Chocolate curls
Chocolate scraped from a set sheet at the temperature where it rolls rather than shatters. Temperature is the whole technique.
What it is
Curls are made by spreading tempered chocolate on a cool surface — marble is ideal — letting it set, and pushing a scraper across it at an angle. Whether you get a curl or a shard depends almost entirely on temperature: too cold and the chocolate shatters, too warm and it smears.
The workable window is narrow and depends on the chocolate, which is why this is a technique that improves quickly with practice and cannot be learned from a specification. Dark chocolate curls at a slightly cooler temperature than milk.
- Category kind
- An ingredient form — this is a component rather than a finished product
- Legal status
- Industry convention, not a legal definition
- Also called
- cigarettes, chocolate cigarillos
- Texture
- snappy, melting
What the percentage means here
Refers to the chocolate used.
Working with it
The chocolate must be tempered, or the curls will be dull and will bloom. If it shatters, let it warm slightly; if it smears, cool it.
Related
Covered in
- Making chocolate decorationsOne of the decoration forms, and how it is made commercially.
Techniques that work with this
- Chocolate decorationsPiped shapes, curls, shards and transfer designs. The one area where compound coating is the better choice.
- Making chocolate curlsA temperature window a few degrees wide. Too cold and it shatters, too warm and it smears, and the bar in your hand is usually about right.
- Choosing a chocolate garnishMatch the effort to the dessert. A garnish that outshines what it sits on has failed at its job.
Sources
- ChocolateHQ editorial synthesis — ChocolateHQ(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)