One of my favorite homemade gifts to give someone is a personalized chocolate bar tailored to their taste. Personalized chocolate bars are sold online for a pretty high mark-up. Seriously, it costs me maybe $5 to make a bar that would cost me at least $8 plus shipping from Chocomize.
It's super simple to make personalized chocolate bars with mix-in toppings customized to your friends' preferences. All you need is to temper some chocolate and add toppings before the chocolate sets. If you need to buy a mold, you can easily get one online. I prefer the plain chocolate bar mold from Confectionary House.
The Necessities
There are obvious ingredients for personalized chocolate bars. The first of which is chocolate. If you have a vegan friend it might be a bit difficult, but don't worry, PETA has a definitive guide on vegan chocolate.
#SpoonTip: Use dark or white chocolate for your bars. Milk chocolate is really finicky and results in a battle of wills (which I generally lose).
Additional ingredients are just whatever mix-ins and toppings you'd like to use. It's important to choose ones that go well with chocolate and are easy to use. I have my preferences for different chocolates. I really like lemon-lavender or rosehip-hibiscus with white chocolate. However, the dark horse combo of dark chocolate with bacon and potato chips is on fleek.
Equipment-wise? All you really need to temper your chocolate is a pot, bowl, and mixing implement (like a spoon or whisk). If you don't have a stove to temper chocolate you can use your microwave a la Alton Brown, or a hair dryer.
After tempering, you just need a mold to pour your chocolate in and a freezer. Make sure you mix in anything you want before you pour it in and then add your toppings before you stick it in the freezer.
Personalized Chocolate Bars
- Prep Time:30 mins
- Cook Time:20 mins
- Total Time:50 mins
- Servings:4
- Easy
- 12 oz chocolate
- Toppings
- Mix-ins
Ingredients
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Step 1
Heat water in a pot and create a double boiler with your bowl. Add half of your chocolate and melt.
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Step 2
Remove chocolate from heat and add reserved half of chocolate to melt. This helps cool down your chocolate a little.
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Step 3
(Optional) Add any mix-ins you want to your chocolate as you prep it to pour into your molds.
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Step 4
Pour chocolate into molds and distribute it evenly. Tap to set.
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Step 5
Cover in any desired toppings.
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Step 6
Freeze for 10-15 minutes. When you remove it from the freezer the chocolate should separate easily as it will shrink while setting.
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Step 7
Enjoy.