cover 6 beautiful entremets and tarts that would look stunning with these curls resting on top of them. Plus we cover some other chocolate garnishes too.
I first came across hagelslag a couple years ago in the Netherlands. I used to travel to Leiden for work, and one day I noticed little boxes of De Ruijter chocolate sprinkles at the hotel breakfast bar. 041b061a72