Recipe

Forget Store-Bought Chocolates and Make Your Own Customized Chocolate Bars Instead

By Susanna Mostaghim at Virginia Tech

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.