Some things I learned while doing this week’s food craft:
- Candy making is pretty easy.
- Candy making is also pretty hard.
- My husband will eat as much melted chocolate as you give him.
The actual recipe for making hot chocolate on a stick is very easy: melt the chocolate, add powdered sugar and cocoa, pipe into an ice cube tray (or other mold), add a stick and chill. Easy peasey!
But. In reality, I ran into a few snags.
First, my chocolate seized. I used lovely double chocolate chips from Ghiradelli, but either I got water in them from my double boiler (possible) or I got the chocolate too hot (equally possible) and when I added the sugar and cocoa, WOAH NELLY. Instant glue.
Luckily, I (thought) knew the trick to fix it and added about a tablespoon of vegetable oil to loosen the chocolate. I got it to a nice smooth consistency and put it in my bag for piping.
But, I think it was still to thick, because my little chocolate cubes came out a little… lumpy on top. Whatever! Imperfection is character!
Fortunately, after a good stint in the refrigerator, they popped out of the molds beautifully! Lovely smooth shiny chocolate on all the other sides.
Unfortunately, they have since developed a bloom (probably from the vegetable oil? I don’t know.).
Then, I wanted to dip half of the cube in white chocolate. It looks so pretty in the photos on the Givers Log website! But guess what?
Hot melted white chocolate melts solid cubes of room temperature chocolate, creating a swirl effect. PHYSICS IN ACTION!
Of course, while preparing to write about all this, I went back and re-read the original recipe—in which she explicitly states that chocolate chips are a bad idea.
Anyway, the crux of all this is the following:
- Don’t be like me: read the directions!
- Unless you know what you’re doing with chocolate (which I clearly don’t), go for chocolate made to be melted.
- Don’t add incompatible fats to your chocolate. Just don’t.
Ah well. The husband and I have taste-tested this first batch and I can tell you this: ugly or not, these make one KILLER cup of hot chocolate. And the prettier versions I plan to make next time will make a really fun gift.
As a separate note, I plan to do a post sometime soon on how I’m packaging all these goodies to look super cute! Look for it!
Total Price for Hot Chocolate on a Stick (each): $0.25
$3.99 for 150 lollipop sticks
$2.99 for 14oz Wilton Candy Melts
~$0.50 for powdered sugar and cocoa
Check out the other easy consumable gifts in this series:
No. 1: Pepper-Infused Vodka
No. 2: Jam
No. 3: Pie in a Jar
No. 4: Sugar and Spice
No. 5: Hot Chocolate on a Stick
No. 6: Gingies
No. 7: Granola
No. 8: Preserved Lemons
No. 9: Gingerbread Biscotti
No. 10: Cracker Crack
No. 11: Satsumettes
No. 12: Apricot Nut Bread
The bloom is caused by the chocolate being out of temper ie the cocoa butter not the oil. Best method to melt chocolate is in a glass bowl in the microwave. The amount of time depends on amount and strength of micro. Start with 30 secs, check then 20,15,10 whatever. Slowly and gently until about 10% chocolate unmelted then mash lumps. Hth