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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 and Cupcake Recipes
Black Forest Cake
Cake and Cupcake Recipes
Chocolate Lasagna
Cake and Cupcake Recipes
Icebox Cake
Cake and Cupcake Recipes
Bûche de Noël (Yule Log Cake)
How to Make Chocolate Curls
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
Meggan Hill is the Executive Chef and CEO of Culinary Hill, a popular digital publication in the food space. She loves to combine her Midwestern food memories with her culinary school education to create her own delicious take on modern family fare. Millions of readers visit Culinary Hill each month for meticulously-tested recipes as well as skills and tricks for ingredient prep, cooking ahead, menu planning, and entertaining. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the iCUE Culinary Arts program at College of the Canyons.
