Making Homemade Candy - All About Melting Chocolate Wafers

Making your own chocolate candies at home is fun and easy. You simply melt the wafers and fill molds, use the melted chocolate as a chocolate fondue to dip fresh fruit, cake, and goodies in, or use it for dipping foods like pretzels, cookies, and candy.

Chocolate melting wafers come in milk chocolate, dark chocolate, and white chocolate. The colored wafers are white chocolate flavor, and come in many colors to make working with candy molds fun and creative. Today, fun embellishments like edible glitter, gold and silver liquid, and sprinkles can be found to add to your candy making adventures. Some companies carry other flavored melting wafers like butterscotch and peanut butter.

Click here to learn how to melt and mold chocolate.

There are several different brands of melting chocolates which can be found on-line, at bakery supply stores, some fabric and crafts stores, and even some large paper product supply stores. You will have to try the different ones to find your favorite, since taste is a personal preference. I have tried several brands throughout the years and I always go back to Merckens Chocolate Melting Wafers. To me, they taste the best, and melt the best. Other cheaper brands that you find at big craft stores seem to be waxy or greasier, and they do not melt as nice and smoothly. Merckens cost just a tad bit more, but since I was selling my candies as a business, I wanted the best, so I put out the little extra money.

You can melt chocolate wafers by either using a double boiler or microwave. Chocolate can easily burn and white chocolate burns more easily than dark or milk chocolate. It is not wise to melt white chocolate in the microwave, it just burns to quickly and easily. No moisture at all can get into the chocolate when you are melting it. Not even one little drop. It will ruin all of the chocolate and you will have to discard it and start all over again. So it is important that all your pans, bowls, spoons, and molds that you are using are completely dry.

The best way to melt chocolate is with a double boiler. Water is simmered in the bottom pan, while the chocolate melts slowly in the upper pan. If you do not have a double broiler you can melt the chocolate in a heatproof microwavable bowl in 10-12 second intervals stirring it each time in between. Do not microwave for longer than 10-12 seconds. I have been rushed and burnt many a bowls by thinking I could save time if I didn't have to stop and stir that bowl again. Trust me when I say, "Don't melt white chocolate in the microwave", and "Don't microwave chocolate longer than 10-12 seconds at a time." The smell of burnt chocolate from the microwave is nasty. The consistency you want the melted chocolate to be is as shown in the photo on the right below.

The very first time in the microwave you can put the candy in for 20-30 seconds. This is what the chocolate wafers will look like. Every time after the first time, it should only be 10-15 seconds at a time with a stir in between each time.

Here is a photo of the chocolate wafers after three or four 15 second intervals of microwaving. Once again it is very important to stir in-between each time microwaving. It may seem unreasonable to stir between each time in the microwave, but when you stir it, it spreads the most heated area of the candy around, stopping the candy from burning in spots.

Here is a photo of the melted chocolate wafers after several trips to the microwave. The chocolate is ready to be poured into molds, or used for coating at this point.

Candy molds can be found in stores and on the internet. Molds can be found for just about any sport, art, activity, or event you are looking for. Most places even have personalized molds. Once your candies are in the molded shapes you desire there are several things you can do. You can make your own gifts, display in a bag with a bow, use for weddings, baby showers, and birthday parties. People will think you went all out. So have fun! Here are some of our suggestions on packaging your handmade candies.

Click here to learn how to melt and mold chocolate.

Enjoy making your homemade chocolates,

Judi