Perfect Chocolate Curls
By: Alisa Escanlar
Published: Monday, November 30, 2009 - 12:15pm

Ingredients




1 (or more) chocolate bars, semisweet, white, milk
3 ounces To 4 oz and about ¼ inch thick, unwrapped

Preparation

1 Perfect chocolate curls? You need patience and the right tool. Have perfect chocolate curls eluded you? With these tricks, success is assured. 2 The secrets are the tool - a standard flexible-blade vegetable peeler - and the technique - getting chocolate to just the right temperature. White and milk chocolate curl most readily; dark chocolate can be finicky, though not too difficult to work with. 3 =) Easy Chocolate Curls For a quantity of curls, warm each bar as you need it. Use a regular oven if your microwave is 500 watts or less; lower-wattage microwaves can heat unevenly. 4 Place chocolate, scored side down, on a sheet of cooking parchment or foil, uncovered, at full power (100%%) until edges of chocolate give slightly to gentle fingertip pressure. Warm for 15 seconds, check, then warm for 5 seconds at a time until chocolate tests as indicated. Total time will be 15-40 seconds, depending on oven's wattage and the kind of chocolate. 5 In a conventional oven, place chocolate on foil on oven rack in a 150 oven until edges give slightly to gentle fingertip pressure, 1 to 1-1/2 minutes. 6 If chocolate gets too soft, let it cool for a few minutes. 7 Set chocolate on paper or foil on a counter, aligning a long sdie of bar with counter edge; let paper or foil hang over edge. Stnad with your hip to the counter. With 1 hand, gently hold end of chocolate bar closest to you. 8 With the other, hold peeler perpendicular to edge and rest blade on opoosite end of bar. Firmly and evenly, pull peeler toward you along bar, peeling off chocolate to make a curl. 9 If chocolate strip splays out instead of curling, neaten it up with your fingers. Some curls will wrap around themselves; other break off in short sections. 10 With tip of peeler, lift each curl to a flat surface tocool and firm. Turn paper 180 and repeat to make curls from poopsite long side of bar. As chocoalte bar gets thin, it's inclined to break; just pull peeler over smaller pieces. 11 If chocolate is too firm to curl smoothly, or if it firms as you work, rewarm in a microwave oven on full power (100%%) for 5-10 seconds at a time, or in a conventional oven at 150 for 30 seconds. 12 Save chocolate scraps for other uses. [Note: I really can't believe they 13 *really* put that last sentence in.*Scraps*? of chocolate??? Get real.] If made ahead, store curls airthight up to 1 week. A 3-ounce bar makes 1-3/4 to 2-1/4 ounces (1-1/2 to 2 cups) of curls. [ Sunset magazine, sometime 1991 Perfect Chocolate Cake