300 squiggles

This is my goal today: 1/2 of my 300 chocolate squiggles. I suggested to the group that squiggles would look great on the dessert for the Relief Society dinner I'm working on for 280? (It's somewhere around there and I figure some would break.) Then I said I'd make ALL of them.

First I tried just basic squiggles, that was so easy why not try this;

Oh, my after 6 tries I got one that looked good. 7 more tries and I got one that looked not as good... I decided I'd have to do squiggles. This morning I decided to use the pastry bag and apply some of the knowledge I had gained and I have this! Wouldn't this be great at a wedding? Of course you'd have to know a Ralph and Susie for this to work. ;)

29 done.

basic hints if you want to try this;

• I mixed a Hershey's milk chocolate bar with their Special Dark.
• Heat the chocolate in the microwave at 30% power for 30 seconds at a time. Stir between each melting.
• Melt in a measuring cup so it is easier to pour into your bag.
• Do not heat until all is melted, stir it and let the heat of the chocolate melt the last little bit.
• Stir with a table knife; it's easier to wipe clean on the side of the cup.
• Do not use a sandwich bag Ziploc bag, it isn't strong enough. The chocolate broke through in an odd place and then you have chocolate all over.
• Use a disposable pastry bag and small tip.
• Wear an apron and short sleeves.
• Make more than one copy of your design. If you don't it is easier to slide the parchment paper on top of the design so have lots of room to work.
• Sit. This will take awhile.
• Don't work with the chocolate too hot, you won't have any control. (While it is cooling write a blog post. don't go upstairs and work on a quilt; it will get too cold.)
• Remember Toy Story? When Buzz Lightyear says he 'falls with style' ? The chocolate basically falls into place, so you don't have as much control as you do with frosting.
• Don't try to wipe up mistakes, leave them until they cool, then pick them up and put them in the measuring cup to remelt.
• When you get tired, empty the bag into the measuring cup, take the tip out and squeeze as much chocolate as you can out. When you refill the bag with warm chocolate let it sit a bit and knead it a bit to melt what is sitting in the bag.
• Don't leave the cup unsupervised around teen age boys, or toddlers, or grown men. (When I told them what I was working on they left it alone, but that was after a bowl had been cleaned out of the cooled chocolate.)