chocolatemould I have a little bit of a history when it comes to chocolate. Apart from being a chocolate lover, that is!

When I was a kid, my mum had her own home-based business making handmade chocolates. Everything from the tiny hand-painted delicacies filled with sweetness, to a giant Easter bunny which had around a kilogram of chocolate in it. Sometimes I would help her individually wrap each one for sale and occasionally I would make my own chocolates for gifts.

Later, the first department I worked in at Grace Bros, quite a few years ago now, was the confectionary department (when there was one), which became the Easter egg department at this time of the year (and for at least two months before Easter). So I learnt a couple of things about chocolate.

Chocolate is high in antioxidants and therefore is pretty good for you. The problem is, that most of us don’t actually eat real chocolate. Many of the popular brands that we consume are cheaper than real chocolate because they substitute the cocoa butter for vegetable oil and then increase the amount of sugar to make it taste ok. Vegetable oil and sugar cause the very problems that the antioxidants are supposed to prevent.

When it comes to chocolate and any antioxidant claims, the higher amount of cocoa butter the better. And no vegetable oil! Lindt 70% is my favourite, and according to their ingredients list, there are no added extras that shouldn’t be in chocolate.

Once you get used to eating real chocolate, the regular supermarket brand chocolates just don’t taste very good anymore. And while it is more expensive, good quality dark chocolate is like fine after dinner liqueur is to passion pop. It is a very adult taste and a little goes a long way.

And that is the good thing about making your own chocolates – you can use good quality chocolate at a fraction of the cost of buying quality Easter eggs (a 100g block of Lindt chocolate is $3.49 compared to a 100g Lindt bunny at $5.68)! And it’s fun. chocolates

Chocolate Making Resources

Tempering chocolate

To make the best chocolates, you need to take a little time to temper the chocolate before hand. Tempering gives the chocolate a nice glossy look and makes it ‘snap’ when you bite it. Tempering is just a matter of melting the chocolate to a certain temperature, cooling it a little, then raising the temperature again. Here are a couple of videos to show you how, they are pretty much the same, but each one had a different tip that filled in any blanks of the others:

Filling chocolate moulds

Making Fondant

Fondant is the sweet filling in chocolates. You can buy fondant, or make it yourself. I don’t think it’s a quick and easy process though. There are many recipes on the net for fondant, but I like this one the best because it doesn’t contain any corn syrup or the like. 

Supplies in Australia

For basic moulds etc, Spotlight and Lincraft often carry a small range. Otherwise, check online for suppliers. Buying good quality chocolate (seems to me) a little harder. You can just buy a block of Lindt chocolate from the supermarket and melt and temper or you could try cake decorating shops, chef’s supplies stores, gourmet supermarkets and delis or you can just use Cadbury compound chocolate (it seems that is the most common supplied). 

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