Mom’s Money

Quick Little Homemade Chocolate Treats You Can Give With Pride

If your gift giving is starting to get confusing, what with all the teachers, coaches, and other folks involved in your child’s life, I have a never-fail gift idea.  Chocolate!  No, not the expensive chocolates in a box, but those little treats you make yourself.  It’s easier, and less expense than you think.  Let’s give it a try.

To begin, you need to buy some decent chocolate coating for melting.  This is the stuff that’s in the chunks broken off of a big block that you’ll find in the baking aisle.  Be sure the label says “chocolate coating” or something to that effect.  You don’t want to use Real Chocolate because you will have a time trying to melt it just right, and real chocolate has a tendency to get a powdery white look or some disturbing white swirls through it and can end up with a dull surface instead of a shiny one if it’s not done absolutely perfectly. This is something you don’t need to mess with.  Buy chocolate coating and you’ll be fine.

Purchase an assortment of items that you would like to eat dipped in chocolate.  For instance, pretzels in any shape, Oreos, Animal Crackers, or other cookies, salted peanuts, cashews, and pecans.  You might also like to try making “Haystacks” out of coconut or chinese noodles.  Both are very fun. Chocolate dipped marshmallows are a treat for a hot cocoa fanatic.  Just look around and see what looks good. 

To melt your chocolate, cut the chunks up into smaller pieces.  Put your pieces into a small, heavy saucepan that will fit inside another larger saucepan.  Fill the larger pan with water and bring to a boil.  Turn the heat off and set the smaller pan inside the larger one being very careful not to slosh any boiling water over the edge and into the smaller pan.  With a large rubber spatula or wooden spoon start stirring the chocolate and continue stirring until all the pieces are melted.

Put the nuts into individual bowls and working quickly pour just enough chocolate over the nuts just to coat them.  Stir until completely coated and drop by spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.  Put in cold area of the house to set up.  The freezer or refrigerator is okay, but don’t let them stay in there for more than a few minutes.  You now have a supply of Nut Clusters.

Follow the same procedure for your coconut and chinese noodle Haystacks, working quickly in small batches so the chocolate doesn’t set up before you get a chance to drop them onto a cookie sheet.  Again, drop the Haystacks onto a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper, but be sure to drop a large “stack” piled high to resemble an actual haystack.  Cool as you did the nuts.

Other items like pretzels and Oreos or other cookies will need to be hand dipped.  Just dip them as you wish into chocolate poured into a deep bowl, remove and lay on a cookie sheet covered with parchment paper.  I don’t dip my pretzels or cookies into the pan I melted the chocolate in because you’re bound to lose a few chunks of the pretzel or cookie and then you’ll have to fish it out before you use the chocolate for anything else.  Cool as you would the other items. 

I recommend starting with one thing in a small batch until you get used to how fast the chocolate firms up in the pan.  You can always reheat the chocolate if you get to the point where you need to stop and start up again later. 

Once you have your bounty of chocolate clusters and chocolate dipped goodies, you can arrange an assortment in small boxes or tins, packed neatly with parchment paper all around, and tie it up in a colorful ribbon.  Include on your gift tag that this gift is perishable and should be kept cool. 

Now, who wouldn’t like to see what’s inside THAT gift box!