These chocolates are a sure-fire way to impress someone... and yet they're so easy to make. The best combo! If you'd like to make chocolates that look just like these, you can find the mold in my kitchen shop. I should also mention that these chocolates are meant to be refrigerated until eaten. To package them as gifts, temper the chocolate first (basically, heat to 115°F, cool to 80°, then heat to 90°). Mark Bittman explains tempering here.
1. Choose your chocolate + mix-ins: I'm a dark chocolate fan, but you can make these with practically any chocolate bar. Just buy about 7 oz. worth (I used two 70% cocoa Lindt bars.) If you want to add in dried fruit or nuts, pick up a few of those, too, and chop them into small pieces.
2. Melt the chocolate: make a double-boiler by placing a heat-safe bowl over a pot of simmering water. The bowl needs to be slightly larger than the pot of water, and the water should not touch the bottom of the bowl. It's just the steam that you want. Make sure water doesn't come in contact with the chocolate. Drop broken pieces of chocolate in the bowl and stir until they are entirely melted, then remove the bowl and wipe the bottom dry. Be careful of the steam when removing the bowl! (You can also use a microwave to melt the chocolate, but no longer than 30 seconds at a time, and mix it frequently. Be careful to not burn the chocolate.)
3. Transfer the melted chocolate into a squeeze bottle: this step isn't absolutely necessary, but I find it much easier and neater to transfer the melted chocolate into a squeeze bottle instead of spooning it directly into the silicone mold. Use a funnel and get every bit of chocolate into the bottle by scraping the sides of the bowl with a spatula.
4. Fill the silicone mold: fill the bottom of the mold with chocolate, then sprinkle in your add-ins (fruit/nuts). Fill the mold the rest of the way up.
5. Get rid of air bubbles: tap the mold on your countertop to pop any lingering air bubbles. These aren't dangerous or anything; they just make the chocolates less pretty.
6. Refrigerate until set: in my experience, this takes about 30-60 minutes. (Tidy up the kitchen and watch that old Lucy and Ethel clip to pass the time.) Then just pop the chocolates right on out, and voilà! You're done. Store these in the fridge until it's time to eat them.
Again, to store these unrefrigerated, temper the chocolate before pouring into the mold. Enjoy!
