Gourmet Chocolate

Today I started working on my handmade Xmas presents. I like to give something handmade to my friends and family... and this year I have quite a list of craft projects to get finished before Xmas! But I've started with making my 'Gourmet Chocolate'. You'll have seen large slabs of chocolate in shops decorated with things like fudge, popping candy and cookies... well my take uses old fashioned childhood sweets. I'm lucky enough to have a fantastic sweet shop called Candy Express on my doorstep. It sells every type of sweets you can imagine. So I've been making my friends and families favourites in milk chocolate! So far I've made 'Gummi Bear' and 'Strawberry Bon Bon'.

Its very easy to make. Here's how I did it.

For each slab you will need:

• 300g good quality chocolate in either plain, milk or white (your choice)
• your choice of sweets
• 25g good quality chocolate in white, milk or plain (it must be different from your main chocolate)

1. Take 300g of your chocolate and melt in the microwave in 30 second bursts.
2. Give it a good stir and then pour onto an 10 x 8 inch cookie sheet.
3. Gently smooth out your chocolate to fill the cookie sheet.
4. Take your sweets and randomly place on top of the chocolate.
5. Take the 25g of different chocolate and melt in the microwave in 30 second bursts.
6. Drizzle the melted chocolate over the top of your sweets.
7. Place in the fridge and chill until completely set.

For the 'Strawberry Bon Bon' I used a mixture of red and white chocolate chips melted and then drizzled to decorate.

It makes a wonderful gift that you can tailor to your friends and family's favourites! Enjoy!