Valentine's Day is just around the corner. It's the holiday dedicated to love and all things romance. The stores are full of flowers, cards...and chocolate! While there is good chocolate to be had from the store, wouldn't it be nice to present your sweetie with something more from the heart, something homemade?

It's really not difficult. It takes a little time and a little bit of patience. It also takes some good quality chocolate and a candy mold. If you have these things, you too can make can make some home made chocolate treats for your special someone.

I am going to guide you through the process step by step. We'll talk about candy molds, chocolate qualities and how to temper it, as well as some fillings and some ways to finish the candies. It's a fun project and a nice thing to surprise your baby with. Click the hearts to keep reading in order to find out all about making your own confectionary masterpiece.

Candy Molds
You can make chocolates without without any kind of mold. Traditional truffles are simply chocolate ganache that has been chilled, shaped into a ball, and rolled in cocoa powder or some other coating. This blog is the best/funniest explanation of that process I could find. However, when I talk about chocolates, I mean filling contained in a thin shell of chocolate that has a shape. For Valentines day, I would choose a heart shaped mold.

There are a lot of places online to find good candy molds. The best one I was able to find is called Chocoley . This company sells all kinds of chocolate molds, from inexpensive plastic sheets to professional quality polycarbonate molds like to ones pictured. Most of the candy molds I came across on my search were really not appropriate for making filled chocolates. The molds on Chocoley, however, were all really nice. Not only that, but the plastic molds are inexpensive while appearing to be just what I'd want to use.

Wherever you get your mold, you need to look for a few things. The material shouldn't be too flimsy. If this is just a once in a while endeavor, by all means go with a less expensive option, but still look for quality. Look for corners that are nice and square. What I mean by corner is where the impression of the shape meets the top of the mold. You need for this to be nice and straight, not curved to any degree. Also, it will make things much easier if the mold doesn't have any fancy edges to it. Just a straight, square side is all you want.

Fillings
You can fill your chocolates with many different things. You could go with ganache, either flavored or plain; some sort of fruit filling, such as raspberry jam; or maybe some kind of creme.

Ganache is super easy to make and it can be flavored any way you want. Ganache is a chocolate a mixture if chocolate and heavy cream, and sometimes butter, that can then be flavored. It is quite often used to coat cakes or make truffles. This is a link to a great explanation of ganache.
A good rule of thumb for ganache is to go with two parts chocolate to one part heavy cream. I generally prefer to scald the cream and pour that over the chocolate, stirring until everything is mixed together. Once the mixing is done you can add a flavoring: some kind of liqueur is your best bet, though you can use fruit puree. Another great way to flavor ganache is to steep something in the cream while you're heating it, such as a flavorful tea or lavender.

You could use peanut butter as a filling, as well as fruit jams, or maybe marshmallow fluff if your sweetie is into that. You could also try some other kind of candy filling. Recipes for candy fillings are all over the internet. This site seemed to have a good selection of tasty choices.

It's a good idea to have you filling made before you are ready to start. It will need to be cooled at the very least. You could even have it ready to be piped into the mold before you start tempering the chocolate (this is discussed in length later). If you don't have store bought cloth or plastic bags, or parchment paper folded into a cone, then you can use plastic baggies. Fill the baggy and snip off one corner for a great home answer to a piping bag.

Chocolate
Now for the main player. Chocolate is sooo good. Fortunately we are the beneficiaries of the recent chocolate revolution (one among so many, thankfully). Once upon a time you could only find Hershey's chocolate at the grocery store, and that stuff is awful for making good chocolates. Now you can get all kinds of high quality products quite easily. Some good quality brands include Lindt and Giradeli, as absolute basic grocery store brands. I know that brands like Callebaut is sold at Whole Foods. I've seen it on their table o' chocolate. If you can find Valrhona brand chocolates you're in good shape, as that is a great quality chocolate. I even recently found out about Cargill's line of high end couverture (chocolate that's suitable for making truffles and candies). It's called Peter's Chocolate and it's pretty good. Whatever you choose, just make sure it's a high quality product. Low quality chocolate simply will not work, plain and simple.

