On Food and Cooking

Like sugar, chocolate can be shaped to please
the eye. Pastry cooks and confectioners make
thin chocolate sheets by brushing melted
chocolate onto a surface, then letting the
chocolate set completely, and stamping or
cutting it into shapes, or nudging it into a
ruffle. Melted chocolate can be painted onto
plant leaves, allowed to harden into the
leaves’ mirror images, then gently peeled off.
It can be squeezed through a pastry bag and
tip to form a myriad of lines, drops, and filled
shapes. And of course it can be used to line
molds and produce shapes from hollow
spheres to Easter bunnies.
Chocolate lovers often melt chocolate and
then use it as a coating for cookies or
strawberries or handmade truffles. This can be
done easily and casually, the chocolate simply
warmed until it melts and then used
immediately, the results sometimes chilled in
the refrigerator to speed their solidification.
Chocolate handled in this way will taste fine,