Chopping Chocolate

Joan and I enjoy chocolate, dark chocolate. We're midway between gourmets and gourmands on the topic. Chocolate is our final course of breakfast, because we've heard that the taste buds are at their most sensitive then. It also helps give a needed boost to the AM mood.

This means that we order larger quantities of chocolate than is typical for most Americans. For experimentation, of course, we rely on picking up one or two bars of the brand/flavor that we're trying. And bars are easy to divide into breakfast servings. To keep the cost down, though, when possible we order our favorites in kilogram quantities, which often means we're receiving professional couverture blocks.

Here's an example of the economics, for Santander 70% cocoa solids single origin chocolate. A 70 gram bar at Chocosphere is, at this writing, $2.90, or 4.14¢ per gram. A 10-pack of the bars is $25.00, or 3.57¢ per gram. The one-kilogram block is $21.50, or a mere 2.15¢ per gram! The only dilemma is how to serve portions at breakfast from a single 2.2 pound block of chocolate. My answer is to "chop" it ahead of time.

I put the word "chop" into quotes because it's counterproductive to whack at the block. Stuff flies everywhere, and portion control is non-existent. So after the block is unwrapped ...

... we see that this particular block has four scores (grooves) in it. Some will have five, and one, Waialua Estate (Hawaii), has four one way and five the other. Here, we have just four. We'll start by cutting the block into four pieces along the scores.

Using the large kitchen knife, I saw back and forth. This both cuts and, as the knife warms up from the friction, melts the chocolate. I also put some downward pressure on the knife, but too much can cause the chocolate to snap apart suddenly and unevenly. This behavior varies widely between chocolate blends; some are forgiving and some are brittle. In the next picture, we see a top layer that is the groove, a middle layer that the knife has cut, and an irregular snap-off of the bottom layer. I was pressing too hard.

To combat this I will stop cutting partway through, flip the block over,

and resume cutting from the other side. Now any snapping that occurs will be clean.

Eventually all four cuts are made.

Next, I cut each section into slices, usually 8 to 10 depending on the bar. For this bar, 9 slices work nicely.

Again I flipped the section after cutting partway through, and resumed cutting. The result ...

After all four sections have been sliced ...

Now each slice can be cut into pieces of the size you wish to serve. At this point I cut from only one side, because the cutting goes quickly and the damage from any early snapping is limited. Before I've always made uniform pieces, but with this particular block (four original scores instead of five), the slices seem a bit wide for cutting in two, yet not big enough for three. Inspired to experiment, I alternated.

This way you can choose between large and small pieces, although the small pieces may pose a temptation for a quick snack! Let's see: each scored block (250 grams) had 9 slices (so 27.8 grams each). Thus a large piece is 13.9 grams and a small one 9.3 grams -- very, very approximately. The finished pieces store nicely in two one-quart freezer bags.

The various shards, shavings, and crumbles are available for immediate consumption.