December 23, 2008
Heartfelt Gifts – Your Homemade Chocolate Covered Coffee Spoons
If buying gifts this year for whatever reason, whether it’s your babysitter’s Birthday, a Christmas gift for your neighbor, a Valentine’s gift for your favorite Aunt, or a Thank You gift for someone who took care of your dog, has you panicked, join the club. Families all over the world are feeling the pinch of an exceedingly tight budget.
Normally when people are struggling with a tight budget, things that are considered unnecessary are the first things to go. Gifts are often the first things to be cut out of our budget, but we never feel good about that. We want to show our love for the people we care about, and who care about us, by giving gifts. How do we accomplish that with limited funds? By using our creativity and giving gifts that we put our heart into.
One of the most enjoyable gifts I’ve ever given is a gift of chocolate. Whether it’s homemade peanut clusters or fancy chocolate covered cherries, everyone seems to be enamored with their little boxes or bags of beautiful, and delicious chocolate goodies.
Chocolate gifts aren’t as hard to make as you might think. With a little practice, you can create marvelous confectionery delights that will thrill your friends and family and make you the talk of the town! This is a fancy chocolate treat that no one makes for themselves, so it is the perfect gift.
Chocolate Dipped Coffee Spoons
There’s a delicious connection between coffee and chocolate, so this gift is a natural for any coffee drinker on your gift list. Man or woman, if they drink coffee, they’ll love this gift.
This is what you’ll need:
Purchase some heavy duty plastic spoons. You may even wish to check out some flea markets or thrift stores for silver spoons that are pretty. Either way, make sure they’re nice and clean.
In the grocery store’s baking aisle, you’ll find blocks of milk chocolate coating. That’s what you’ll need for your spoons, not the Real Chocolate. Real Chocolate tends to be harder to control, and will not stay shiny if it’s not handled exactly right. The chocolate coating is much better, and actually tastier, than the Real stuff.
Peppermint oil flavor and other goodies like peppermint candy are good additions to the chocolate spoons and add yet another fancy element to them. You may also wish to sprinkle on some little candies like you would buy for sugar cookie decorations.
Parchment paper is a must for covering the cookie sheets. Do not use waxed paper. Warm chocolate has a tendency to stick to waxed paper. The parchment paper will make your finished product a lot easier to handle, and your clean-up a bit nicer, too.
You’ll need some clear candy bags to wrap your spoons. You can find these in the craft store with the candy making things. While you are there, look for some ribbon, raffia, and anything else you may want to dress up the packaging.
The process is simple:
Put a big pot of water on the stove and bring it to a boil. Carefully chop up your big chunk of chocolate into little chunks and put in a small pot that will fit in the big pot. When the water in the big pot comes to a boil, shut it off, and very carefully place the small pot in the hot water. Don’t let your water run over into the small pot with the chocolate. After the small pot sits for a few minutes and you see the chocolate start to melt on the edges, take the pot out of the water and begin stirring the chocolate with a big rubber spatula until it’s all melted.
After the chocolate has completely melted, start by dipping one spoon and carefully laying it on the parchment paper covered cookie sheet. If you are embellishing your spoons with candy sprinkles or peppermint pieces, decorate each spoon as you go so they don’t have time to set up. Otherwise the candy won’t stick. When all of your spoons are dipped, place your cookie sheet in a cool or cold area until chocolate is firm. The refrigerator or freezer will work, but take them out after only a few minutes so they don’t get moisture gathering on them, which isn’t good.
Once the chocolate has set up, you can put each spoon in a candy bag, and tie a piece of ribbon, raffia, or what have you around the handle of the spoon to close the bag. Now you can add a little extra ribbon, a candy cane, or any other decoration you’d like. If you are giving more than one spoon to someone, be sure to put them in a candy bag first, then place all of them together in a pretty bag or box.
Now that you’ve finished tying up all those pretty little gifts, aren’t you pleased with yourself? You have spent your time creating gifts that show you care. Instead of running out to the store to quickly buy yet another gift card, your gift shows that you took time to plan and make a very special someone a very special gift… straight from the heart.
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