My Chocolate Fantasy

Rain Matthews asked:


Everybody loves chocolate, so it goes without saying that chocolate truffle are an excellent homemade gift idea. I made these for holiday gifts last year and people loved them and were amazed when I told them I made them. Making the real chocolatier-grade truffles, while not difficult, is still a fairly delicate process, but they are worth it. The two biggest keys to making successful and memorable truffles is the timing, which is explained in the recipes linked in this article, and the chocolate used. Purchase high-quality bittersweet chocolate that is around 70% cacao. My personal favorite Dagoba’s organic and award-winning New Moon which is 74% cacao. Dagoba has a decent fair trade and ecological philosophy too. The other high quality bittersweet that I use is Valrhona’s Le Noir Amer which is 71% cacao.

One of the best places to find truffle gift recipes would be epicurious.com. The recipes that I have used as a base were Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles and Robert Linxe’s Chocolate Truffles. I then played off the bittersweet chocolate truffles to make Mango Curry Truffles, and Balsamic Truffles with Toasted Hazelnuts, which you can find on epicurious.com as well. You can make this a fun, creative and memorable gift by adding traditional elements like toasted nuts, crushed candy canes, coconut, or be adventurous and try cayenne, lemon juice or orange juice. The Robert Linxe’s truffles I pretty much left as is, as they are delightful with no additions.

After your truffles have cooled place them in gift boxes. Sugarcraft.com has a good assortment of candy gift boxes. I chose one of the plain white ones. I then printed and cut my own personalized gift labels using Avery full sheet labels, which you can find at any office supply store.

This definitely was a successful homemade gift, as everyone enjoyed them, (who wouldn’t?) and was one of the few homemade gifts that men would enjoy as well. Homemade truffles do take a bit of work, but it you follow these tips I think you will impress yourself and others with the results.

Jackie Beem asked:


Everyone has people in their lives that they don’t know very well, yet during the holidays or other occasions you would like to give them a small gift just to say “I’m thinking about you at this time”, “Thank You for just being around”, “Welcome to the neighborhood” or “Thank You for the job you do”.

This might be elderly, lonely people in your neighborhood or church, people you work with, the postman, UPS/Fedex delivery person, paper boy, cleaning personnel in your office, new neighbors, etc.

Because you don’t know a lot about these people’s likes and dislikes it is often hard to find an inexpensive gift for them that they won’t just chunk in a drawer and forget about for years to come. I think we all really struggle with our thoughts trying to come up with small thoughtful gifts that people in this category can appreciate and enjoy.

A number of years ago I found that homemade Chocolate Fudge Candy was a good solution for this problem. It is something that most anyone can enjoy, no matter their age or ***. It is something they can proudly share with friends or family.

I have had to take into consideration whether or not to add nuts. I have found that some elderly people have a problem chewing the candy with nuts. I just make a batch without nuts for those folks. I usually add marshmallows or cherries to their candy.

Here is a simple recipe that I use:

18 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 (14 ounce) can Sweetened Condensed Milk

Dash salt

1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract

½ to 1 cup chopped nuts

In heavy saucepan, over low heat, melt chips with Sweetened Condensed Milk.

Remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients. Spread evenly into wax

Paper-lined 9×11 pan. Top with nut halves or cherries. Spread them at intervals for the square size you would like to have. Chill in refrigerator 2 hours or until firm. Turn fudge onto cutting board; peel off wax paper and cut into squares.

I usually use Ziploc containers. I line with wax paper, put a layer of Chocolate Fudge squares, then a layer of wax paper, then more fudge squares alternating until my container is full. I use small containers for some and medium size ones for others. At Christmas they usually make these in red and green. I get the red and green ones at that time and top them off with a Christmas bow which makes a ready wrapped present ready to hand out.

When making a batch with nuts, I usually use pecans or walnuts. If I have to make some fudge without nuts, I use miniature marshmallows, candied cherries or coconut. I have one 96 year old lady that loves coconut and can still chew nuts so she gets a batch with both nuts and coconut.

Some variations are to use White Chocolate Chips or Carmel Chips. I have also mixed in a few Carmel Chips in with the semi-sweet Chocolate Chips.

Even though I do most of my homemade Chocolate Fudge Candy gift giving during the Christmas holiday, I use it for gift giving all year round.

This doesn’t take a lot of time, unless you have a lot of people you need gifts for at one time, and it is really well received by all.

If you don’t have time to make your on Chocolate Fudge Candy gifts you can find a nice ready made Gourmet Chocolate Fudge gift selection at: Country Candy Delights