How The Heck Do I Make Chocolate Curls!?
Decorating By donnamartin12 Updated 24 Mar 2007 , 5:18am by ShirleyW
I tried my hand at making those chocolate cigarillos/curls things today, and, um, well, it sure as heck didn't work. I figured it'd be as simple as spreading a thin layer of melted chocolate on wax paper, letting it cool a bit, then rolling it. So, that's exactly what I did. First it was too gooey to roll, and then went straight to being too brittle to roll, so it all broke, and was still sticking to the wax paper. Does anyone have any brilliant tips for making these?
That page has pictures, but I can't find any instructions on how to make them...
I don't know why you tried spreading the chocolate on waxed paper to roll but I can imagine your frustration because they just aren't made that way. You need to work with tempered chcolate, it has to be spread on a marble slab or at least a non stick cel board. Even the back of a sheet cake pan that has been warmed slightly in a low heat oven. Not hot, but just warm to the touch of your palm. It really is trial and error as you have found. Then the chocolate can be left at room temperature until it begins to set up, or refrigerated just until it begins to lose it's shine and you can touch it with your finger and not have any chocolate come off on your finger. If the chocolate doesn't set up enough it will be sticky and just build up on the blade of your scraper. If it sets too long it will simply splinter as you try to roll it. When the chocolate is at just the perfect stage you use a chocolate scraper or a bench scraper, the blade goes just under the chocolate, not on the surface, you push away from you. If you want tight rolls you push in short fast strokes. If you want larger curls push with a bit of pressure in a straight line, and a little slower. If you want to add a little different look to the curls push away from you and then arc or turn a bit to the left or the right instead of straight away.
Here is a chocolate cigarello kit for making the brown and white striped cigarellos like I used on the chocolate ruffled cake. Remember now I didn't make mine, I bought them ready made from Marque Foods in San Francisco.
http://pastrychef.com/Catalog/chocolate_cigarette_kit_389840.htm
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