Chocolate, Chocolate and more Chocolate...

What a better time than the holidays to get creative with chocolate!  There is a large variety of chocolate molds you can chose from and let your imagine go wild.  For years I've used Merckens chocolate wafers for chocolate covered strawberries, pretzels, dried fruit, and so much more.  The flavor is wonderful and so easy to use.  But the last several Christmas' I've been using it with a variety of molds.  One of my favorite is the small fluted bowl shape molds, as in the first picture group.  I will fill it full of chocolate mousse or fresh fruit and drizzle the melted chocolate over the top, to a variety of rich fillings.  Not only is it beautiful, but is so delicious.  I have several different molds and the "wild shapes" (as in the last group of pictures) are really fun to put atop homemade cupcakes, adds that unique flair.  The Merckens comes in a variety of colors, I personally use the milk, white and dark.   With the left over melted chocolate, my daughter and I will take parchment paper and spray it very lightly with non-stick spray, pour approximately a 1/4  cup (or a little more, depending on the size we want) of chocolate on the paper, place a lollipop stick again, sprayed lightly with the non-stick spray, as it cools down somewhat, start at one end, begin to roll the chocolate around the stick loosely, after it has cooled and harden almost completely, remove the stick and you will have a "chocolate straw", very similar to the picture of the "chocolate kiss martini" below, and use it as a swizzle stick, or in your choice of desserts.  Another fun idea is to make the liquor chocolate cups, place them in gold foiled servers and fill with your favorite liquor.  A great combination is equal parts Bailey's, cream  and Amarula, so yummy.  Trust me, your guest will love them.  It makes a nice little after dinner treat also, if you don't want a heavy dessert.

A great site to go to learn about how to mold chocolate and other information.
http://www.sugarcraft.com/catalog/candies/moldingchocolate/howtomold.htm





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