December 27th, 2008 
Tushar Mathur
We’ve discovered in our goal to reduce spending, that when money is tight, the first thing that we start to question is our gift giving. We all want to lavish people we love with beautiful, expensive gifts. But, that won’t be the case any longer in our family, so what do we do? I believe a gift given from the heart is appreciated just as much, if not more, than a gift of monetary value.
My favorite heartfelt gift is food, chocolate in particular. If you have a little bit of time, you can create some pretty fancy chocolate treats with very little money. A little bit of chocolate goes a long way when you use it to create nut clusters or coconut haystacks, or any number of fun, simple treats. Anyone would think you just paid a fortune when you present them with some pretty chocolate delicacies.
Most chocolate treats are relatively easy to make once you get the hang of it. You’ll find out which pans work best, which spoons you like, and how long to melt the chocolate on the first or second try. I especially like this chocolate treat because it’s something that most people would never dream of making for themselves.
Coffee Spoons For The Chocolate Fanatic
There’s a delicious connection between coffee and chocolate, so this gift is a natural for any coffee drinker on your gift list. Man or woman, if they drink coffee, they’ll love this gift.
Start with this list of items:
You can either purchase some nice silver spoons from your friendly local thrift shop, or just buy some heavy plastic spoons. I like the silver ones because you can find fancy spoons and sometimes some pretty unusual ones, too. Just wash and dry them before using.
In the grocery store’s baking aisle, you’ll find blocks of milk chocolate coating. That’s what you’ll need for your spoons, not the Real Chocolate. Real Chocolate tends to be harder to control, and will not stay shiny if it’s not handled exactly right. The chocolate coating is much better, and actually tastier, than the Real stuff.
Peppermint oil flavor and other goodies like peppermint candy are good additions to the chocolate spoons and add yet another fancy element to them. You may also wish to sprinkle on some little candies like you would buy for sugar cookie decorations.
Parchment paper is a must for covering the cookie sheets. Do not use waxed paper. Warm chocolate has a tendency to stick to waxed paper. The parchment paper will make your finished product a lot easier to handle, and your clean-up a bit nicer, too.
I recommend that since you’re giving a gift of food, buy the proper wrapping. Look in your candy making section of any craft store for clear cellophane candy bags in a size to fit the spoon, leaving some of the handle sticking out. You’ll also want to find some ribbon and raffia to tie the package closed and to decorate the gift.
This is how you proceed:
Place a large pot of water on stove, bring to boil and turn off heat. Meanwhile, cut your chocolate into small pieces and melt by placing in a small heavy pot inside the larger pot of water that has boiled. When chocolate starts to melt around the edges, remove from hot water and stir with a rubber spatula or big wooden spoon until all the chocolate has melted. Be careful that you don’t splash any of the water from the big pan into the small pan.
When you are done stirring the chocolate, dip one spoon at a time in the melted chocolate and lay each one on the parchment paper you have on your cookie sheets. If you plan to decorate the spoons with other candy, do it while the spoon is still wet. Otherwise the candy won’t stick. Then move on to the next spoon, dip, decorate, and so on. Once all of your spoons are done, take your cookie sheet to a cold, preferably dry place. A refrigerator or freezer is okay to just get them set up a little, but don’t leave them in that moist environment for more than a few minutes.
Once the chocolate has set up, you can put each spoon in a candy bag, and tie a piece of ribbon, raffia, or what have you around the handle of the spoon to close the bag. Now you can add a little extra ribbon, a candy cane, or any other decoration you’d like. If you are giving more than one spoon to someone, be sure to put them in a candy bag first, then place all of them together in a pretty bag or box.
Now that you’ve finished tying up all those pretty little gifts, aren’t you pleased with yourself? You have spent your time creating gifts that show you care. Instead of running out to the store to quickly buy yet another gift card, your gift shows that you took time to plan and make a very special someone a very special gift… straight from the heart.
