[siduri]

I wanted to know if it;s possible to make that sort of coating for ice cream (that hardens on contact) at home? I really love ice cream with chocolate coating that;s crisp, with soft ice cream inside.
I don;t know what it;s called so i can;t look it up. Like a dairy queen dip, is what i mean.
thanks

[foodpump]

Uhhh... D Q uses a "product" that has another fat substituted for cocoa butter in that brown stuff that comes in 100 oz tins. Why do they do this? So it melts thinnner==a thinner crust==less product used==better profit margins.

The good news is that you can use virtually any chocoalte you want to, and if you are dipping a ice cold product into real chocoale, you don't need to temper it all, just shoot for a temperature that's about body temp, and dip away. You'll get a crisp, hard real chocolate coating.

[siduri]

thanks, foodpump. I don;t really want a thick coating, though. It;s not to save on chocolate, but i really like the thinness of the coating, cracking through it with the teeth, and the contrast with the softness of the ice cream. I would prefer it to be real chocolate, of course, with "real" ingredients rather than "products" - like i don;t know, cocoa butter, or butter, or who knows what is needed. They have these fancy chocolate covered ice cream bars here, algida magnum, which have a thick coating, and much as i like chocolate, it's too heavy, too greasy, and too thick. I prefer the cheaper chocolate-covered things. But of course, with my own ice cream and my own ingredients it would taste much better.
I was also thinking how small quantities of ice cream - maybe in stick form or something, coated thinly, and kind piled up in the dish, might be nice. But anyway, even to dip a cone, or pour over a dish of ice cream. Melted chocolate is so thick, i can;t imagine coating ice cream thinly with it to get the texture i;d like.

[Blueicus]

Just incorporate extra cocoa butter to your dipping chocolate. Use good quality couverture (which already has an appreciable amount of cocoa butter) and mix it with approximately 50% cocoa butter by weight to the chocolate. That should create a mixture that will create a thin crisp coating. You can always adjust this ratio of cocoa butter to chocolate to get the desired consistency.

[siduri]

Thanks, blueicus, I sort of remembered someone once sayihng cocoa butter. Now, to find it! What they commonly call cocoa butter here (burro di cacao) is actually chapstick!!

I'll tell you a funny side story about translation of cooking terms - i wanted to make a strawberry tart here, my first summer in italy, and needed gelatin (it was pate brisee, a bavarian cream filling and fresh strawberries on top brushed with redcurrant jelly - one of the best non chocolate deserts ever). Anyway i thought i knew how to say gelatin in italian - 'Gelatina'
but what he gave me smelled of broth. It was actually a jellied broth cube that you use to make summer meat salads, a jellied meat broth.
So i looked it up and it's called "colla di pesce" which means fish glue. Since nobody bakes here, especially not elaborate things, it;s really just used in pastry shops, but i didn;t know that yet, i was still convinced i would encounter amazing home baking and even wanted to collect recipes for a cookbook.
So I went to the store again and said i needed colla di pesce. He sent me to the hardware store. Now you;d think i would have known better than to go to the hardware store for gelatine, but i was already prepared for weird locations of common products and was prepared not to be surprised. I had asked for salt at the grocery store and the looked at me as if i had asked for a chain saw. Of course not! At the tobacco store! (I later learned that salt and tobacco were both taxed with a special stamp on them like liqueur bottles have in the States, so they are sold in special stores that sold tobacco, salt, and postage stamps).
Anyway, i went to the hardware store. The hardware guy knew more than the food store guy and told me no, that's sold in specialty shops and not in the local little grocery store.
So wish me luck finding (and even explaining) cocoa butter.
thanks

[Blueicus]

lol, I feel for you Siduri. If you can't find cocoa butter in stores, then perhaps you can order it online. Be warned that cocoa butter not only thins out chocolate but dilutes the taste, so only add as much to get the correct consistency but not too much as to make the chocolate taste dull.

[siduri]

thanks again blueicus

[ED BUCHANAN]

Originally Posted by siduri

thanks again blueicus

There is an item on market called cookie coating. Its used for strawberries, dipped fruit etc. it can also be thinned down. It comes in slabs or wafers that you simply melt down.