How to Make Inexpensive Chocolate Candies for Christmas Gifts

Christmas is always just around the corner! A lot of us wonder just how are we going to pay for gifts and just what are we going to give as gifts? There's always coworkers, friends and lots of relatives to exchange gifts with. Sometimes it gets very expensive buying gifts for everyone and every year we vow to spend less. This year why not make something for gifts? Handmade gifts show the recipient that you care about what you give them and that you are putting a lot of time, love and effort into their gift. Handmade gifts are alot more appreciated than something bought last minute with little to no thought put into the item.

The best handmade gifts are things people can eat! Everyone loves to eat, especially chocolate! So this year, why not make chocolate candies to give as gifts? Chocolate candies are a lot of fun to make and can be very inexpensive. There are many different candies you can make and all you need is a few hours to do so.

To make chocolate candies you need to buy the most important ingredient - chocolate! There are many different types of chocolate available but I tend to go for the most well know - milk and white chocolate. When buying chocolate, go for chips, which are most commonly used and known for in cookies. You can purchase these for very little money around Christmas. The stores will put these on sale and you can use coupons to lower the price even more. Buy a few bags of each kind. Another reason to use the chips are because they melt quicker than bars of chocolate or the wafers.

Now that you have your chocolate you're going to need something to get covered in it! Here's another way to spend little. Buy bags of mini pretzels and inexpensive "sandwich" cookies that are similar to Oreos. These cookies come in many different flavors and it's fun to mix them up. Another cheap but yummy alternative are mashmallows! These are ridiculously easy to use but very good and they keep well.

To start making your chocolate candies, you need to melt your chocolate. This can be done 2 different ways, in the microwave or on the stove. I like to use the stove because I can control the temperature much better. If you prefer the ease of the microwave, here's how to melt your chocolate:

Empty half a bag of your chocolate chips in a microwave safe bowl

Set the microwave on Medium power and microwave for 30 secs.

After 30 secs, remove the bowl and stir the chocolate

Return to microwave and cook in intervals of 20-30 secs

Stir in between intervals until all chocolate is melted

When using the microwave, be careful not to burn the chocolate. It wil become grainy and you will be unable to use it! This is why I like to melt chocolate on the stove. Here's how to melt chocolate using a double boiler:

Take a pan and fill it halfway with water

Place a glass bowl or smaller pan into the larger pan with water but make sure it doesn't touch the water

Put your chocolate chips in the bowl

When the water in the large pan boils, the chocolate will slowly begin the melt

Occassionally stir the chocolate to prevent it from burning and to melt the chips

Once you have your chocolate melted, you can start dipping! You can choose to dip the entire pretzel, cookie or marshmallow or just half. Sometimes it is much easier to just dip half and it takes less time. When making chocolate covered pretzels, I like to put a few pretzels in the chocolate all at once and stir them into the chocolate. Then I remove one pretzel at a time with a skewer or something to fit in the pretzel holes, tap a few times to remove the excess chocolate and place on a cookie sheet that's covered with wax paper. You can do the same for cookies, but it's a little harder to get them back out of the chocolate.

When dipping cookies, you can use an off set spatula to lift them back out of the chocolate and place on the wax paper. Marshmallows are best dipped halfway. If you are feeling like giving your chocolates more pizzaz, you can dip half in white chocolate and the other half in milk or dark chocolate! If you don't have quite enough of one chocolate to do that, you can drizzle some over the cooled chocolate dipped cookies or pretzels. For more ideas in making your chocolates fancier, you can then dip them into other things, here are a few examples:

Crushed candy canes

Finely chopped nuts

Mini m&m's

Sprinkles

Once you have filled your cookie sheet with the candies, you can put them in the fridge or freezer to cook them. Once they are cooled, gently remove from the wax paper and place in airtight containers and put back in the fridge until you're ready to wrap them. The chocolates will keep in the container in the fridge for up to 2 weeks. Some people find they're fridge is becoming overrun with chocolates! If it's nice and cold out in your area and you have an enclosed porch or shed, you could always keep the chocolates out there in the airtight containers until you're ready to use them.

When you are ready to start giving away your chocolates as gifts, you'll need to wrap them. There are lots of different ways to present your chocolates. You can get colorful plastic wrap or Christmas themed treat bags and place your chocolates in them and tie with a pretty bow. If you want go do one step up, make a gift baskets with your variety of chocolates in the wrappings. For a simpler version, buy inexpensive tins, line with wax paper and place the chocolates inside. If doing multiple layers, I like to place wax paper in between the layers but it's not necessary.

Making chocolates is a lot of fun and I'm sure all your work will pay off, that's if there's any left to give away as presents! So make sure not to eat too many or make some extra for yourself! You'll find each Christmas people will start asking you if you'll be making your wonderful chocolates again! You'll be a hit!