Hot Chocolate on a Stick!

Recently, I've been on a sewing and crafting kick so I've been surfing the internet for ideas of things I can make. A while back, I actually came across Giver's Log and saw this idea I've been wanting to try. I made adjustments but you can find the original recipe here. I think it makes a perfect party favor or addition to a gift. Something homemade and thoughtful!

Materials you'll need:

A silicone ice cube tray (I tried the Ikea ones that were really cute btw, but because it's plastic and not silicone, I had a tough time getting it out!)

Lollipop sticks - you can find these at your local craft store but you can also use regular craft sticks that can also be found at the craft store

Ingredients:

8oz of bittersweet or semi-sweet chocolate*
1 tbsp instant espresso granules
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup powered sugar


Put the chocolate in a double broiler to melt. Once the chocolate is melted, add the instant espresso until dissolved and sift the cocoa powder and powdered sugar into the melted chocolate, in small portions to make sure the chocolate remains smooth, and whisk together to combine. Continue until the sugar and cocoa is all mixed in. At this point, the mixture should be thickened from the sugar and cocoa.

Pour the mixture into a piping bag or a ziplock bag (and just clip a corner) and pipe into the ice cube tray. Once the ice cube tray is full, put in the sticks and let the chocolate cool for about an hour before putting into the refrigerator for about 10 to 15 minutes to harden. Now it's time to take them out! If you're having trouble taking them out, just dip the tray into hot water and remove quickly just so that the chocolate is soft enough to come out but not melt.

Now its ready for packaging! For mine, I got mini treat bags and just tied a bow on it with ribbon and attached directions.

They're actually quite easy to make and really fun too! For my version, I chose to add coffee to it because coffee is a great compliment on chocolate but others like mint, orange and even chili are good too! If you have plastic spoons laying around the house, just use spoons instead and dip it in a few times to build up layers and let it cool.

I think this is a really fun idea and there's so much you can do with this. Hope you have fun making these!

* I don't recommend chocolate chips simply because most of the time when I melt chocolate chips, something goes wrong and it's because chocolate chips contain emulsifiers which are stabilizers and I think it affects the quality of the chocolate. I like Trader Joe's Pound plus chocolate because it's cheap and much better quality. If you're really picky, you can pick up professional grade chocolates from specialty stores also known as oban wafers (chocolate liquor) but for the purposes of this recipe, a basic block of chocolate is fine since I don't think you can taste a big difference in hot chocolate especially if you're making these for kids!