Tips for Making Homemade Chocolates
Chocolate is used in a lot of desserts. These include ice cream, soufflés, custards and a host of other dishes. Almost everyone loves it because studies have shown that it is an aphrodisiac. If you are too lazy to go to the store to buy one, why don’t you make it yourself by following these tips.
First, you have to get ready all the materials and ingredients you will be using. The two most important happen to be the chocolate and the mold both which can be purchased at the craft store.
Chocolate comes in many flavors. Some examples of these are bitter sweet, milk, dark, semi-sweet, sweet and white. These are often sold in blocks if you don’t have the time to convert these from cocoa beans. As for your molds, make sure that these are made from FDA approved food grade plastic.
You will also need sugar as this is a basic ingredient in most chocolates recipes. When you buy this from grocery, make sure that this does not have any trace of flour, salt or other kitchen ingredients.
Another important ingredient is unsalted butter. This is because the kind that contains salt is hard to ascertain and there are instances where it could spoil the taste of your dish. You must never substitute butter with margarine if you don’t have any because this will just make the cooking time longer as the water content here is much higher than that of butter.
There are three ways to liquefy chocolate before shaping this to its final form. You can heat this using the microwave, a double boiler or the oven. When making these into candies, it will be a good idea to also use a thermometer so you are able to monitor its temperature.
If you are using a thermometer that has a bulb, make sure that it does not touch the sides of the pan because this could give you the wrong reading.
When the chocolate is ready, this is the time that you put these into the mold. So it doesn’t look messy, get some using a teaspoon and pour this into the cartridges. This is also the time you should add in other ingredients like peanuts, marshmallows or candy sprinkles.
If there are air bubbles, remove them by holding the mold a few centimeters from the ground and dropping it on the table. You may have to do this several times to make sure that there is nothing left then you put these in the freezer.
You should check on your chocolate molds after 5 to 10 minutes. The bigger the mold, the longer it takes but you can check if it is ready by looking at the back of the mold. If a graying figure appears on the bottom, this means it is ready to be removed from the mold.
Once they are removed, put this in a plate or in a box if this is going to be given away. As for your molds, wash them in hot water and never with soap because this will remove its stickiness.
It should be dried thoroughly using a dry piece of cloth and stored properly so it looks good as new when you need to use it again.
You won’t have any problems making home made chocolates as long as you follow these tips. Who knows, this could open new doors for you like starting your own business.
