Have yourself a yummy yuletide

"All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt."- Charles Schulz

Sweets might be outdated but people have a sweet tooth for chocolate as it is the hot favourite this season. This winter vaction can be the right time to make home-made chocolates, which you can gift your friends and neighbours for New Year.

“Children love gifting chocolates made by them to their friends. It's a proud feeling for them,” shares Anju Jain, a professional chocolate maker in the city. “Nowadays, imported chocolate mix bars are available in every supermarket. Melting these chocolates and pouring them into plastic or aluminium moulds is the shortest and easiest procedure for young chocolate makers,” she adds.

This procedure of chocolate-making works for children because it helps avoid the hassle of measurements and mixing.
Do it yourself

For a Do It Yourself set of home-made chocolate presents you need to first buy a ready-mix chocolate bar.

Various brands of milk and dark chocolate are available in most supermarkets.

You need to melt the chocolate bar and pour it into plastic or metallic moulds. Moulds are available in a great number of shapes and sizes.

While filling dry-fruits pour some melted chocolate in the mould, add roasted dry-fruit of your choice and then pour melted chocolate again. This ensures that there are no air gaps in the final product.

Freeze the mould with the filling for 15 minutes.

Remove the chocolates now ready to eat from the mould and wrap them in wrapping paper.

Use chart paper, scissors and glue to make gift hampers to hold the chocolates you made.

One kilogram of chocolate mix bar makes approximately 100 chocolate with a medium-sized chocolate mould.

It is important to note that water can dilute the chocolate and alter its taste.

So make sure you don't spill any water while preparing chocolates and follow basic safety precautions.

Cocoa powder and chocolate are made from the seeds of the cocoa tree.

In classical Greek, this tree is known as ‘theobroma cacao' which means “food of the gods.”

West African Countries such as Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Ghana, Brazil and Ecuador from Latin America, and Malaysia and Indonesia in Asia are major cocoa growing countries in the world.

Many a novel has been inspired by chocolate, such as Roald Dahl's “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” as also “Chocolat” written by Joanne Harris.