#quick chocolate

...Make Chocolate

So everyone likes chocolate. Like EVERYONE. Right? Fine. MOST. Homemade chocolate on the other hand *cringes* I've been food poisoned with what some people (mainly me) have concocted. Finally, FINALLY I've found the perfect chocolate recipe...

 Yep. How to make your own chocolate:

Ingredients:

Sugar - 3/4 cup Powdered Milk or Dried Milk - 1/2 cup Cocoa Powder - 5 to 6 tbsp (or more if you want darker chocolate) Vanilla Essence (optional) - 1 to 2 tbsp Water - 3/4 cup

Method:

Grease a pan using butter between some parchment paper or a cooking spray of sorts (I don't personally use it 'cause we don't exactly get it here and the parchment works just fine). Or you could just use butter paper that works good too.

Mix the cocoa powder and the milk powder in a large bowl and set the mixture aside. Make sure you've flattened out any lumps otherwise you're going to take a mouthful of chocolate and find powder instead.

In a high-sided saucepan over medium-high heat, bring the water and sugar to a boil.

Turn the heat to low and stir constantly until the sugar dissolves completely and the mixture is clear, approximately 3 to 5 minutes. Remember - the longer you boil it, the thicker the syrup will be, and therefore, the harder your chocolate. 

To test if the sugar is completely dissolved, scoop up a bit of the syrup and let it drip into your saucepan with a spoon. When the syrup begins to slow, catch some on your finger and see how sticky it is. You'll want a sort-of medium sticky syrup to make sure your chocolate isn't rock-hard!

Add your vanilla essence in...three...two...NOW. Remember too much vanilla essence is going to make you sick over the side of a toilet. 1 to 2 tbsp is, in itself is a bit much...I'm just really bad with measurements. Tell you what, put in half a cap-full, that's what I do anyways.

Slowly add the milk-powder-and-cocoa mixture...too fast and you'll have those infuriating lumps that just won't go and yes, bad chocolate. Slow and steady's the key. Make this recipe a few times and you'll get the hang of it.

Stir the mixture on a low flame to avoid burning till the chocolate is less syrupy and more solid.

Pour your chocolate (carefully, carefully...) into the greased pan and set it aside. You can air cool it, which produces pretty good results or you can pop it in the freezer if you need it real quick. Try not to eat too much of it before it hardens, okay? *grins*

So there's my chocolate recipe. Don't scald your tongue on that beautiful sugar syrup (something I continually fail to adhere to) no matter HOW tempting it is, or burn half the skin off your hand when handling flames. Also, check your insurance and see if it covers food poisoning. I'm just kidding! Really, but check the labels on each of these items for the expiry date. Hope this works out and- hey! Christmas chocolate! Frost your boo-tiful chocolate with some festive greens and reds. Hmm...I've never really tried that *rushes off*

xoxoxoxoxo San