Our Christmas Tradition: Candies & Chocolates

It’s all about family traditions and chocolate. We make the perfect edible Christmas gift – a beautiful box of candies and chocolates.

I am so excited to be sharing this post with you. It’s been a long time coming!

If you’re here because you were gifted a box of our family’s Christmas tradition candies, THANK YOU… and welcome! If you’re here just looking around, I’m happy you found this post!

I’m Rachel, the owner, and author of this blog. Today I’m sharing the behind the scenes and information on my family’s most favorite and loved Christmas tradition… boxed Christmas CHOCOLATES!

LOOKING FOR OUR CHOCOLATE’S RECIPES?

Here are a few of the recipes I’ve already shared.

• White Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
• Peppermint Bark
• Peppermint Patties
• Butter Almond Truffles
• Tiger Butter Bark
• Soft Homemade Caramels
• Black Anise Caramels
• Peanut Butter Balls
• Peanut Brittle
• English Toffee
• Peanut Butter Cups
• Smores Presents
• Cherry Cordial Chocolates
• Almond Joy {Copycat} Chocolates
• Caramel Pretzel Rods
• Orange Cream Chocolate

COMING SOON! Stay tuned for these additional recipes.

• Raspberry Cream Chocolates
• Oreo Bark
• Lemon Cream Chocolates
• Classic Peanut Clusters
• Bavarian Mints

DO WE SELL OUR CHRISTMAS CHOCOLATES?

Short answer, nope!

Many people that have tasted our chocolates and candies have asked us, “Why don’t you go into business and sell these chocolates? They’re so good! I’d totally buy them.”

The short and simple answer is…. We just don’t want to for many reasons.

The logistics, the stress, the time chocolates take to prep and make. We all have families, jobs, and other endeavors. We really just like to make these as a family Christmas tradition and not a job.

WHERE OUR CHRISTMAS CHOCOLATE-MAKING FAMILY TRADITION STARTED:

THE BEGINNING-

It all started with my mom and aunt. They attended a chocolate-making class at the local school a couple of decades ago. It’s amazing what you can learn through your community, if you keep an eye open for opportunities. It blossomed and bloomed from there.

My family has been making homemade chocolates for Christmas for as long as I can remember. I was just a little girl when we started making chocolates at my aunt Carolyn’s house. It was only one day out of the year but it was a day I genuinely looked forward to. My mom and aunt would hand-dip all the centers and caramels they had prepared days before and we kids would watch and hope they would “goober” one of the chocolates, so we could eat it.

WE OUTGREW ONE HOUSE-

The older our families became, the more interest we had in helping. As our two families grew, my mom and aunt decided it would be best to continue the tradition in our own separate families. It had become very crowded in one house.

DO WE END THE CHRISTMAS CHOCOLATE’S TRADITION?

Since cutting chocolate-making ties with my aunt we continued the tradition in my mom’s home. About 5 years ago she alluded to my sister and I that “maybe we shouldn’t keep doing chocolates.”

My sister and I weren’t going to have it. *wink* It’s a tradition we love but really, it’s our favorite. We determined to continue and do it in a way that would be less stressful for mom.

For the last several years, my sister has been the host for our annual chocolates weekend. This tradition has been ingrained into our family and, I don’t know if we will ever let it go.

WE’VE LEARNED A LOT ALONG THE WAY:

Through simple trial and error and troubleshooting problems, we’ve learned so much.

We’ve learned methods of melting chocolate to help avoid chocolate bloom. That’s when chocolate goes white. It’s perfectly fine to eat and doesn’t affect the taste, but it does affect the look.

When this tradition started, all the chocolates were hand-dipped. About 5 years ago, Aunt Deena, Ryan’s aunt, introduced me to chocolate MOLDING.

We found the chocolates came out so beautiful, shiny, and professional-looking but it was MUCH more time-consuming especially when we were making over a hundred pounds of chocolates. We now do both, hand-dip and mold chocolates. You can see what type of molds we use HERE.

Over the years, we’ve found what we each like to make and have perfected the process. This has helped us speed up the production and still produce high-quality, outstanding candies and chocolates. This has also spread the “stress” of chocolate-making so no one person is overwhelmed.

HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO MAKE ALL THE CHRISTMAS CHOCOLATES?

When this chocolate tradition was born decades ago, it started as an afternoon endeavor. Within a few years, it turned into a day-long activity. About 8 years ago, it turned into a weekend adventure and has held strong ever since.

To help the weekend go as smoothly as possible, we delegate and organize who does what.

One of my favorite things about how we prepare for our chocolate-making weekend is how each person on our chocolatier crew has strengths and we use them to our advantage.

MEET THE CHRISTMAS CHOCOLATIER CREW OF 2020:

• Becky (mom) – she prepped all the Butter Almond Truffles and Bavarian Mints.
• Jessica (sister) – made all the cream centers for the molded chocolates (raspberry, lemon, orange, almond coconut, cherry) and made the Peppermint Patties.
• Morgan (sister) – prepared the white chocolate and regular peanut butter cups, Peppermint Bark, Tiger Butter Bark, and Oreo Bark.
• Rachel (me) – I made most of the “candy” which included the English Toffee, Peanut Brittle, Dipped Salted Caramel, Soft Caramel wrapped, Black Anise Caramel, Homemade Marshmallows for the Smores Truffles, and Honeycomb bark. I also make Dipped Caramel Pretzels. In 2021 I made a couple of new flavors and they are keepers: Cheesecake Dreams (a delicious, creamy sour cream center), homemade Fast Break bite (homemade nougat with a homemade peanut butter filling on top then dipped in chocolate), an classic Pecan Turtles (caramel with a toasted pecan pressed in the center then dipped in chocolate).
• Carly (sister-in-law) – designs and prints all our beautiful cards. She figured out years ago she doesn’t enjoy the chocolate-making/molding part of the process. She is a perfectionist, it stressed her out. This worked out great because she is AMAZING and enjoys designing the cards and prepping our final boxes. She also ties the cutest bows to add a final touch. Unfortunately, in 2020 she was unable to attend in person due to feeling unwell but still made our cute, informational cards.

• Barbara (Grammy Babs) – It was Grammy Babs first year joining our crew and she was awesome! Such a trooper… stayed up with some of us until the wee hours of the morning molding chocolates and boxing the final products.

IT’S ABOUT TOGETHERNESS AND BONDING:

In all, our chocolate-making tradition lasts for about a week. We each prepare what was delegated to us so we come together for our weekend of girl talk, catching up, chocolate molding, cupping, boxing, and plating. It’s the best part of it all.

We all work together to create these delicious treats for the ones we care about and we do it TOGETHER. We truly love the opportunity to be with one another and enjoy the bonding time. This time creates some of the most fun memories… especially when we stay up until 3 am, punch-giggly and laughing ourselves to sleep.

After doing this for years and years, I 100% understand why handmade chocolates cost upwards of $20-30 a pound!

2020 WAS A RECORD-BREAKING YEAR FOR US!

In 2020 we made a record-breaking 190 pounds, roughly 4,500-5,000 pieces, of homemade Christmas chocolates and candies. This included our hand-dipped and molded chocolates, barks, brittle, and caramels.

Don’t worry! We took extensive precautions due to the pandemic of 2020. We followed the CDC guidelines, wore masks, gloves, and incorporated additional sanitizing throughout 2020’s chocolatier adventures.

UPDATE: We did it again in 2021 with a record-breaking 220 pounds! So many chocolates and so much love. We made boxed over 350 boxes of chocolates and 15 platters with a few chocolates to spare.

HOW MUCH DOES IT COST TO MAKE YOUR HOMEMADE CHOCOLATES?

If you look around my blog you will find my recipes are easy, delicious, and budget-friendly. Our chocolates are no exception. You may be wondering how much our chocolates cost us to make…

If you add up the cost for supplies, they range between $3-4.50 a pound, but when you add in about 180 wo”man” hours, it would probably be more like $20-25 a pound.

This is one of my favorite family traditions and it’s my absolute favorite Christmas tradition. Our chocolates are a labor of love, and it’s the love we have for those we gift them to that make it all worth it.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

LOVE,