(I like to make a mess... )

Time to rewatch the movie, Chocolat.

while no longer there; he still has 2 shops. One in Brooklyn, and one in the passageway toward Grand Central.

Anyway I was near that factory for a while. There were candies, and bon-bons, bark, cookies, powdered chocolate, big molded chocolate items usually animals, ice cream in the summer, and hot (and ?frozen hot chocolate).
It was all to swoon for !!
😄🥰🥰🥰

They also had hot chocolate plain, or with a dash of chilli powder! Pretty tasty!

In some states you can buy liqueur chocolates imported from Europe....

I miss them being so easily available!!

there also was a red wine one.

I'm crazy about Carmel.
Now, add chocolate?
I'd be my own hero!

Super yum!!

Private Selection caramels are better than a lot of boxed chocolates. My store sells so many they have a special display of them.

I started by doing it just to make a caramel sauce for carrots.
Then, I decided just to make caramel.
But, I've never coated them with chocolate.
I do sprinkle them with course salt, though.
I avoid the term sea salt, because 99% of all salt on earth was, at some point, sea salt.

Seems the chocolate coating part would be the easy part.

LOL on the salt.

Sugar, a little corn syrup (we need the water in that) and a hot pan. (I use a big frying pan because of the high surface to mass ratio.)
Have to stir regularly, and have to keep a little water in the side. If it gets too "dry" the sugar can burn. A little water slows the reaction, because the first step in the reaction is the removal of chemically bound water. We're dehydrating the sugar!
A very complex set of reactions then take place to rearrange the organic backbone. Dozens of reaction products!
The flavor can be adjusted be using more or less corn syrup because the distribution of reaction products is changed by the presence of fructose being directly dehydrated.
Have to keep a sharp eye when it starts to change color, because it goes pretty fast at that point.
When it's tge right color, I add a little water and turn down the heat, add half & half or cream, vanilla extract, and then let it sit on low heat until the water we added & the water from the milk product is mostly gone.
Lots of regular stirring at that point.
When it's smooth and gooey, we're done.
I pour it into a small baking pan so it's about a half-inch deep, sprinkle course salt, and let it cool.
Probably 20 minutes, tops.
When I make sauce, it's pretty much the same, but with a bit more water & milk product.
That way, it still pours (very slowly) when cold. When it's warm, it has the consistency of maple syrup, so it sticks to the roasted carrots.

Dark chocolate (70% - 85%), with dark chocolate ganash, with a sprinkle of teeny pistachio pieces on top!
Or teeny pieces of macadamia nuts.

that was some kind of pistachio filling covered with dark chocolate. I love pistachios! I was going to buy it & then saw it was $5 for 2" candy bar.

If I had extra money I might have bought it anyway
. A one time treat 😄

...strawberry or raspberry filling.

& some days I don't!

Or dark chocolate covered toffee.
Then dark chocolate covered caramel.
And maybe dark chocolate covered krispies.
There's a theme.

... and yes, I've just described a perfect Mounds bar!

It's fairly easy to make vegan turtles.

Yum!!

On my best days, I would be a fine piece of Belgian chocolate from one of their famous choclatiers, filled with gin that's incogorous but devinely awesome! Can't remember the name of the place, it was so amazing!!

Last edited Mon Feb 16, 2026, 04:30 PM - Edit history (1)

I would drive those other chocolates nuts to the point where they would kick me out.

Go figure, Deb. 😊