Homemade Chocolates

Everyday until the end of this month you can expect to some great tutorials made by you, my readers! I am so excited about this series and I have so many talented guest bloggers. I hope you enjoy them all! I am drooling just looking at these pictures. Yum, yum!

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Hi, I’m Crystal behind Crystal’s Cozy Kitchen the site where YOU tell me what recipe I post every week. My love for cooking started out very young. I would read my mom’s cookbooks (or just look at pictures) and incidentally destroyed at least one. I believe in the Family Table. Each week I post my dinner recipes for the previous week and let you vote for which recipe I will be posting. I believe good food is an important part of dinnertime spent together. My meals are not elaborate, but I try to make them flavorful, healthy and inexpensive.

Two years ago I made home made chocolates for the first time and they are so heavenly! I was inspired to do so because our friends gave us a box of chocolates made by a chocolatier. For a box of 12 it cost around $30. Of course for most of us that is only a rare treat due to cost, however making them at home is so much more cost effective! They do take a little bit of work, but so do sugar cookies if you think about it… However you’d be more likely to give away sugar cookies than these chocolates. They are that delicious. Of course it does matter what type of ingredients you use. I used Guittard chocolate chips, mainly because they have 63% cacao chips, and because the chips were cheaper by ounce than the bars of chocolate. I am also currently in a rural area so there is not a huge selection of chocolate available.

When making these chocolates, I would use dark chocolate such as 60-70% cacao. You can use semisweet, but use a little less honey. I tried using milk chocolate around Christmas, and it works, but they were too sweet for me – however Hubby loved them (he is a milk chocolate lover and I’m a dark chocolate lover, I have not converted him to dark yet.) If you do use milk chocolate you will need to freeze them in order to shape them into balls and coat them with the melted chocolate. Freezing is optional with the darker chocolates but does help to get a thicker coating. In the tutorial I show how to make Honey Truffles, however there are some other flavor combinations that I have at the end. All are delicious ;). You can easily double or triple this recipe as well. I wouldn’t suggest making less than this recipe makes as the work is not worth the small yield. I would however suggest doubling it without any hesitation!

Peanut Butter & Jam:
1/4 cup Peanut butter (omit butter), 2 Tbsp jam – I used raspberry seedless jam (omit sugar syrup/honey). Add after steeping for 5 minutes. It is easier to mix the PB and J together before adding to the cream. The Jam/Jelly will add in easier if already mixed to the PB.

Cinnamon Spice:
Add 2 tsp cinnamon and 1/4 tsp ground red pepper to the cream. This combination gives a hint of heat as an aftertaste – if you want the heat to be more than a hint add more ground red pepper.

Pumpkin Pie:
1/4 cup Pumpkin puree reduced to a thick paste (just cook it over low to medium heat stirring frequently), 1/4 tsp cinnamon, 1/8 tsp nutmeg, 1/8 tsp ginger added to the cream before scalding. You can also add the spices to the puree.