There is one thing to keep in mind when you get your chocolate. You probably want to choose one with a higher percentage of cocoa butter. That means a dark chocolate, bittersweet or semisweet. If the chocolate has a percentage on the package, go for a high percentage, like 65 or 70. The percentage refers to the amount of actual cocoa in the bar, both cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Everything else is sugar and/or milk. While you can use milk chocolate and white chocolate, they don't like to behave as much. Even with some experience, milk and white chocolates are more difficult to manipulate. I recommend starting out with dark chocolate because you'll get good results more easily.

Now I want to touch on tempering chocolate. You need to go through this process in order to get the chocolate to behave properly. I could take all day to explain about chocolate crystals and melting points, but I don't think anyone has all day anymore. This article does a great job of explaining the technicalities of tempering. So while all solid chocolate is in temper (as we say in the industry), you need to melt it to use it your own way. That means you have melted all the crystals and you need to get the chocolate back in temper for your chocolates to come out well.

There are two main methods for tempering chocolate: seeding and tabling. Tabling involves melting the chocolate, pouring two thirds of it onto a marble surface, and pushing it around until it thickens, then adding that back to the rest and stirring until it has returned to the proper temperature. Unless you have a marble surface to work on, I recommend the seeding method. It's cleaner and easier, in my opinion.

First melt the chocolate. You can either set up a double boiler system on the stove or you can use the microwave. I prefer the microwave. You have to be watch it more closely, but I think this is easier for melting chocolate. I set the timer for 30seconds to one minute initially, depending on how much chocolate I'm using. If you are tabling, melt it all. If you are seeding, you need to only melt one third of the chocolate. After the initial timer has stopped on the microwave, stir the chocolate. Continue heating at 10 second intervals, stirring between each, until it's melted but only slightly warmer than body temperature, about 105F to 110F. Now you need to get it back to working temperature, about 88F to 90F. For seeding, add the chocolate you saved earlier to your melted chocolate and stir until the "seeds" are all melted. Did I mention you need to chop the chocolate up into small pieces before adding it back to the melted quantity? Well, now I have. You should be at temper when everything is melted. To test it, dip a corner of parchment or wax paper into your chocolate and let it cool. If it cools relatively quickly and sets up shiny and streak free, then you're good. If not, stir some more and let the chocolate cool a bit more, then test it again. Now you should be ready to start.

Step by Step
The first thing you need to do is gather everything together: the mold, the filling in a piping bag of some kind, and the tempered chocolate. Pour the chocolate into the mold, filling up all of the cavities. Now quickly flip the mold over (you should have a sheet of parchment down or a bowl to catch everything), and tap the mold firmly until the chocolate is only coming off in light drips. Use a knife or scraper of some kind to scrape the chocolate off the top of the mold. This leaves the top clean and only the cavities coated in chocolate. Set the mold on its side and let the chocolate set completely. This may take a while. Once the chocolate is set, pipe in whatever filling you're using. Only fill each cavity two thirds to three quarters full. You need to leave room for the chocolate that goes on top. Let the filling set for a while, just long enough to get a slight skin on top.

Next pour more tempered chocolate on top of each cavity. It doesn't matter if you are a little messy. You need to scrape the excess chocolate off anyway. You should be left with a filled cavity that has been capped (the bottom has been put on), and the cap should be smooth and clean. Now all you have to do is wait until everything is set. This shouldn't take too long. You could even put the mold into the fridge for about ten minutes. Once the chocolate is set, gently tap the overturned mold to release the chocolates onto the work surface. Voila, homemade chocolates for your special someone!

There are a couple finishing techniques you could employ, but you are pretty much done now. There are edible powders you could dust over the top to add color. You can find them at most craft stores which sell cake decorating supplies. I found them here online. You could also get those colored white chocolate coins, melt some, and drizzle that over the chocolates. Either one would be a nice touch.

Now all that's left is a creative way for you to present your work. I won't get into that though. Presentation is a highly personal thing. The only thing I will say is be creative. Look around for ideas, sure, but use your imagination. Give the chocolates to your sweetheart in a way that will be special for both of you.