CravenChocolates!

I can't believe Christmas is just around the corner. Luckily Dan and I finally have all of our projects and shopping done for the season! To show you how sick we are (and how much we love Christmas!) we started working on projects in October. Specifically Dan made fondant centers for chocolates while I made the tags for the boxes. We were so on top of it this year!!!

As many of you know we make chocolate candies every year carrying on a tradition Dan learned from his mom, who learned it from her mom...etc. The centers are always creamier if made in advance, frozen then thawed. After they thaw in the fridge, you cut up squares and roll into balls.





We decided this year we would continue with the rolled, dipped and rolled in something theme we did last year but with a few flavor variations.

Coconut Curry, dipped in dark chocolate, rolled in cashews
Peanut Butter, dipped in dark chocolate, rolled in crushed cornflakes
Peppermint, dipped in milk chocolate, rolled in chocolate cookie
Butter Rum, dipped in milk chocolate, rolled in almonds
Black Walnut, dipped in milk chocolate, rolled in walnuts



From there we chopped up the toppings we would roll the dipped chocolate in.




With so many to dip we invited our friends over to help out. It went by so fast and was so much fun.







We had two electric pans going with the different kinds of chocolate in it and worked in teams of two. We had the place down to sub zero temperatures with the windows open to keep the chocolate from blooming. Dan used his infrared thermometer to keep us all on track as our hot and cold hands dipped and rolled.




We ended up with 46 boxes plus leftovers to share at work or eat ourselves! We tried to get most of it out of the house...but I can't resist those peppermint ones, they're my favorite! It is also tradition to have some out on the small cake plate we inherited from Dan's mom.



The finished product turned out great!