How do bakers get those thin, elegantly drizzled lines of chocolate on their cakes and bonbons? Whenever we try to drizzle with a fork or brush we get globs instead of drizzle.
Then we learned the trick: a plastic bag.
To quickly and easily drizzle chocolate, all you need is a plastic pastry bag or a Ziploc freezer-weight quart or gallon bag - along with chocolate, of course.
• Fill a pastry or Ziploc bag halfway full with chocolate chips or chopped, flaked chocolate. The best chocolate for drizzling or coating has a high amount of cocoa butter.
• Depending on how you feel about microwaving plastic, you can put the bag directly in the microwave and melt the chocolate using low power and 30-second increments.
• We are rather wary of microwaving plastic, however, so usually we melt our chocolate in a saucepan on the stove and scoop it into a plastic bag after it has liquified. A side advantage to this is being really sure that the chocolate is completely liquid - we have another post later about what happens when it is not!
Last time we were in a hurry and microwaved the chocolate after all; you can see the chocolate chips still in the bag above. Knead the bag between microwaving sessions to mix it and distribute heat.
• When the chocolate is completely melted, snip off a tiny corner of the bag's tip with scissors, or poke a hole with a sharp skewer.
• Squeeze slightly to drizzle over the delicious thing you're decorating, reheating the bag if necessary to soften the chocolate again.
More on Chocolate
• Word of Mouth: Couverture
• Melting Chocolate 101
• Recipe: Dark Chocolate Cake
(Image credit: La Fleur Chocolate)
Copyright © 2008 Apartment Therapy
Take a small whisk and snip the ends free. This creates a beautiful wispy effect for chocolate and spun sugar. Also, you don't waste a non-recycleable bag.
view brcline's profile
Also, using a bag, hold your wrist straight and quickly move your entire arm back and forth. This gets rid of the wobbly looking lines that sometimes result when you just use a wrist motion.
view Jeni_Rae's profile
Whenever I've seen this done on TV people have used a clear version of the classic ketchup and mustard dispenser-link to pic below. Presumably this is a bit sturdier than a plastic bag--and the plastic being thicker and possibly of a different type may withstand microwaving. We always used to microwave honey squeeze bottles which had crystallized.
http://img.epinions.com/images/opti/a6/aa/pr-Housewares-Tablecraft_Ketchup_And_Mustard_Dispenser_Set-resized200.jpg
view sally599's profile
i'm in the squeeze bottle camp as well. much more precision that with a plastic bag and easier to store leftovers if i don't use up all of whatever i'm drizzling.
view abby's profile