Tips For Making Chocolate Candy

If you have a little bit of a sweet tooth, what can be better than homemade chocolate candy?! Whether you just want something sweet that is made by your own hands, or whether you are making it to sell or for a party, it can be rewarding and an enjoyable experience. Making chocolate candy can be easy, especially if you use some of my top tips.

First, make sure to put your chocolate into a bowl which is completely dry. When chocolate is melted, you will notice that any water which connects with it will not mix into it, but will instead sit on top of this. This is because chocolate is oil based and the two cannot mix together without detrimental effects to your chocolate. Dry your bowl and do so well.

Then, you will find that it seems incredibly easy to melt chocolate, but sometimes this can be difficult. Perhaps the best method for this is the most traditional method, and this is to use a double bowl melting system. By putting a bowl of hot water beneath another which rests just above the water, you can put little pieces of chocolate - chocolate chips are best - and melt these above the water by slowly stirring it. Or, you can try to use the microwave, but be careful of this as the sugar can possibly crystallise and split.

Although chocolate does taste lovely on its own, quite often adding a flavouring can really give your chocolate candy added appeal. It is easy to do, just buy flavouring specifically for chocolate candy making, or get something such as vanilla extract and add it into the melted chocolate yourself. The only tip with this is to make sure that it is as pure as possible. Any water in it and your chocolate could split, making it textured and unsuitable for eating.

All done? Well now the chocolate is ready to put into whatever mould you have chosen. To help make your chocolate candy look good, try to make sure that you have sharp edges and that your mould as no dints. You do not want to risk making an impression into your chocolate by accident because you have not taken good care of the mould that you are using.

Now its time to cool down your chocolate. Some would leave it out on the side to harden, while others would put it into the refrigerator, but here is a quick chocolate candy tip. The way to get that professional looking gloss over your chocolate is to actually put it straight into the freezer to cool. When you take it out, it will be shiny and in perfect condition.

The final tip is to add something a little extra, something that really marks it out for yourself. By melting down a different type of chocolate, or the same type in a little pattern, then you can add this to your already hard chocolate, and create a different design using your own type of flare.

Filed under: Candy on September 23rd, 2008