How to make chocolate cylinders

Dark chocolate cylinder with smoked hazelnut praline and salted milk ice cream

How to make chocolate cylinders

6 May 2015

How to make chocolate cylinders

Chocolate has great potential to be used creatively when making desserts, both in terms of presentation and flavour. Tempering chocolate creates beautifully shiny chocolate that can be formed and set into exciting and appealing shapes, creating a professional finish to any dessert. It can be tricky to work with, as tempering chocolate involves carefully raising and lowering the temperature of the chocolate, but is well worth it for the crisp, shiny finish. This method sets out how to shape tempered chocolate into cylinders, but don’t be scared to experiment with other shapes.

Method

1
Cut pieces of acetate to the desired size - it is a good idea to work out what sized cylinders you want and practice rolling before you try it with the tempered chocolate
2
Attach a strip of tape along the length of one of the longer sides, with the sticky part facing up - this will hold the acetate in a cylinder shape once you have rolled it. Prepare all of your acetate and tape pieces and lay them flat on a work surface before tempering the chocolate
3
Temper the chocolate
4
Using a palette knife, evenly spread the chocolate across the acetate, going right up to the edges on the opposite side to the sticky tape, and about half to three quarters of the way up to the edge with the tape, depending on how big you want your cylinder to be
5
Roll up the acetate so the chocolate is on the inside and secure with tape when the two edges of chocolate join - if you are left with a gap, dribble a little more chocolate down the join to seal
6
Leave to set in a cool, dry place for around 24 hours before carefully removing the acetate. Do not put the cylinders in the fridge, or they will ‘bloom’ and create a matt, mottled finish

Uses

Chocolate cylinders are frequently filled with ingredients such as chocolate mousse, caramel mousse or, for something a little different, banana and caramel parfait. If you want to fill the chocolate cylinders, make sure the chocolate is completely hard and set before filling, and don’t remove the acetate in step 6 as this will help give more support to the chocolate.

Get in touch

Please sign in or register to send a comment to Great British Chefs.