Simplify Your Christmas - Home Made Chocolate Shapes
Here at A Mothers Ramblings we love Christmas and part of what makes Christmas so great is that you can eat almost as much chocolate as you like. That doesn't mean that Daddy can eat his entire selection box before breakfast... nor does it mean he can eat mine either! To make it more simple for some people at Christmas I like to buy Charity Gifts. This way they aren't getting something they don't want, but someone who needs a helping hand is getting exactly that. I always feel that the person getting the charity gift needs to have something else to open on Christmas Day just to make things even more special. This additional gift from me tends to be a bar of chocolate.
Getting a bar of chocolate is a bit boring (tasty, but boring none the less) and as at Christmas we like to do something a little more special, I thought I would share with you an easy way to make something a little more personal that Top Ender and I love making and is every bit as tasty as a bar of chocolate.
Home Made Chocolates
Take a bar of chocolate. It can be white or milk or dark chocolate, just as long as it is something that you like to eat, or the person you are giving the gift to likes to eat! Break the chocolate up and put it into a microwaveable bowl. I like to melt the chocolate in 30 second bursts, but of course you can do it the old fashioned way and melt it over a pan of boiling water.
I find that one bar of chocolate takes two lots of 30 seconds bursts before it is melted enough, but make sure that you stir in between the times in the microwave and well at the end. When you are stirring at the end, you may have to stir some of the lumps out, but I would rather have to do this than deal with burnt chocolate!
When the chocolate is melted put it into silicone shaped ice cube trays or cake tins. I have a selection of trays from Ikea and tins from various shops. I know the Ikea ones say water only, but I have to be a rebel somewhere in my life! Once the trays/tins have been filled with chocolate very gently knock the air bubbles out of the tray by either gently tapping the tray/tin or by gently dropping it on to the work surface.
The trays/tins need to be put into the fridge to set. They set quite quickly, but I like to leave them over night just to make sure they really are as solid as can be! When they are solid it is just a case of popping the chocolates out of the mould.
After you have popped them out you can either put them into cellophane bags or the other seasonal paper bags that you can buy in a lot of shops at this time of year or you can add them to dishes like I did!
There is a gift in the Oxfam Unwrapped range that I think goes really well with this additional gift of Home Made Chocolates and as the information on the Oxfam Unwrapped website explains it so much better that I could, here is what they say;
If you think chocolate is the business, then help a would-be cocoa grower to start their own. We’ll give them everything from cocoa seeds to tools, training and marketing advice, even help to establish a cocoa-growers co-operative – to help keep that lovely chocolate coming. Yum!
The code for the gift on the Oxfam Unwrapped site is OU5012LH and at £19 it is something which you should go and buy right now for someone in your life. To make it even easier here is the direct link to the page where you can buy the gift from http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/
If you pop over to Who's the Mummy you can find out details of the Simplify your Christmas Carnival and how to download a goat badge or Oxfam unwrapped badge (like mine!) and all the information you need to take part and share your own Simplify Christmas posts too.
Getting a bar of chocolate is a bit boring (tasty, but boring none the less) and as at Christmas we like to do something a little more special, I thought I would share with you an easy way to make something a little more personal that Top Ender and I love making and is every bit as tasty as a bar of chocolate.
Home Made Chocolates
Take a bar of chocolate. It can be white or milk or dark chocolate, just as long as it is something that you like to eat, or the person you are giving the gift to likes to eat! Break the chocolate up and put it into a microwaveable bowl. I like to melt the chocolate in 30 second bursts, but of course you can do it the old fashioned way and melt it over a pan of boiling water.
I find that one bar of chocolate takes two lots of 30 seconds bursts before it is melted enough, but make sure that you stir in between the times in the microwave and well at the end. When you are stirring at the end, you may have to stir some of the lumps out, but I would rather have to do this than deal with burnt chocolate!
When the chocolate is melted put it into silicone shaped ice cube trays or cake tins. I have a selection of trays from Ikea and tins from various shops. I know the Ikea ones say water only, but I have to be a rebel somewhere in my life! Once the trays/tins have been filled with chocolate very gently knock the air bubbles out of the tray by either gently tapping the tray/tin or by gently dropping it on to the work surface.
The trays/tins need to be put into the fridge to set. They set quite quickly, but I like to leave them over night just to make sure they really are as solid as can be! When they are solid it is just a case of popping the chocolates out of the mould.
After you have popped them out you can either put them into cellophane bags or the other seasonal paper bags that you can buy in a lot of shops at this time of year or you can add them to dishes like I did!
There is a gift in the Oxfam Unwrapped range that I think goes really well with this additional gift of Home Made Chocolates and as the information on the Oxfam Unwrapped website explains it so much better that I could, here is what they say;
If you think chocolate is the business, then help a would-be cocoa grower to start their own. We’ll give them everything from cocoa seeds to tools, training and marketing advice, even help to establish a cocoa-growers co-operative – to help keep that lovely chocolate coming. Yum!
The code for the gift on the Oxfam Unwrapped site is OU5012LH and at £19 it is something which you should go and buy right now for someone in your life. To make it even easier here is the direct link to the page where you can buy the gift from http://www.oxfam.org.uk/shop/
If you pop over to Who's the Mummy you can find out details of the Simplify your Christmas Carnival and how to download a goat badge or Oxfam unwrapped badge (like mine!) and all the information you need to take part and share your own Simplify Christmas posts too.
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