How To Make Chocolate Hearts
Date Night with Mommy
"Why don't we have a date night, Mommy?!" my daughter complained when I was leaving for an evening out with my husband. I promised her that we would have a special night one day soon and she allowed me to leave. Phew!
However, every day thereafter, she reminded me that I owed her a date. It's been two weeks and I can't put her off any longer.
"What would you like to do?" I asked.
"Something fun!" She exclaimed.
"Hmmm, ok." I spent the next two days thinking about this. Finally, I came up with a fun activity that a 6-year-old little girl would like and could do: making chocolate candies. She loved the idea. Yeah!
I looked in my cupboard and pulled out some silicon ice cube molds. There were fish, hearts, stars, and Mickey Mouse. Without hesitation, she chose the heart mold.
We still needed some ingredients so we drove to Walmart and purchased a bag of Jet-Puffed marshmallows, Wilton Candy Decorating Pens, and Wilton Candy Melts in pink.
However, every day thereafter, she reminded me that I owed her a date. It's been two weeks and I can't put her off any longer.
"What would you like to do?" I asked.
"Something fun!" She exclaimed.
"Hmmm, ok." I spent the next two days thinking about this. Finally, I came up with a fun activity that a 6-year-old little girl would like and could do: making chocolate candies. She loved the idea. Yeah!
Chocolate Hearts Ingredients and Tools
I looked in my cupboard and pulled out some silicon ice cube molds. There were fish, hearts, stars, and Mickey Mouse. Without hesitation, she chose the heart mold.
We still needed some ingredients so we drove to Walmart and purchased a bag of Jet-Puffed marshmallows, Wilton Candy Decorating Pens, and Wilton Candy Melts in pink.
Silicon heart shaped mold, Wilton Candy Decorating Pens, Jet-Puffed marshmallows, Wilton Candy melts, a small glass loaf pan, parchment paper.
Melting the Chocolate in the Microwave
I poured 1/2 a bag of candy melts into the loaf pan
Microwaved for 1 min, stirred, then repeated at 30-second intervals until fully melted.
Pouring Chocolate Into Heart Shaped Mold
Using a spoon, I poured melted chocolate into the mold so that it was halfway full.
My daughter took a small plastic spoon to coat the bottom and sides of the mold.
While the chocolate is still gooey, she turned over the mold and let the excess chocolate drip out onto a clean piece of parchment.
You can see that the chocolate has covered the bottom and sides of the mold very well.
Melting the Marshmallows
I poured marshmallows into another loaf pan and placed into the microwave for 20 seconds.
Too many marshmallows...
= disaster!
I poured too many marshmallows into the loaf pan! Half the amount would have been perfect.
Adding Marshmallow to the Candy Mold
The melted marshmallow is very sticky and impossible to spoon into the mold. I discovered that the only way to detach the marshmallow from the spoon is with a kitchen scissor.
Using a scissor to cut the marshmallow.
Here is the heart mold filled with chocolate and melted marshmallows.
More Melted Chocolate to Fill in the Candy Mold
To finish the base of the hearts, we needed to melt more chocolate. We melted half of the remainder of chocolate melts and any leftover drips from the previous step.
Pouring more melted chocolate into the candy molds.
The melted chocolate fills in the molds and covers the back of the candies.
We placed our chocolate mold try outside onto our frozen and snowy porch.
It was rock solid in 2 minutes!
We turned the mold over and pressed the back of each heart gently until it fell out of the mold onto a clean piece of parchment.
Here are the chocolates. Don't they look amazing?!
Decorating The Chocolate Hearts Using Pens
Using a Wilton Candy Decorating Pens, we drew cute pictures and wrote messages onto the heart chocolates.
The pens get clogged very quickly so we scribbled onto a small piece of parchment to encourage the ink to flow again.
Here is my daughter drawing a pretty picture onto one of the hearts.
Ta Da!
The Completed Heart Chocolate
You will notice that they are covered with a bit of white dust. When we placed the finished chocolates outside just after we popped them out of the mold, I noticed a white coating starting to cover the chocolates. I quickly brought them back inside and found that it wasn't ice forming on the chocolates but sugar that had precipitated from the chocolate. I'll skip the deep freeze the next time my daughter and I make chocolates.
With Valentines Day less than two weeks away, these heart shaped chocolates would be a perfect personalized gift to a friend or loved one. I hope we have inspired you to give chocolate making a try!
Happy Valentines Day!
