For a Sweet Morning Make Chocolates at Home

Felicity prepared a cup of espresso as she waited for her mother to arrive. They were going to make chocolates at home that morning for their church’s Easter fundraiser. Felicity knew plenty about home espresso machines because she used hers every morning. Candy-making at home, however, was a different story.

She had no idea what fondant was, and, as far as she was concerned, “unmold” was not even a word. Her mother was going to have to teach her a lot!

Felicity wasn’t actually sure how she’d been hoodwinked into participating in this chocolate-making extravaganza. She usually contributed to church fundraisers by selling raffle tickets, or something else along those lines. It was while Felicity pondered this that she heard a light knock on the front door followed by the sound of the door opening.

“Yoo-hoo!” her mother’s greeting echoed in the foyer. “Felicity? Are you up, dear? Time to mold some chocolates!” Felicity’s mother was a cheerful and altruistic woman in her mid-sixties named Abigail.

“I’m in the kitchen, Mom!” Felicity called back. The elder woman appeared in the arched kitchen entryway laden with grocery bags filled with candy-making supplies.

Felicity noticed the name “Merkens” printed on a bit of product packaging that was sticking out of one of the grocery bags, and she asked, “What’s that?”

“That’s the coating chocolate, dear. It’s what we’ll use to coat our molds,” Abigail answered. Then, she set her bags down on the kitchen counter and began unpacking them.

“Let’s just start with some basic molded chocolates,” Abigail said. “I have some really adorable Easter molds and colors. I’ve also brought my double boiler. I was sure you wouldn’t have one,” here she gave her daughter a playful wink.

Abigail showed Felicity how to melt the chocolate using the double boiler and then fill the molds. Abigail told Felicity that she had to be sure to gently tap the filled mold on the counter a few times to avoid air bubbles.

“All right, now the next step is to chill the molds,” Abigail instructed. Felicity placed their three candy molds in the refrigerator.

“And now we wait a few minutes,” Abigail continued. “When the bottom of the mold looks frosted, it’s time to unmold the chocolates.”

While the two women waited for the chocolate to set, Felicity poured herself another espresso and offered one to her mother.

“Oh, I’ll help myself. You don’t have to wait on me,” Abigail answered. When Abigail went to the cupboard above the espresso machine for a cup, she noticed something hanging on the fridge. It was a page of printed search engine results for "automatic espresso machine saeco".

Abigail was unfamiliar with computers and the Internet, so she asked her daughter, “What’s this, Felicity?”

“Oh, Aaron wants a new espresso machine,” she answered. “He says this one’s getting worn out, and he wants to buy a higher quality machine that will last longer. Saeco is supposed to be a really good brand. Anyway, he was looking for a place to buy one online but got interrupted, so he just printed off his search results, so he could look over them later.”

“You can buy a coffee machine on the computer?” Abigail sounded amazed.

Felicity

smiled and replied, “Yeah, like look at this one,” she pointed to the first listing on the page. “They have Saeco home espresso machines and commercial espresso equipment too.”

“My word, I can’t believe what you kids can do now-a-days with those computers.”

“Should we check the chocolate?” Felicity asked.

“Yes, let’s have a look,” Abigail answered.

The bottoms of the molds looked nicely frosted, and Abigail told her daughter that the candies were ready to be unmolded.

“Now, we’ll want to lay down some wax paper on the counter,” the elder woman instructed. “Turn the mold over about an inch over the counter, and just gently flex it.”

Felicity followed her mother’s cues, and out popped their impressive-looking lavender, pink and yellow candies. The three molds they had used were shaped like Easter eggs, bunnies and flowers. The candies were quite festive.

“Well, are you ready for something a little more complex?” Abigail asked.

“Sure,” Felicity agreed.

“Good, let’s put some nut centers in the next batch. Fill the mold cavities only halfway with the coating chocolate.” When this step was completed, Abigail went on to say, “Now, put one of these macadamia nuts in each cavity.”

The women added nut centers to each chocolate. Then, Abigail said, “All right, now just fill the molds the rest of the way with the coating chocolate. Make sure you tap the molds lightly to get out all the air bubbles, and then put them in the refrigerator.”

“Hey, I have an idea,” Felicity said after placing the molds in the refrigerator. “Instead of nut centers, could we use this same technique to make chocolate-covered coffee beans?”

“Well, yes,” Abigail confirmed. “And I think that’s a wonderful idea. I know how you young people love your coffee!”

After unmolding the homemade candies with the macadamia nut centers, Felicity and her mother prepared a batch of chocolate-coated coffee beans in cheerful Easter colors.

“All right, now let’s do some with creme centers,” Abigail suggested. “It’s a little more involved than the nut centers, but it’s still very easy. We start by filling our mold cavities a little less than halfway with coating chocolate. Then, we use a decorator brush to smooth the coating up onto the edges of each cavity, and make sure you can’t see any light through the shell.”

After the mother and daughter had completed this step, Abigail told Felicity to place the molds into the refrigerator saying, “We have to wait for the shells to harden before we can add the creme centers.”

While the shells were being refrigerated, Abigail picked up a tube of candy creme filling and told her daughter to put the tube in warm water to soften it.

Once the shells had set, Abigail dried the tube of creme filling thoroughly, snipped off the tip and showed Felicity how to squeeze the tube from the bottom to give each homemade chocolate a creme center. Then, she instructed her daughter to use some more melted coating chocolate to seal the tops of the candies.

“Now put them in the refrigerator?” Felicity asked.

“You’ve got it,” her mother confirmed.

Felicity put the molds in the refrigerator, turned to her mother and smiled. “You know, this is actually a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. We should do this every year.”

“That would be very…sweet,” Abigail replied.

Felicity rolled her eyes, “Oh, Mom, the pun! Let’s just stick to homemade candies. Homemade humor is clearly not your forte!”

Abigail put an arm around her daughter and squeezed her tightly. Then, they both began to giggle.