One of my favorite homemade gifts to give someone is a personalized chocolate bar tailored to their taste. Personalized chocolate bars are sold online for a pretty high mark-up. Seriously, it costs me maybe $5 to make a bar that would cost me at least $8 plus shipping from Chocomize.
It’s super simple to make personalized chocolate bars with mix-in toppings customized to your friends’ preferences. All you need is to temper some chocolate and add toppings before the chocolate sets. If you need to buy a mold, you can easily get one online. I prefer the plain chocolate bar mold from Confectionary House.
The Necessities
There are obvious ingredients for personalized chocolate bars. The first of which is chocolate. If you have a vegan friend it might be a bit difficult, but don’t worry, PETA has a definitive guide on vegan chocolate.
#SpoonTip: Use dark or white chocolate for your bars. Milk chocolate is really finicky and results in a battle of wills (which I generally lose).
Additional ingredients are just whatever mix-ins and toppings you’d like to use. It’s important to choose ones that go well with chocolate and are easy to use. I have my preferences for different chocolates. I really like lemon-lavender or rosehip-hibiscus with white chocolate. However, the dark horse combo of dark chocolate with bacon and potato chips is on fleek.
Equipment-wise? All you really need to temper your chocolate is a pot, bowl, and mixing implement (like a spoon or whisk). If you don’t have a stove to temper chocolate you can use your microwave a la Alton Brown, or a hair dryer.
After tempering, you just need a mold to pour your chocolate in and a freezer. Make sure you mix in anything you want before you pour it in and then add your toppings before you stick it in the freezer.
Personalized Chocolate Bars
Ingredients
Instructions
Heat water in a pot and create a double boiler with your bowl. Add half of your chocolate and melt.
Remove chocolate from heat and add reserved half of chocolate to melt. This helps cool down your chocolate a little.
(Optional) Add any mix-ins you want to your chocolate as you prep it to pour into your molds.
Pour chocolate into molds and distribute it evenly. Tap to set.
Cover in any desired toppings.
Freeze for 10-15 minutes. When you remove it from the freezer the chocolate should separate easily as it will shrink while setting.
Enjoy.