How To Make Your Own Chocolate Hearts

Chocolates are synonymous with Valentine's Day and not many people would say no to a box of lovely Valentine's chocolates. Of course you can go out and buy a lovely box of very special chocolates but there are a few reasons why you might want to make your own.

Perhaps if you want to add a personal touch to your Valentine's chocolates, whether that be in decoration or by creating a special filling that you know your loved one will really like, or if you just enjoy making things for yourself and want to give them something with a personal touch, Valentine's chocolates are relatively easy to make.

So, the first thing you need to do is to decide what shape you want your chocolates to be. The most obvious shape for Valentine's day is a heart shape but of course that does not have to be the case and you can make any shaped chocolate that you want to.

There are plenty of chocolate molds available in different sizes and you can also choose different materials for your molds.

The most popular chocolate molds to use at the moment are silicone molds which make it easy to remove the chocolates from the molds as they are very flexible. The other great benefit of silicone molds is that you can use them in the oven, fridge, microwave and freezer, so you can also use them for cooking in as well as making chocolates.

This is a really great silicone heart mold that you could use to make your chocolate hearts. I like this mold because it makes hearts of a perfect size for chocolates and they come out with a really smooth finish. In addition, when not suing it for chocolate making I can use it for ice cubes in the freezer!

The downside of silicon molds is that they are slightly more expensive than standard candy molds (although they are still pretty cheap if you are going to use them a few times) so if you are looking for a low cost option and you just want to use them to make candy then you could just go for a straight candy mold which you can buy for only a few dollars.

So, to make the chocolate hearts you will first need to choose the type of chocolate that you want to use - dark, milk or white chocolate (or more than one). You will need to melt the chocolate so that you can pour it into the mold. The best way of melting the chocolate is over a pan of boiling water.

Break up the chocolate into pieces and put it in a glass bowl. Then put that bowl over a saucepan that is slightly smaller than the rim of the bowl so that the bowl sits in the pan. The saucepan should have an inch of water in the bottom.

If you like you can add some other flavorings to the chocolate, but if you add liquid, be careful that you do not add too much or the chocolate will not set again. You can add a small amount of your favorite alcoholic flavoring perhaps, or you can add any of the following:

• cherries chopped very small
• nuts chopped small
• cinnamon
• nutmeg
• chili
• raisins

So, melt your chocolate over the simmering water until it is no longer solid and add your flavoring. If you want a few flavors then separate some of the chocolate off and add the flavors to each pot of chocolate. Pour the melted chocolate into the molds and leave it in the fridge to cool for 2 hours.

If you want to put a nut (or anything else like a cherry) in the middle of your chocolate mold then the best thing to do is to create a skin for your chocolate to start off with. Pour the chocolate into the mold and move the mold around until the chocolate forms a layer so that the nut/cherry will not stick out. Leave the chocolate in the fridge to solidify before placing the nut in the mold and covering with more chocolate.

Once the hearts have cooled, take them carefully out of the molds and put them on a flat surface like a chopping board. Melt some chocolate of an opposite color (white chocolate for milk or dark chocolate hearts and dark or milk chocolate for white chocolate hearts).

Dribble lines of the melted chocolate over the hearts so that they form random lines contrasting with the chocolate.

Alternatively, you can put both white and brown chocolate into each mold to make some marbled chocolate hearts.

Once you have finished making your chocolate hearts then you can box them in a home made chocolate box with your own finishes, maybe with your own message, or buy a readymade Valentines Day candy box.

You could also make some chocolate hearts to use as wedding favors - this will probably only work if the day is not going to be too hot but if you wrap 2 or 3 hearts in ribbon or some foil and put in a little gift box then this would be a lovely home made addition to your wedding.