When growing up in South Africa, I used to like going to this place called "Juicy Lucy"! It was a healthy restaurant that served fresh fruit juices, sandwiches and frozen fruit bars. I loved their papyaya juice and their frozen fruit bars. They literally took spears of pineapple and whole bananas, froze them and dipped them in a hard shell chocolate sauce that would form a uniform hardened chocolate coating.
I also remember enjoying the hard shell chocolate sauce with the soft serve ice cream from places like Dairy Queen and El Pollo Loco until my stomach decided it didn't like the ingredients in the ice cream. You would have a beautiful soft serve ice cream cone that was dipped in this silky, smooth, brown liquid which didn't melt your ice cream. The chocolate would harden into a very thin shell that molded to the shape of the ice cream. Every time you took a bite, there would be this "crack" followed by a mouthful of ice cream. Oh so decadent!
I decided to do a chocolate experiment to see the outcomes of different liquids mixed with chocolate in the microwave and whether adding the liquid before or after microwaving had an effect. See Melting Chocolate in my Tips & Tricks section. I rediscovered my chocolate hard shell. So simple and easy with a variety of applications.
Tips:
Chocolate does burn if heated too long in the microwave. I suggest that you use small amounts of chocolate as the chocolate sauce should only be a topping and not the main event! I usually melt my chocolate sauce (2 servings) in a ramekin and still have leftovers!
The coconut oil should be at room temperature. In the chocolate experiment, I used coconut oil from the refrigerator. Although the cold coconut oil did not affect the result of the chocolate sauce, it did take twice as long to melt in the microwave.
After melting the chocolate and the coconut oil, stir until you get this lovely viscous liquid. It may seem too watery to harden, but rest assured, it will harden on any frozen surface. Have you found other applications for your Chocolate sauce? If so, let me know in the comment section!
30 SECOND "HARD SHELL" CHOCOLATE SAUCE
Ingredients
- 30 grams chocolate chips
- 1 Tbsp coconut oil
Instructions
- Add milk to the chocolate chips in a small microwave-safe bowl.
- Melt chocolate by looking through the microwave window until coconut oil melts completely (about 50 seconds depending on the strength of your microwave)
- Stir mixture until smooth.