Help! Tempered chocolate curls on acetate.

[AmritaBala]

Hey everyone,

I've been trying to hard to figure out a way of keeping acetate sheets curled long enough for the tempered chocolate i've spread on them to SET! They almost ALWAYS unravel and make a huge mess out of everything. (I don't have magnetic clips or anything, and paper clips just seem like a recipe for disaster).

With reference to curls, I'm talking about somewhat spiraled ones, not one dimensional "curves".

An example: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__5LHZr7vZYc/Sd4n8_uDczI/AAAAAAAABvc/7z4Mp2C8q_s/s1600-h/DSC09903.JPG

The acetate sheets need to be twisted more than once in order to produce similar looking curls but my problem arises when I need to secure the ends long enough for the chocolate to actually set. I also live in a humid environment and the chocolate ONLY sets in the refrigerator. I could leave it out for 2 days and it would still remain liquid due to the humidity here.

Hope someone can help me out here Thank you!

[mkayahara]

What about taping them to a flat surface? You can see something similar done here with yuzu gel; it's not chocolate, but I'd think the technique would work just as well with chocolate.

[Edward J]

With acetate sheets, the easiest trick to is lightly mist a surface with water, then rub on the sheet with a dry cloth--the sheet will stick for quite some time.

For the curls you want, I was thinking of 4" or 5" water pipe or something similiar, mist it with water, then wrap your already chocolate clad strip on it and pop it in the fridge.

S'pore? I remember that place vaguely....Lived in "oolu" Hougang in the early '90's. No MRT then, no libraries, no nothing. Took me almost two hours to get to work on Boat Quay--one way!. NO MrT, late

[theabroma]

If you have access to DVD's of Jacques Torres' "Passion for Chocolate" series, you'll find that he periodically makes use of small binder clips from the office supply to hold things together. Also, he is the undisputed King of the Hardware Store, having multiple uses for all sorts of construction materials - from plasterer's lath to galvanized metal ducts.

So, likely he would get a section of appropriately sized PVC pipe, roll the chocolate covered acetate, and insert it into the pipe section until it has cooled. Withdraw the acetate, et voila. You can also use the cardboard tube cores of paper towels, toilet paper, rolls of gift wrap, or butcher or architectural blueline paper.

Watching those programs will truly unleash your most creative self: you havent lived until you see him make cornstarch or gelatin molds for achocolate champagne bottle, or design and order up a silk screen or a Moet et Chandon label, to silkscreen it in chocolate onto a thin sheet of marzipan.

Regards,

Theabroma

[Kerry Beal]

I'd roll them up and put them in a pipe as suggested above.