The Best Way to Chop Chocolate
It’s well-established that I’m a snob.
I’ll stand for hours in expensive heels, splurge on the real leather bag instead of the Target knockoff, and buy my cats the Lexus of automatic feeders so they’ll be able to eat in style at any time of day.
So it stands to reason that when I’m liquefying chocolate for a recipe, I’m breaking it down from a big hunk of the good stuff: Scharffen Berger, Callebaut, Valrhona, Guittard, and Ghirardelli.
Why don’t I use chocolate chips when melting down chocolate for recipes?
Because chips are formulated to retain their shape when melted, they have a lower percentage of cocoa butter than a normal baking block of chocolate.
And that means the texture can be grainy, uneven, and downright iffy.
When enrobing homemade Tastykakes or adding melted chocolate to Oreo cookie dough, I want everything to be smooth sailing.
Like the Skeksis smashing away at the Trial Stone in The Dark Crystal, I used to attack my chocolate blocks with my big chef’s knife, but feared losing a finger every time my knife skidded across the surface.
Suggestions to use my serrated bread knife instead just left me with chocolate dust. And another professional recommendation–”just wrap the block in plastic and drop it on the floor!”–obviously didn’t go over so well.
I tried and tried to resist, but it was time to call in the uni-tasker.
A chocolate chipper–a $5 piece of equipment that looks like a tiny pitchfork–is a small investment that pays off in spades, keeping fingers intact and breaking down huge blocks of chocolate like a champ.
Its prongs aren’t razor sharp, so you’re safe from split-second skids and scares, and makes the work of getting high quality chocolate into meltable chunks much less of an onerous task.
(Plus, it can be used when poking holes–AKA docking–your pie crusts, pop tarts, or crackers before they’re baked, so it’s not really a uni-tasker after all!)
Convinced that chopping chocolate may not kill you after all? Here are a few things to remember.
First, the higher the percentage of cocoa butter and milk solids in the chocolate, the easier it’ll be to chop.
Thus, a block of milk chocolate with a 35 percent cacao content will feel more buttery than a block of unsweetened chocolate, which will be hard as a rock and require lots of upper arm strength to get through.
How to Safely Chop Chocolate
You’re going to need a strategy in play to keep chocolate shrapnel from shooting across the room.
This is mine: place a rimmed sheet pan on a damp towel and then place a cutting board fully inside the sheet pan so it fits snugly.
The towel keeps the setup in place, and the sheet pan keeps the chocolate on the cutting board instead of skidding across the counter.
How to Melt Chocolate on the Stove
I’m a bit of a rebel in that I always melt my chocolate on the stove instead of in the microwave. Because I don’t own a microwave!
But I maintain that it’s just as easy and offers more control over the process.
Make a DIY double burner by placing a stainless steel bowl over a small pan of simmering water, making sure the bottom of the pan doesn’t touch the surface of the water.
Stir to melt evenly and gently without the fear of overcooking the chocolate.
Protect your chocolate from a last-minute burn by taking it off heat once it’s nearly melted and stir constantly to get it all the way there.
Now the only question that remains is how you want to use that melted chocolate. I have some ideas:
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Casey Barber
Casey Barber is the owner and founder of Good Food Stories LLC and a visual storyteller whose work often focuses on the intersection of food and culture. She is also the author of the cookbooks Pierogi Love: New Takes on an Old-World Comfort Food and Classic Snacks Made from Scratch: 70 Homemade Versions of Your Favorite Brand-Name Treats, and she couldn’t get anything done without the help of her executive assistant cats, Bixby and Lenny. Her favorite color is obviously orange.
I have never in my life seen a chocolate chipper, but I’m pretty sure I need one. Love the tea towel-baking pan-cutting board technique too!
I always thought those were for tenderizing meat. Hmmph. Whaddya know?
Great tips, Casey!!
Ummmm, how did I not know about this sooner??!! Freakin’ amazing!