As much as I love chocolate, I hate chopping it. How do you chop your chocolate, by hand or in the

M

meryl

Well-known member
processor? And what kind of knife do you use? I usually chop by hand and use my chef's knife. I've used the processor in the past, but the clean-up was a pain, ie, getting the chocolate dust out of those creases.

 
I don't chop chocolate much but have you tried these?>>>

1. Using a serated knife OR
2. Chopping from a corner, diagonally OR
3. Warming a bit in the micro so it isn't so prone to "shattering" (I haven't done this one but I imagine you need to do it carefully so you don't overdo the time & ruin it) I guess you could nuke it a bit, chop some off the edges & then put it back in, then repeat...

 
I guess it depends on small you want the pieces. You can get small pieces with a nut grinder

 
I also hate chopping chocolate, as it seems to stain everything around it!>>

I won't lug out the food processor just to chop chocolate, so I'll do it with a knife, but those tiny little shards always end up on my shirt! Of course, you'd think I'd learn to use an apron or something smileys/smile.gif

A gourmet shop around here sells Guittard pistole thingies (they look like flat 3/4" disks), so I don't have to chop. I can buy unsweetened as well as a bittersweet chocolate that way, which I love.

But I do have a couple of chunks in the pantry, that I'll have to chop soon. (The same store sells that 11 lb slab of chocolate in handy 1 lb chunks, so the pieces are about 1 1/2" thick.)

I bought a little knife at Crate and Barrel - it looks like a small putty knife (maybe a cheese knife?) that I'm planning on using on those chunks.

And while we're on the topic, what do you think about prechopping the whole piece, even if your don't need it all now? Would it shorten the shelf life of your chocolate?

 
Well, chopping is one thing, but what about "finely" chopped? That's the one I dread the most!

Whenever I can get away with it, I do coarsely chopped, which is okay when melted over a double boiler, but not an option when pouring hot cream over the chocolate in a bowl, and stirring till melted, as in a ganache. And to make matters worse, with that method, I'm sometimes left with tiny pieces, after all the tedious, fine chopping. Ugh - I hate that.

 
Meryl, I bought a pitch fork looking thing from Bakers Catalog. It breaks up the slab pieces

into manageable size then I use my serrated knife to cut them down to size. I still get the little shards all over the place but they don't travel quite as far using these tools!

If you get one of those pitch forks use a cork over the tines to protect yourself while it is in the drawer.

 
M, I use a big honkin' 10" blade chef's knife and cut on the diagonal.

I buy those big 11 pound (5 kg) Callebaut blocks and chip off a 1 pound piece using the pitchfork thingee Barb mentioned.

I set that on a large cutting board, put the knife edge about 1/4" from a corner, press down hard (rather than slice back and forth) and the chocolate splinters away. I'll keep rotating around the edges of the block, my knife at a 45 degree angle to the square corner. Works beautifully and the slivered chocolate melts like a charm. It could also be mounded on a cake as is for decoration.

70/30 is the hardest to splinter, then the 55%...as more sugar is added, the chocolate gets easier to chop through. Gianduji can almost be sliced into slabs.

 
Meryl - get one of those cheap nut grinders at Bed Bath Beyond... they work GREAT for fine chopping.

 
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