If chocolates grew on trees, which trees would you make a point of planting first?

(After planting my Ritter Sport Cocoa Mousse tree, I’d branch out (pun intended) and grow other brands and flavors.   There would be craft, bean-to-bar chocolate trees.  There would be chocolate-with-inclusion trees.  And of course there would be individual bonbon trees.)

Only, in reality, these delicious morsels don’t grow on trees.  (At least directly. Presumably you know where chocolate comes from!)  This should be good news for those of us who don’t have much of a green thumb.

Chocolates like these are formed in moulds, and I decided it was high time to take the plunge, acquire a mould, and make my own chocolates.  (Some people might think it is cheating to melt down existing chocolate and re-mould it instead of starting with raw beans, but I’m taking baby steps. With no easy access to Valrona, which keeps popping up on the internet as THE chocolate to use for such things, I am thinking about using El Rey chocolate for my first chocolate making experiment.  It will be a splurge, but I want my first chocolates to be extra-special.  It has occurred to me that I have no idea what I am doing and they might look a sight, but at least they should taste good!)

My first mould almost turned out to be a selection of leaves, but my final choice was a 30-Cavity silicon mold by Freshware.  (Partially because the leaf mold only made eight chocolates at once.  With a family of five, deciding how to portion off the chocolate would have been problematic.)

Pictured: Four designs (out of six) of my new mold

The mould comes with its own user manual, which was promptly read from front to back because I often find user manuals quite entertaining.   This one did not disappoint.   “DO NOT use over direct flame.”  Uh – naturally.  “DO NOT use metal utensils like knives, forks, or other sharp objects.”  Somebody would use a sharp object in a silicon mold??

My mind isn’t completely made up as to whether my first attempt at using the mold will involve plain chocolate, or if I will be brave and try to include a filling of some sort.    I’ll be sure to follow-up with how much of a success (or a disaster!) my chocolate-making experience turned out to be.

In the meantime, please keep me off of sites that make moulds.  There are far too many options.   (If you’re looking for a mind-blowing selection, visit Tomric.  See the cute violet mould?  There are a slew of amazing moulds; your chocolates could come out in the shape of shoes and ships and ceiling wax and cabbages and kings.  Well, at least I saw shoes and ships and alligators and acorns and tractors, which is basically the same concept.

Until next time…