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Learn how to make chocolate curls from a bar of chocolate to dress up any dessert recipe that could use a bonus cocoa element.
Table of Contents
Tutorial notes
- Chocolate bar: Quality matters. Feel free to mix up the cacao percentage or make chocolate shavings with a couple of bars of varying colors (I love a mix of milk and extra dark chocolate) for visual and flavor complexity.
- White chocolate: For a snowy look, consider adding a dusting of white chocolate curls on top of the dark or milk chocolate curls.
- Yield: A 3- to 4-ounce bar and this method makes enough chocolate curls to top my Bûche de Noël (Yule Log Cake). Scale up or down as needed for your specific chocolate dessert recipe.
- Storage: To prevent any potential melting, refrigerate the chocolate curls until you’re ready to use them.
- Top it off: Try chocolate curls as a topping for ice cream sundaes, Oreo Brownie Trifle, Black Forest Cake, Chocolate Lasagna, Icebox Cake, or Cheesecake Brownies.
Instructions
- Using a vegetable peeler, shave the edge of the chocolate bar for narrow curls, or the side of the chocolate bar for wide curls. Curls can be refrigerated or kept at room temperature for a short amount of time.
Desserts to top with chocolate curls
Cake Recipes
Black Forest Cake
Cake Recipes
Chocolate Lasagna
Cake Recipes
Icebox Cake
Cake Recipes
Bûche de Noël (Yule Log Cake)
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How to Make Chocolate Curls
Learn how to make chocolate curls from a bar of chocolate to dress up any dessert recipe that could use a bonus cocoa element.
Ingredients
- 1 (4 ounce) chocolate bar room temperature (see note 1)
Instructions
- Using a vegetable peeler, shave the edge of the chocolate bar for narrow curls, or the side of the chocolate bar for wide curls. Curls can be refrigerated or kept at room temperature for a short amount of time.
Notes
- Chocolate bar: Quality matters. Feel free to mix up the cacao percentage or make chocolate shavings with a couple of bars of varying colors (I love a mix of milk and extra dark chocolate) for visual and flavor complexity.
- White chocolate: For a snowy look, consider adding a dusting of white chocolate curls on top of the dark or milk chocolate curls.
- Yield: A 3- to 4-ounce bar and this method makes enough chocolate curls to top my Bûche de Noël (Yule Log Cake). Scale up or down as needed for your specific chocolate dessert recipe.
- Storage: To prevent any potential melting, refrigerate the chocolate curls until you’re ready to use them.
- Top it off: Try chocolate curls as a topping for ice cream sundaes, Oreo Brownie Trifle, Black Forest Cake, Chocolate Lasagna, Icebox Cake, or Cheesecake Brownies.
Nutrition
Serving: 1tbspCalories: 85kcalCarbohydrates: 7gProtein: 1gFat: 6gSaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 1gCholesterol: 1mgSodium: 3mgPotassium: 101mgFiber: 2gSugar: 3gVitamin A: 6IUCalcium: 10mgIron: 2mg
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Meggan Hill is a classically-trained chef and professional writer. Her meticulously-tested recipes and detailed tutorials bring confidence and success to home cooks everywhere. Meggan has been featured on NPR, HuffPost, FoxNews, LA Times, and more.
Could you do it with caramel? Because I want to put it on ice cream sundaes or different cakes?
Hi Emma, I haven’t tried to make caramel curls similar to these chocolate curls. Sorry about that. It looks like something like that is available from a handful of companies online, I’m not sure how to recreate that at home. Sorry about that! – Meggan
How long do the shavings last before melting? I want to make a construction cake for my son and was thinking the shavings could be the dirt.
Thank you
Hi Debbie, thank you for your question. I love your idea! If the cake is in a cool place (70 degrees or lower) they should hold their shape for several hours. You can also refrigerate or freeze the curls, and add them to the cake before serving. If you refrigerate the cake with the chocolate shavings on it, allow it to come to room temperature in a cool place as well, as the chocolate could condensate then melt.
I haven’t used these for dirt on a baked cake before, but I did use crushed OREO cookies for a Halloween brownie dirt cake using my trifle recipe, if I could offer another option for you! (Here’s the link to that story if you would like to see it: https://www.culinaryhill.com/a-spooktacular-halloween-party/#h-brownie-dirt-cake)
Take care! I hope your son loves the cake! – Meggan
Hello. Thank you for this post. I hope you are doing well. I would like to make pizza themed cupcakes for my son’s birthday in a few days. I would like to use this technique as the cheese pizza. My question is, what type of chocolate bar should I use? Would a regular candy bar work? For example, a Hershey’s chocolate bar. Or should I use baking chocolate I’m or something else you could suggest? Thank you for your time. I look forward to hearing from you soon.
Hi Chaqira, thank you so much for your questions! I love the idea of pizza themed cupcakes! I would make sure to use a high quality white chocolate, keeping in mind that baking chocolate may be bitter and not sweet. I love Godiva chocolate, but any high-quality white chocolate should do well for your “cheese pizza”. Be sure to keep the curls refrigerated until using them, so they don’t melt. I would love to hear how the pizza cupcakes turn out for your son’s birthday! Please write back! – Meggan