Homemade Chocolates and Easy Molding Techniques

Homemade Chocolates and Easy Molding Techniques

Hello everyone!!!! I know this is gonna seem like a random post but since this is the month of October and Halloween is just around the corner I wanted to take the time out to write about how to make homemade chocolates and mention a few easy molding techniques. Now one of my favorite homemade candies to make is fudge. Whether you are making chocolate, peanut butter, peppermint, or any other flavor just remember that fudge is one of the easiest candies to make. I love making layered fudge but some people find it difficult but it really is not as hard as you think. Since Christmas is only 3 months away I'll use peppermint fudge as an example. To make a layered peppermint fudge you must first start off by making the peppermint layer first. I make mine with white chocolate chips or white bakers chocolate, peppermint extract or mint extract, butter, and sweetened condensed milk. I also use red or green food coloring depending on which extract you use. Red for peppermint and green for mint. Once I get the fudge made I use that as my bottom layer and let it cool in a greased 8x8 square baking pan lined with wax or parchment paper. As the mint fudge is cooling I prepare my top layer which is chocolate fudge. I make my chocolate fudge with cocoa powder, powdered sugar, butter, milk, and vanilla extract. Once the chocolate fudge is made I pour it in top of the mint layer and let it cool for at least 4 hours in the fridge uncovered. Top picture at the top is of my chocolate peppermint layered fudge. 

Another easy candy to make is homemade chocolates. Now everyone knows chocolate is the number one selling candy at Halloween. I love to make my own homemade chocolates because I get to experiment with different flavors for the different Holidays. Like now for the Fall Holidays I can experiment with pumpkin flavors. One of the easiest ways to make homemade chocolates is chocolate chips or bakers chocolate. I love to make bark using these or I will make different candy shapes or even lollipops by using candy molds or silicone ice cube trays. I have made chocolates using the ice cubes with skull, pumpkins, and spider shapes for Halloween. I have used candy molds with zombies hand shapes and bone shapes as well. All you have to do is melt the chocolate and pour them into the molds and let the harden in the fridge for a little while and then you have different shapes of chocolates to use as decorations or just eat as is. For example last year for Halloween I made brownie cupcakes and decorated them with some zombie hands and bones that I made with melted white chocolate and green food coloring. I also used crushed chocolate graham crackers as dirt and sour gummy worms. The ending results were delicious, scary, and amazing to look at. The pic above is of the brownie cupcakes.  

 As I mention above there are many different types of molds out there to use. Besides the few that I mentioned above that I used for Halloween I have used a star shaped mold and made red, white, and blue stars for the Forth of July by melting down white chocolate and dividing it into threes and added red and blue food coloring. I also used flower shaped molds for spring and Easter candies. You can use the many different molds anything such as thanksgiving there are Fall leaves and turkey molds as well as the pumpkin or cornucopia molds.

Christmas there are so many more such as bells, Santa, reindeer, elves, etc. The possibilities are endless and they make amazing gifts for the Holidays. Who doesn't like chocolate and who doesn't like chocolate as a gift. So by making someone homemade chocolates as a gift is truly a gift from the heart. For all you couples out there buy a heart shaped mold and make homemade candies for your sweetheart on Valentines Day. If you buy a larger heart shaped mold you could get inventive and make filled chocolate hearts. Just imagine fellas you in the kitchen while you lady is at work or out shopping your making her creamed filled chocolate hearts with things like caramel, marshmallow, peanut butter, and even a mint cream. It  would blow her mind knowing that her man spent so much time actually making her something like that. It's something I do for my wife and she still gets surprised when I do it because its something that I don't everyday. Ladies you can do the same for your man for the holidays as well. Parents this is something that you can do for your kids and family as well. Make it a tradition and start something new for friends and family. Here are some pics of a few of my molds.

I hope you guys enjoy this post and if you have any suggestions, questions, or comments please post them below. I will post others topics like this closer to the other Holidays with other ideas and pics of tasty treats. Thank you reading.