It's easy and fast to make your own chocolate candies if you just have the right supplies.

One of my friends owns a Cake and Candy supply shop, and one day she treated me to 2 hours of candymaking.  OK, some of the types are difficult, but here is a really easy way to do it chocolate covered creams and caramels...  This is so simple and uses ready-made ingredients, a spoon, a glass bowl, and a saucepan, plus some wax paper (certainly an easier project with your kids than baking cookies).

Caramel or Fondant Centers

Find a candy supply store and you will find already-made containers with caramel and different kinds of fondant centers (peppermint, vanilla, cherry, raspberry, and many other kinds of centers for chocolate cream candies). 

These ready-made centers handle kind of like soft dough.  Simply use your hands to make round balls of centers.  Set them aside onto wax paper until you have the number of chocolate candies you want to make.

Have some fun!  There is no reason why you can't blend together two or more kinds of centers when you make those round balls.  For instance, add peppermint fondant center to chocolate fondant center.  Or vanilla or butter cream center with caramel.  You do not have to mix them together - just lump them together and roll them into a round ball.

Buy Some Confectioner's Wafers or Chocolate

Sometimes people refer to the chocolate coating used to chocolate cover your candy as confectioner's wafers, or simply chocolate wafers.  You buy it at the same candy supply store as your ready-made centers.  Merckens is the name of one really good brand of wafers (they have chocolate, white chocolate, dark chocolate, and all kinds of pastel colored wafers, too).

Now, I've burned a fair amount of chocolate in my time while trying to make chocolate coated candies.  It's really simpler than what the cookbooks make it sound like.  I burned my chocolate because I was trying too hard!  So here's what my Cake and Candy friend told me:

Take a medium saucepan and put a few inches of water in it.  Bring it to a boil.

Put some of your confectioner's wafers in a glass bowl or pyrex.

Remove the saucepan from the heat after the water boils.

Sit the glass bowl or pyrex with the wafers into the water (kind of like double boiling, except the saucepan isn't actually being actively heated).

Wait for the coating to melt.  You will have to stir it occasionally because until then the wafers stay in the wafer shape.  You are now ready to coat your centers!

 

Dip Your Candy

Are you ready?  Take a spoon and put one of your round balls onto it.  Put the center into the melted chocolate in the glass bowl or pyrex and move it around with the spoon until it is fully coated.  Lift it out (using the spoon) and put your finished candy back onto the wax paper to cool.

Run out of chocolate?  Simply reboil your water in the saucepan, remove it from the heat, add wafers to your glass bowl, and put the glass bowl back into the saucepan.

Once your candy has cooled and the chocolate has hardened, eat it or make a gift box and give it away!  Your friends and family will be amazed!

Want More Pizazz?

You can dribble some melted chocolate on top of your cooling candy to make a design.  Better yet, use a different kind of wafer (a color or a different kind of chocolate) to drizzle on top to add even more appeal!

Have fun!

Please check out my other reviews, too:

"How to Make Your Own Chandelier Earrings Easily"

"Soap Making Secret - How to Make Your Glycerin Soaps Last Longer"

"The Secret of Using Rutin to Trim Your Waist"

"Are Soy and Natural Candles Really Natural?"

"How to Choose Essential Oils that Actually Work"

"Safety Guidelines for Using Essential Oils"

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