Delightful Sweet Treats :D

  

What did you think the last treat I made for Valentines Day was? Well if you've guessed homemade chocolates you were absolutely right, good on you :P.

I  have always wanted to make chocolates and I have only ever tried it once last year for peanut butter cups.I wanted to really challenge myself in chocolate making for something new and just last week I was given a variety of candy molds :).So when Valentines Day's was coming around close I thought it was the best time to experiment with chocolates and hoping everything goes well.So I am very excited to make future candy and chocolates with many delicious fillings :). Ha ha I am already getting request to make more :)

For these delicious chocolates I actually made up the recipe in my head based on information from books and online. Melting chocolate is actually pretty simple along as you follow a couple important rules which I  even highlighted bold in my recipe. For these treats I used two different kinds of chocolate, milk and semisweet.This combination works to balance each chocolate out with their best points. Milk brings a melt in your mouth texture while balancing the rich sweetness of the other. While semisweet really helps with the shine in appearance,keeping shape and giving that great snap in texture.

Some information that I have read has said you cannot use milk chocolate chips for melting due to additives for shape,which is probably true for a good quality candy, but it seemed to work really well for me and I have already used it twice for the same project. 

I wanted a bigger challenge for these treats so I went with choosing a wide range of shapes which was about 7 different molds from hearts to seashells.I picked the best for fillings and suited best for Valentine's Day. Even though I wanted a challenge I couldn't make that many fillings so I kept it simple with only three.  For the molds of turtles and roses I went with chopped pecans for one and the other chopped hazelnut. The nut filling gave a great crunch and aromatic flavor to these chocolates. The squares and seashell have a creamy, gooey caramel filling, which are actually my favorite chocolate out all of them.The second to last chocolates are the peanuts and strawberries which have a combination of caramel and hazelnut. For the last I left the perfect Valentine hearts as a plain chocolate.

I actually surprised myself how good these chocolates came out and how good the candy molds shaped the chocolate. Chocolates always seem hard to make homemade, but their actually pretty simple. No baking involved and a lot of fun adding your own ideas to the treats. I certainly need to find more excuses to make chocolates more often then just holidays :).

These chocolates have a great melt in your mouth texture with a rich flavor. The best part of these candies is they have that great snap which is very similar to the chocolates we buy at shops. The only downs side to these treats that their always gone so quickly and no matter how many you make their gone in a flash. Also for this recipe I wanted to use up all the caramel candies to melt down for the  filling but their was to much in the end for the amount of  chocolate.So now their is leftover caramel filling for another bakery treat for the future so nothing is wasted.

This was one of my favorite creative treat making and it may not involve any baking in a oven but it sure is delicious and who can pass up on chocolate. Especially homemade where you can make up whatever you want and so much funner.

What I Did:

• Did two batches
• Made up the recipe in my head based on making chocolates before.

Candy Mold Chocolates ( Recipe By Berendina Dykema, Based On Past Homemade Chocolate Making)

1 cup milk chocolate chips
4 squares ( 1/2 cups) semisweet bakers chocolate squares
1 tbsp shortening

Chocolate:

Fill large pot with less then a half of water, place a glass bowl on top (be sure not to let water touch the bottom of the bowl).
Put on low heat. When water begins to simmer add 1 tbsp of shortening to glass bowl, melt completely.

Chop chocolate squares into smaller pieces and add to the bowl, melt.

Add chocolate chips last and melt. (To help the melting process of these ingredients use a rubber spatula or wooden spoon to stir)
Once completely melted remove pot/ bowl off heat and place a towel on the counter for the pot to sit on.
Now the chocolate is ready for the candy molds. Try to work quickly.
Keep the glass bowl on top of the pot to keep the chocolate warm with the steam while working in between candy molds(stirring helps).
(Variety of candy molds will help in working more quickly with the chocolates.Candy molds are best when refrigerated prior to adding melted chocolate. This helps the chocolate set quicker )
Once done a set of chocolates be sure to place in fridge right away or freezer. The caramel filled chocolates are best to set in the fridge to keep its melted filling.
Only takes about 10 minutes for them to complete set in the fridge, but in the freezer its less.
Once set,Put candy molds upside down on a glass board surface and tap till all chocolate are released.
If nothing falls out try tapping individual molds with fingers to release. (Be very careful with molds there very fragile especially the plastic ones)
The caramel filled candies have a harder time to release and may have to tap with fingers.

Caramel Filling:

40 + caramels

3 tbsp partly skimmed evaporated milk

Add to a small bowl and melt in the microwave, Do 30 seconds and then stir, continue this till completely melted.

Be sure to melt caramel when you want to use it right away.

If caramel sits a little to long, microwave it again for another 30 seconds.

(For me I used up the rest of the caramel candies so I  ended up with extra caramel filling leftover. So you can easily downsize the amount of caramel. Or use the rest for something else like I am going to do).

Nut Filling:

Pkg hazelnuts.
Pkg pecans.

Chop nuts finely and separately . Add nuts individually to chocolates you choose.(dont mix into melted chocolate)

What Are In These Chocolates:

Seashell (Ca and Ha)

Peanut ( Ca and Pe)

Rose (Ha)

Heart (Cho)

Turtle (Pecans)

Strawberry (Ca and Pe)

Square (Ca)

Chocolate Assemble:
 

Caramel Filled: Add a slight amount of  melted chocolate, add a little bit of caramel filling and then cover it with more chocolate. Repeat. If nuts are included add it before the caramel filling.

Nut Filled: Add melted chocolate and leave room for your preference of nuts, cover with more chocolate. Repeat.

Chocolate: Completely fill molds with melted chocolate, Repeat.