Looking for an easy recipe for home-made chocolate that even your child can make? That’s what my seven year old did today (well most of it). Here’s how:
Ingredients:
- Extra virgin coconut oil – 1/4 cup
- Cocoa powder ( we used Hershey’s unsweetened) – 1 Tbsp
- Hot chocolate mix (we used Ovaltine, who couldn’t use some vitamins and minerals 😉) – 3 Tbsp
- Milk powder (we used Nido) – 1 1/2 Tbsp
- Finely powdered sugar – 1/2 cup (you may use less/ other substitutes like 2 tbsp maple syrup)
- Mold, fork/ spoon for whisking
(Alternatively, you could combine ingredients 2 and 3 into: 1/4 cup cocoa powder; the above list would fill a regular traditional mold, yielding a chocolate bar as in the picture above)
Method:
We are going to use the double boiler method (Tip: alternatively you can also use the microwave, in 10 second increments, mixing after each 10 seconds). So we need a saucepan filled with water that goes on the stove and a slope-sided glass or ceramic container that can fit exactly over the saucepan. We used a ceramic serve ware and it worked just fine.
Begin by heating the bottom saucepan. As the water starts to simmer, add coconut oil to the top container, and when it melts, add the next three ingredients in that order one by one, whisking constantly.
Then turn off the flame before adding the powdered sugar, and once it has been mixed well, turn the flame back on for about a minute.
Then let it cool on the counter for one minute. Now comes the fun part: making shapes out of it. You can use a mold with any of your favorite shapes: the world is your oyster! We used gummy bear or rather gummy croissant molds that my son fancied today. You could find a traditional mold here.
Now we need to freeze it in the mold for three to four minutes (Tip: you may want to place a flat tray/ cutting board under the mold before filling the mold: this would make it easy to transfer it to and from the freezer and may also help it retain the shape during transfer). The time may vary based on your mix consistency and freezer settings.
Come on , let’s pop it out of the mold…
This is how our chocolates came out:
Now it’s time to indulge!
Hope you have loads of fun with your kiddo (or your inner child) making some yummy chocolate treats. Enjoy!!!
