Make Your Chocolate Kit

With Christmas and other winter holidays approaching I know that some of you, Sisters and Brothers, are thinking of gifts.  What better gift than chocolate and time together?  So making chocolate or chocolate treats is almost an ideal present for any age group.  The folks from Glee Gum sent us a "Make Your Own Chocolate From Scratch Kit" and they are also going to give one of you a kit as well.  We'll get to that giveaway at the end of this review.  I had a kit all ready from a non-profit organization that I bought it from so I decided I need an assistant to help me try both out.

My friend Razzle, who has commented from time to time on here, agreed to come and help me.  The kit includes everything you'll need: cocoa butter, cocoa powder, confectioner's sugar, starter crystals, candy cup liners, even a temperature indicator.  Of course it has instructions and the "story of chocolate".  We read the instructions carefully and felt this definitely needs an adult to help out in the kitchen.  There are actually three ways you can make it, Razzle took the microwave simply following the basics directions while I took the double boiler method and added two extra ingredients that were recommended.  Overall, she finished about 15 minutes before me.

The story of chocolate was simple and short but covered the discovery of the Aztec drink by Europeans to the modern cocoa farmer.  Given the image on the box, I thought we might get more about the Aztec and maybe even instructions and spices to make a drink like them.  That was really the only less than ideal part of this kit.

Let us tell you, making chocolate takes patience.  The most time you will spend is tempering the chocolate which you see me working on here.  You can't see it, but the temperature indicator was placed on the side of the pan, easily removed later, and it turned a green color when it hit the correct temperature.  It just took a lot of stirring from me, about 20 for me but just about 15 minutes for Razzle and her microwave bowl.

I added 1/4 teaspoon of real vanilla to the mixture when that as indicated.  While it was melting together, I put mini marshmallows into the paper cups as you can see here.  The difference in flavor between the two was incredible.  Razzles made as directed had a very bitter, intense chocolate flavor.  Mine had a lot less bitterness but also it wasn't sweet because I poured the chocolate over the marshmallows so they didn't melt and you didn't taste them unless you bit into them.  It should take about 15 to finish in the refrigerator but the chocolate was setting up within minutes so pour, or spoon it like we did, quickly into the cups.

We shared these with lots of friends and family and they all gave it a big thumbs  up.  Razzle and I got to hang out, get lunch, and just get to know each other even more. Next project for us will be chocolate gingerbread cookies when she gets this wacky cookie cutter.  If any of you know a good chocolate gingerbread cookie recipe, let me know.

Want to win your own Chocolate Kit?  To entry to win is easy, just follow these steps, and yes, I do check to make sure they are followed.  Please only comments from folks in the continental USA.


1.  To enter you must be a public Follower of The Chocolate Cult either through blogspot, Facebook, or Networked Blogs.  I do check this each time so if you joined for the last contest then left us you must rejoin -- honestly why would you leave your Sisters and Brothers in Cocoa behind?  You can join in either of those three ways linked to on the left hand side of this blog.  Make certain that your listing as a follower includes a way for me to contact you directly by private email. If you win and I can't contact you, I'll move on to the next person in line.

2. In a comment, tell me who you'd share your kit with and why you think this would be a great git for them.  We don't need real names, definitely not full names, just "my son" or "my best friend" or something like that.

3.  You must leave a comment below by Midnight, Friday, November 19, 2010.  Make sure I can email directly so I can contact winner. If can't email you, I'll redo the drawing until I get someone I can directly email. 

The order of your comments will determine your number for the random drawing so the first person to comment will be #1, the fourth person will be #4 and so forth.  The winner will be chosen using this random number generator.

Thanks to the folks at Glee Gum and to Razzle for helping me try out this kit.  We made several people very happy with the chocolate we made.  If you want to find any of their products, check out this store locator.  For example, I found out that our local coop carries the gum but not the treat kits.

NEWS:  Glee Gum has partnered with "Tree for the Future" and you can support the environment and get their gum by ordering HERE.