Chocolate Chocolate and More!

Welcome to my baking adventures.

Chocolate Covered…..Everything

You know my motto,

Chocolate makes everything better!

And it does!

And you can put it on practically everything.

Well maybe not spinach or peas, but you know what I mean.

And it’s so easy to do, and fun, and it’ll impress your friends.

The easiest way I’ve found to cover almost everything is using my small handy dandy crockpot.

Just get some candy bark or candy melts,

(I don’t recommend using chips for baking, they don’t set up as well, meaning, they won’t get that hard shell. The chocolate will stay soft and melt on your fingers when you pick up whatever you dipped.)

Place your chocolate into your crockpot (or you can melt in the microwave or double boiler) and get it melted.

If your chocolate is thicker than you want, add some Crisco or paramount crystals (found at specialty stores) to thin up your chocolate, just add a little at a time.

I usually add 1 teaspoon of Crisco to a package of bark.

Now find some stuff to dip!

Pretzels,

 

Marshmallows,

 

These were actually the cute Hot Chocolate stirrers everyone was making over Christmas.

Candy from the dollar store that needs chocolate,

These Coconut Clusters from Dollar General taste just like a Mounds Candy Bar when dipped in the chocolate and everyone will think you slaved making a homemade candy!

Fruit (be careful on this one, you don’t want fruit juice dripping into your chocolate) but strawberries washed and dried or dried fruit are perfect, also fresh pineapple, not canned.

 

Pound cake. You just can’t imagine what a little chocolate can do to some store bought pound cake!

Cut your cake just like I showed you in making Petit Fours
biggest tip, KEEP YOUR CAKE FROZEN

 

Oh and I almost forgot, COOKIES!

 

I’ve seen chocolate covered bacon,
chocolate covered potato chips

The potato chips didn’t thrill me or the family, the chocolate overwhelms the poor chip.

But all this chocolate, you want to dress it up, impress your friends, kinda like the old Rice Krispie Treat commercials where the mom would dab a little flour on her cheeks before bringing them out of the kitchen.

Meet my best friend-THE BOTTLE!

 

These are the same bottles I used for Royal Icing,
Just place some chocolate in the bottle (still solid is easiest)

And place in the microwave. I do about 10 seconds at a time, once warm I let it rest a minute then squeeze to see if any chunks are still in there and if necessary another 10 seconds in the microwave. be very careful not to burn your chocolate.

Now all those things you have covered in chocolate, add a little white chocolate to them!

 

It doesn’t have to be perfect.

If your tip gets clogged, use a toothpick to remove the clump.

Even on a plain cookie makes them look fancy, remember my Butter Wafers?

And another fun thing to do with melted chocolate in a bottle

Write or doodle, free hand or from a drawn design, just place wax paper over your design and go to it!

 

I didn’t have a cupcake handy so I just whipped up some whipped cream real fast

But you get the idea.
And if you don’t like what you draw, just let it set on the wax paper then put it back in your bottle.

And you can keep that chocolate in the bottle, just store it like you would any other chocolate, in a cool dry place, like the cabinet next to the chocolate chips.

Another choice would be some cute sprinkles

 

So you’ve used up almost all of the chocolate

You really can’t dip anything else in there, so there’s only one thing left to do

Get your peanuts out, we like the dry roasted ones, and pour some in. Coat your peanuts well, add some more if you need to then drop by teaspoonfuls onto waxed paper

Peanut Clusters!

And covering everything in chocolate really takes no time at all.
And chocolate covered stuff travels well, so you get invited to parties.
Or you could give as a gift,
Or you could hope the kids don’t notice what you did while they were at school today so you can eat it all yourself.

 

 

 

 

Wouldn’t YOU want me to bring some of these goodies over to share?

I’ve linked up at Wednesday Eats, Wonka Wednesday, Newlyweds Recipe Linky, The Shady Porch, Junk in their Trunk, Mrs. Fox’s Sweet Party, What I whipped up Wednesday, This Chick Cooks, Wednesday’s Wowzers, Crazy Sweet Tuesday, Thursday’s treasures, Full Plate Thursday, Mid-week Fiesta, Cast Party Wednesday, Sweet Tooth Friday, Chocolate Blog Hop

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Comments

  3. Oh my goodness – brilliant tips. (Yes, I need someone to tell me the easy way of doing things.) The crock pot will certainly solve the problem of attempting large quantities of anything before it begins to re-harden, and I LOVE the idea of tracing out your design and putting it under your wax paper before you pipe it!

    Thanks so much for sharing!!

    Adrianne
    http://www.happyhourprojects.com

  5. Thats a great tutorial on chocolate happiness. Have you used silicone molds for chocolate? I haven’t played around much with chocolate but was thinking of getting a mold to make candy toppers for my son’s birthday. Any tips would be lovely. 🙂

    • S.V. I took a candy making class a few months back and they used the plastic molds. Very simple to use, the easiest way is with a paint brush. Just buy a new paint brush and keep in your kitchen drawer for such fun activities as painting with chocolate. Then paint your melted chocolate into the mold, let it set then fill in, that way no air bubbles on the important side. Set in the fridge to set up, then pop out.
      Let me know how it goes!

  6. What a perfectly MAKING ME HUNGRY post!! Why can’t I be your next door neighbor so I can benefit from the leftovers!?! ;0)

    I <3 Chocolate!!

    • We weren’t thrilled with the chips. I’d seen a few posts about how wonderful they were and maybe with a different chip (we used Ruffles) it would be better, but the chocolate just took over the chip. I’ll stick to chips and dips and keep putting chocolate on everything else!

  11. L-O-V-E this post!!!

    I’m happy to be your newest follower and am hoping that you’ll visit my BRAND NEW blog and follow me back!

    Thanks a million 🙂
    Sarah @ Dotted Line Crafts

  12. Oooooh yum. This made me so HUNGRY! Girl, this is a great idea. I’m thinking of adding these to my Christmas treat plans for next year. Thanks SO much for linking up this week. i can’t wait to get to know your blog better! I’ll just have to read with chocolate in hand!

  16. Good Morning Joan,
    I just want to sit and drool for awhile over all this wonderful Chocolate, it looks sooooo good! Thank you so much for sharing with our 1st Anniversary Party at Full Plate Thursday. Have a great week end and come back soon!
    Miz Helen