Chocolate Gift Baskets

Making Your Own Chocolate Gift Baskets

Chocolate gift baskets are perfect gifts with or without the occasion. They are often used as party gifts, birthday gifts or just out of the ordinary gifts that you give to your love ones or to the person you are trying to win over. It would be even better if you are making chocolates and you made the basket yourself. Making a chocolate gift basket will take time but you won’t have to spend too much on commercial chocolates and buying them as a pack. Chocolates are very easy to make nowadays since there are ingredients that eases the making of chocolates. You don’t need to have special equipments but as already indicated - you do need time to prepare for the chocolates.

Preparing the Chocolates

You could be as fancy as you can with your chocolates. Only there are certain things that you need not miss when you’re making chocolates. Consider them the foundation of making a good chocolate.

The following are the so called "foundations" in making a chocolate:

1. Sugar
2. Milk
3. Cocoa
4. Butter

The first three ingredients (Sugar, Milk, and Cocoa) are the components that will sweeten the chocolates. Butter on the other hand is used to add a shiny effect and will add to the creamy flavor to the chocolate. When preparing chocolates with these ingredients, sugar and milk often have the same amount. Cocoa has to be added in moderation. If you want a stronger chocolate then you should add more cocoa but if you want something smoother or could be appealing to the taste of kids, then you should use cocoa with restraint.

The first three ingredients have to be cooked together in low fire which should be no more than 2400F. The butter will only be added when the ingredients reached an almost solid state or to a state wherein you can form something out of it. Remember that this will really take your time. A small amount of milk, sugar and cocoa will probably take more than two hours before it could become solid. You can place then in a pan and slowly stir them every five or ten minutes. If you use a small pan do not leave your cooking alone since it could easily foam and overflow. Do not cover it in full but cover it only half way so that it will not heat very fast.

When you have added the butter, you can then add flavors to the chocolate. Most would like it to be bare and serve chocolates the way the cook them. But you can actually add any fruits that you would like so that it could have additional taste. The simplest addition you could have for the recipe is vanilla which will add to the sweet smell of the chocolate. You can form the chocolates according to your preferred shapes as well.

You may need to prepare a large batch of chocolates if you’re aiming for a mid-sized basket. But a small basket would do as long as you made all the chocolates yourself.

Before you place your chocolates in a basket, you need to pack them first. Before you do that, make sure that your chocolates are cooled. Usually you would have to place your chocolates in a styro so that you can neatly place them. If you don’t cool them before packaging them, the chocolate shape could break down and will even melt your box.

Preparing the Basket

There are two types of basket that you can prepare – those with an actual basket or a simplified basket. The former would be a little bit more expensive while the latter would be very simple and will not cost you much.

The easiest way to prepare a chocolate gift basket, of course is the one that already has a basket. You could buy a basket and fill it up with your preferred chocolate or the ones that you made. It could cost you but your gift will really look elegant and presentable.

The challenge however is on the fact that you are making home made chocolates and they can’t easily fill the gift basket. You may need to have a lot of home made chocolates to fill a single basket. Although making a chocolate on your own without is good, you might end up spending a lot more than you expect if you wanted to fill the basket.

That is why it is highly advisable to just buy a gift basket with all the chocolates that you want if you don’t have the time to make a gift basket or you wanted to use an actual basket as a gift. Making your own chocolates and including them in a basket with other commercial chocolates could be a little bit frustrating since your chocolate will be overshadowed by commercial chocolates.

If you want to make your own basket, you just need to have plastic cellophane and a ribbon so that you could place all chocolates inside. You may need a small cardboard or carton which could be used as a platform for your chocolates.

Other Considerations on Chocolates and Baskets

Chocolates are high in cholesterol and sugar. If you’re diabetic or would like to avoid cholesterol, you would want to avoid making your chocolates or use fat free alternatives in sugar. But they will still be full of calories and cholesterol since you will have to include butter and cocoa.

For your basket, you might want to use clear plastic cellophanes. Plastic cellophanes come in a wide variety of colors but if you want to be generic and could be used in any occasion, you can go for clear plastic cellophanes.

A chocolate gift basket is a great gift for any occasion. You can choose to make your own gift basket so that it would be unique and personal. On the other hand, you could also purchase a chocolate gift basket online or in your local chocolate store. Either way, a chocolate gift basket is a good token of friendship.