Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Easy Chocolates

Oh, the joy of chocolate! These chocolates would be a great hostess gift to take if you were invited to someone's home for a meal or time of fellowship. Hostess gifts are a wonderful way of saying, "thank you for inviting us into your home". When we offer a little gift to the hostess for her thoughtfulness we are acknowledging all of her hard work and time in preparing for us. It is a very thoughtful thing to do. Blessings...

Recipe:
1 (12 oz.) package semi-sweet chocolate chips
3/4 cup sweetened condensed milk
1 teaspoon almond extract, or other flavor of your choice
dash of salt
1/3 cup finely diced maraschino cherries
finely ground pecans to roll chocolates in, about 1 cup.

1. Place chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk in a microwave safe bowl; microwave on HIGH for 1 minute. Stir to combine and microwave for another 30 to 60 seconds, or until melted. Stir until the mixture is smooth. Be careful not to burn chocolate.
2. Add extract, salt and cherries and stir well. Refrigerate for about 30 minutes until mixture is firm enough to roll into balls.
3. Form mixture in 1" balls and roll in pecans. Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Tip: You don't have to use cherries. If you choose to add extract only, you may want to roll the chocolate in coconut, or chocolate sprinkles, or something else.

Tip: Please don't refrigerate chocolate unless it is made with a dairy product such as cream cheese or whipping cream. The flavor of chocolate is greatly diminished by being chilled.


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