Chocolate makes everything better. Here are some techniques to make 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,
Candy from the dollar store that needs chocolate,
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!
Oh and I almost forgot, COOKIES!
I’ve seen chocolate covered bacon,
chocolate covered potato chips
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!
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
Looks so good, be great with my coffee this morning especially the marshmallows! π
I enjoyed the last of the pound cake with my morning coffee, we had the marshmallows with hot chocolate, the kids loved it!
Every bit of it looks delicious! Thanks for sharing at Mrs Foxs Sweet Party π
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
My daughter had so much fun doing the doodling for me π
Yummy! Everything looks awesome. Love the strawberries. That way I tell myself it is healthy π
Of course it’s healthy π
and don’t forget the pineapple, also healthy.
Oh and pretzels are low fat snacks…
I can keep justifying if I need to!
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. π
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!
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!!
Michaela, if we lived anywhere near each other I’m not sure either of us would be able to fit through the door after about a week! But it would be wonderful <3
You had me at chocolate. I’m intrigued by the chocolate covered chips. I bet they are amazing.
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!
So glad you can join me Sarah, you’ll see lots of chocolate around here!
Thank you for the great tip! I never would have thought to use my crockpot. Awesome! I love looking at all the dipped treats…making me hungry! Thanks for sharing on Crazy Sweet Tuesday. π
… and you’re serving at what time????
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 π
Sarah @ Dotted Line Crafts
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!
wow!!Great ideas.I want to try them allβ¦.saw this post in Mrs.Foxβs sweet party.Would you like to link with my event too?
Midweek Fiesta
Oh. My. Goodness. Emphasis on Goodness!γ
You never cease to amaze me! These are Beautiful! I can’t wait to play in chocolate with the boys! Thank You for sharing on http://www.recipesformyboys.com/p/thursdays-treasures.html <3 and Hugs Sweet Friend!
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
a girl after my own heart, chocolate makes everything better!