Making Your Own Gourmet Chocolates.

A while ago I decided to a be chef and make some gourmet food for a party, I actually ended up making truffles, and boy, were they a big hit with all my friends, who all made the assumption they were gourmet chocolates purchased from a trendy candy or gourmet food shop. Be warned! Creating your own gourmet chocolate can be fairly difficult, and it takes time and patience, nevertheless, on the optimistic side it gives you the opportunity to choose from recipes that may not be so simple to get in the neighborhood candy store.

The key to making amazing gourmet chocolate:

Choosing and buying the ingredients of your gourmet chocolate is part of the fun. To start with I melted excellent quality dark chocolate over a double boiler. Secondly I rolled some small balls from marzipan and covered them with chocolate. Finally I rolled the chocolate covered marzipan in ground almonds, I also rolled chocolate covered peanut butter in more chocolate and then gave them a covering of ground peanuts.

Making chocolates opens up your creative juices, and so when making your own gourmet chocolates, you can create many different variations like, chocolate covered candied ginger, chocolate covered citrus peels; even chocolate covered chili peppers, wow.

Sharpen your sculpting talents when making gourmet chocolate:

A popular TV chef had a recipe for a honey chocolate cake, which inspired me to make a honey marzipan truffle.

• Start by getting the chocolate ingredients.
• Then melt the chocolate over the double boiler.
• Add a little honey, this will create a nice glaze.
• Now get the marzipan and with a paring knife carve some simple shapes like flowers, bunnies or hearts.
• Then dip the shaped marzipan carefully into the chocolate and let the chocolate set on the marzipan.
• Then sprinkle them with confectioner's sugar.
• The glaze will be a little sticky, so the sugar will stick.

This will make a great gift for all occasions, and is an especially good idea for gourmet chocolates, because you can make the marzipan into any shape to suit the occasion, and finish off by dusting them with the confectioner's sugar.

A Fantastic gift for someone you care about:

It's difficult to find someone who doesn't like chocolate, so as gifts they are an excellent choice to show someone you care. By making chocolate yourself, you can take your time, and make them look great for that special person in your life. Food and wine followed by some gourmet chocolates will definitely score you some brownie points.

Gourmet chocolates are as a rule created by master chocolate makers, so there's no pressure here, but be sure you don't make something that’s looks dreadful and uninteresting, as this will crush the object of making them yourself. If the chocolates you create are lumpy, uneven or mis-shaped people will not think much of them. You need to be sure the quality is fantastic when offering your friends some of your gourmet chocolate.