Homemade Candy Bars | Make-Your-Own Chocolate Bar Dessert Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How to make your own custom chocolate? ›

For best results, use a good quality chocolate. Chocolate bars are best as chocolate chips often have a waxy coating that isn't ideal for melting. I love Valhrona, Guittard or Ghirardelli.

Chocolate chunks

Simply begin at the corner of your bar, pressing the knife's teeth into it using both hands, one holding the handle and the other putting pressure onto the knife. Chopping chocolate into fragments is ideal if you need chocolate for melting, or if you want to include them in chocolate chip cookies.

Some Recommended Chocolate Brands

I personally like to use Callebaut, Cacao Barry, and Guittard for more casual baking (or projects where I have a smaller budget), and Valrhona for those times when I really want the chocolate flavor to shine and be the star.

Couverture, or chocolate formulated with a higher percentage of cocoa butter, is essential for making chocolate bonbons, says Ocean House Collection pastry chef Maya Hayes. "Make sure you are using bars, chunks, or callets, not chocolate chips," she says.

Couverture chocolates have been specifically designed to use as a coating, with a minimum of 31% cocoa butter, so they're easy to temper even if you're unfamiliar with the process. Brands like Valrhona, Callebaut, Cocoa Barry, and Scharffen Berger are easy to find in gourmet grocery stores or specialty shops.

Simply pour your melted chocolate directly into clean, ungreased molds. Tap the molds on a hard surface to remove the air bubbles and pop 'em into the freezer. When the molds become misty, take them out and remove the chocolates by tapping.

Pour the Chocolate

If you have a bigger mold, you may be able to use a spoon or spatula. However, this method can be messy. We recommend using a pastry bag or a squeeze bottle to get the chocolate into the mold without wasting it. Using your bag or bottle, carefully fill each cavity of the chocolate mold.

To make molded chocolates, start by microwaving some chocolate chips or bars in 1-minute intervals until the chocolate is fully melted. Then, pour the melted chocolate into a plastic candy mold, and scrape the excess chocolate off of the top of the mold using a knife.

What's better for melting: chocolate bars or chocolate chips? High quality chocolate bars are the best for melting. High quality chocolate chips work fine, but they often include ingredients that stabilize their shape when heated, which can get in the way of a super-smooth melt.

Can you use regular chocolate chips as melting chocolate? ›

Because chocolate chips contain soy lecithin, a food additive that helps them retain their shape when they're baked, they might not melt as smoothly as chocolate bars. But if they're the only thing you have on hand, or if you're going for convenience, they're a good choice because they're already cut to size.

Make shapes on the chilled baking sheet

Next, place your chilled baking parchment over your designs on the baking tray. Trace the pictures with your melted chocolate, squeezing gently on the cornet. Don't worry if the first few are a bit wobbly!

By making homemade chocolate with premium ingredients, you will always have high-quality chocolate at home. Don't try to satisfy your chocolate craving with low-quality, mass-produced chocolate, which tends to be heavy in sugar, milk substitutes and vanilla.

"It's really a science first and art second, and the science needs to be understood." Chocolate-making takes research, practice, and plenty of patience, but the finished product—from dark chocolate-dipped marshmallows to mango-sprinkled mendiants—makes the process worthwhile.