Chocolate Recipes

Give Chocolate Candy for Christmas this Year!

Chocolates and the holidays go together like a hand in a glove. Candies of all sorts are popular both as table top munchies and as gifts, but chocolates are the cream of the crop. Nearly everyone loves them, and those who unfortunately are allergic, usually do well with white chocolates, so I have a recipe or two for them as well.

If you've never made candy before, don't fret. These chocolate recipes will make you want to open your own candy shop! Chocolates are by far the easiest candies to make, next to fudge (which has its own page, because that is my second favorite food group, lol!).

I won't bore you any further - grab your chef's hat and let's get cooking!!

Chocolate recipes range from the super simple, to the incredibly complex. This one falls right in the middle. You will need a candy thermometer for this recipe, but if you intend to do anything with the other candy recipes in my Christmas Sweets cookbook, it would be a good investment anyway.

Chocolate toffee is a long-standing tradition at our house. Ever since I started making candy, I've been making these and packing them up as gifts great for any occasion!

Combine the sugar, corn syrup, and ½ cup of cream in a large saucepan set over moderate heat. Stir the mixture until the sugar dissolves completely.

In a double-boiler (two small pans work) melt the chocolate, and set aside.

Insert a candy thermometer, reduce the heat to low, and cook the syrup, stirring frequently, until the thermometer registers 238°.

Blend in another ½ cup of the cream, (which will cause the temperature to drop), and continue to cook and stirring constantly until the temperature reaches 236°, or until a bit of the mixture forms a soft ball when dropped into cold water.

Mix in the remaining ½ cup cream and the melted chocolate.

Cook the toffee, stirring constantly, to avoid burning, until the mixture becomes quite thick: A drop of it should firm up quickly in cold water. Remove from heat.

Quickly mix in the vanilla and salt, and then pour the toffee into a WELL-BUTTERED 8x8x2 inch pan.

Cool the toffee completely, then cut it into 1-inch squares. Wrap each one in waxed paper or plastic wrap.

Why give Fanny May when you can easily make this chocolate candy yourself? This is one of the easier chocolate recipes. Simple steps, a bit of watching and stirring, and you have the perfect chocolate candy!

In a double boiler, melt the chocolate and butter. Remove from the heat and stir in the vanilla.

In a small bowl, gradually whisk the warm chocolate mixture into the egg yolks. Cover and refrigerate untilfirm, about 1 hour.

Shape level tablespoons of the chocolate mixture into balls and then roll them in the cocoa. Refrigerate.

This is one of my favorite all-time chocolate recipes. I simply love chocolate, nuts and caramel together! This is also an easy recipe, mainly because most of the ingredients are store-bought, so all you really have to do is melt and pour.

This is also one of the chocolate recipes that can save you a ton of money! Companies charge a premium for turtles. You can make them at home for less than half the price, and with very little time and effort.

Melt the caramels in a double boiler. Arrange the pecan halves in clusters on BUTTERED cookie sheet.Drop about 1 teaspoon of caramel on each cluster. Melt chocolate in a double-boiler, then spread over the caramel.

Some chocolate recipes are more like fudge. This is one of those. It has all the classic ingredients of a good fudge, but is really a candy. Fudge is not cooked at as high a temperature, and does not have as many ingredients as this wonderful candy has... The texture is slightly different as well.

Combine sugar, corn syrup, and heavy cream, and cook to 244°. Remove from heat and add the chocolate, marshmallow and vanilla. Beat until thick and creamy. Fold in the walnuts.

Spread in a 9x13 inch pan. Cut into squares when mixture holds its shape.

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