Lucky Chocolates

Hello my dear Chocolate-Lovers!

Today I want to show you how I make my very own New-Year-Treats!

First of all you will need chocolate... of course...

Then if you like some filling, you will need that too! I used some nougat for that.

Also you will need some chocolate-moulds. I used my piggy-ones. If you are going for New-Year-Treats, Piggy, Clover, Fish, Coin, Horse-shoe, chimney-sweeper, or any other lucky-charm-moulds would fit best.

I also like my piggies pink. So I used some pink food-powder to colour them.

If you like to colour your chocolates, take your colour-powder and a bit of water on a brush and gently brush the damp powder into your moulds. Do not use too much water, you wouldn't want your chocolates to be wet. Just enough water to make the powder stick to your moulds is fine.

You want your chocolate tempered for this... I like to do this by breaking the chocolate into small pieces, putting it into a freezer-bag and tie it shut. We do not want our chocolate to touch water, so make sure it is closed air-tight.

Fill a bowl with warm water and let your packed chocolate sit in the warm water for a while. Then give it a nice massage, so it can relax and get really soft. Make sure the water isn't too hot for your touch. Chocolate likes a nice warm bath, but it wouldn't go in a tub that you wouldn't go in either...

Once your chocolate is nice and soft, take the bag out of the water and rub it dry. Cut off the tip and let the molten chocolate pour into your moulds.

If you want them solid chocolate, fill the moulds to the top and let them sit until firm.

For the filled version, only fill your moulds up to 1/2 or less. With the back of a spoon smear the chocolate to the walls of your mould so they are completely covered. Let it sit, or put it into the fridge for some minutes.

When the chocolate-walls are firm, take out your filling (in my case my molten nougat) and fill your moulds nearly full. Do not fill them entirely. We still need to close them with chocolate.

Once filled, shake them gently to even the filling and let them sit, or place them into the fridge again for some minutes.

Now that your filling has firmed, take your molten chocolate again. (If it's not molten anymore you can massage it again to loosen it up. Chocolate loves massages and will start melting under your fingers right away!)

Pour some chocolate on top of the filling. With the back of a knife smear the chocolate over your moulds to even the back.

Once all moulds are closed, let it sit again, or put in the fridge until firm.

Once your chocolates are set and firm, you can start to remove them from your moulds.

If your filling is extra soft, maybe you want to freeze your chocolates beforehand, so they are really firm and won't break on pressure.

Here you go! Your very own chocolate-treats!

Have a very nice and happy New-Year, everyone!

Hope to see you all again in 2016!

Ah, and please vote for me in the Chocolate-Challenge.

One can't have enough chocolate-moulds!