| This is quite likely the dream project of many | | | | towel, placing another over top and using a hammer |
| children, as well as a few of their mothers! But be | | | | will work, but possibly too well. A more restrained |
| warned, making chocolate is a finicky business, and | | | | and easy to control way of breaking them into |
| you won't be turning out huge bars of Toblerone. In | | | | pieces is with a mortar and pestle. Once you have |
| fact, it might be a good idea to purchase some | | | | pieces, put them in a clean pepper or other mill and |
| inexpensive molds for small, flat decorative chocolate | | | | grind them. Be careful though, because as the bits |
| shapes like flowers, animals, and birds. These aren't | | | | get smaller, they tend to liquefy. Grind just to the |
| too hard to find, and are usually available around | | | | point where you can put them back in a dish and use |
| Easter and Valentine's.The chocolate you make will be | | | | the mortar and pestle again for the final mashing.By |
| pure chocolate, not the chocolates you get in a gift | | | | now you have a mush. Heat the dish in a pan of |
| box. That takes even more time and patience than | | | | water, and then grind a little more in the mortar. It |
| either Mom or the kids may have. Start your project | | | | should have reached a fairly smooth consistency |
| with raw cocoa beans, which can be found through | | | | after this stage. Now you can add a drop of mint |
| many online sites.Beans need to be roasted by | | | | flavoring, and your sugar. A rule of thumb is 1/2 cup |
| spreading them in a single layer on a pan, and leaving | | | | sugar per pound of cocoa beans processed, but you |
| them in the oven for approximately 30 minutes at | | | | may want to start out with less, in order to see how |
| 400F degrees. Allow them to cool, and then peel off | | | | sweet it gets. Pour into molds, and you have pure |
| the husks, which is a really fiddly job.Next, you'll want | | | | chocolate!Visit for instructions on how to make just |
| to break them up. Spreading them out on a tea | | | | about anything you can think of. |