How To Make Homemade Chocolates

Chocolate is great for gift giving as well as for serving at your own table for dessert. You can buy chocolate in a variety of shapes sizes and forms, but if you really want to present something special, why not learn how to make homemade chocolates?

Making homemade chocolate is a broad hobby and you can make chocolate for dipping things like pretzels and strawberries or you can make chocolate soft centered candies but what I’m going to talk about here is making chocolate in molds. This is a great way to be able to create unique gifts that have a special meaning as molds can be purchased in any theme to go with a particular occasion.

The firs thing you need, of course, is some chocolate and a mold. You can get these at the craft store but be sure you buy good quality products as your end product will surely reflect the quality of these two ingredients. Other things you will need include sugar and unsalted butter - NOT margarine, use only real butter.

You can get chocolate in a variety of flavors - milk, semi-sweet, dark, white. You can even get the white chocolate in colors if you like. You can buy them in wafers or in blocks. If you buy the blocks you will need to chop them into equal sizes. When choosing molds be sure to get food grade plastic that is approved by the FDA.

The first step in learning how to make homemade chocolates is to melt the chocolate. There are 3 methods commonly used to do this. The first is to use the microwave, the second and most traditional is a double boiler and the third is to use the oven. No matter which method you use, you want to keep a close eye on your chocolate and stir it frequently to be sure it is not getting overheated and burn.

Once your chocolate is sufficiently melted, you can pour it into a mold. Many people use a teaspoon to better control the pouring and not get chocolate all over the place. At this time you can add in sprinkles, peanuts, marshmallow or any other treats you are putting into your chocolates.

Next, put your molds in the freezer. After 5 or 10 minutes check to see if the chocolate is ready to be removed. The larger the mold the longer it will take. You can tell when it is ready by looking at the back of the mold - if you see a graying start to spread then your candy is read to be removed!

If the candy doesn’t slide right out, try tapping the back gently or running it under warm water.

Once you’ve learned how to make homemade chocolates, you’ll have a valuable skill that you can use to make great gifts or even start your own chocolate making business!