Anyone that knows me well knows how much I love the Yuletide season. Maybe it is because I was born on 12/12 – a lucky day indeed! We celebrate The 12 Days of Yule in our household, so this is also one of the busiest times of year for me, full of ritual, offerings, house cleaning and cleansing, decorating, cooking, baking and honoring my ancestors and The Holly King.
If you want to learn more about celebrating The 12 Days of Yule, I will be doing daily posts about it on my social media outlets, so please be sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram so you don’t miss any of those updates.
Time for true confessions: I will admit now for all who read this, that I am in my 30’s and… I still believe in Santa Claus! Santa is part of my pantheon of spirit allies whom I pay homage to. I celebrate Santa’s humor, his generosity and love for children and animals and for his ability to play witness to our deepest hopes and dreams and sometimes his ability to grant wishes, big or small. To me, the spirit of Santa exemplifies the need in our lives to believe in magic, miracles and unexpected good luck. To shoulder through hard times and still hold on to the knowledge that things will get better and that it might happen in mysterious or unexpected ways, and to be open to receiving abundance, love and light from the Universe.
So I love to play Santa to friends and family by making holiday gifts each year. Some years, gifts are a combination of handmade and bought (usually bought from local artisans of some kind). But this year, we are on a bit of a tight budget and so we made this a handmade holiday. I enjoyed every minute making these gifts: Melt and Pour Soaps, Needle Felted Decorations, like my Nisse and these handmade chocolates. Making gifts for friends and family are a way that I perform my duties as a Yule Elf and in this way I honor Santa and his earlier incarnation, The Holly King, who I will talk about during The 12 Days of Yule via Facebook and Instagram. So please join me there!
I had the brilliant idea to make Coconut Oil Chocolate as gifts this year. My friend Claudia makes this kind of chocolate and the first time I had it I was blown away by how clean and delicious it tasted! The best part is that it only has 3 ingredients: coconut oil, cocoa powder and liquid sweetener (maple, honey, agave). The worst part is that it really has to be kept in the fridge or freezer and that makes it impossible to ship.
If you make Coconut Oil Chocolate you can give it to local friends, especially as a hostess gift, so they can put it right in their fridge or freezer. Or…you can eat it all yourself!
After making a batch of cranberry-pistachio bark and chocolate covered pretzels and realizing they couldn’t be shipped, I made myself a little treat of all the leftovers for myself, for all my hard work of course- it has cranberries, nuts, raisins and pretzels – YUM!
After that initial experiment, I decided to go a more conventional route, using high quality chocolate chips. Once melted, I covered almond butter stuffed figs, vegan marshmallows and more pretzels. I made more cranberry- pistachio bark and I also used silicon chocolate molds to make chocolate sea salt hearts and chocolate almond butter snowflakes.
The sky (and your imagination) is the limit when it comes to what you can cover with chocolate. The key is to make sure to use items without moisture, if you plan to give them as gifts. Items like freeze dried or dried fruits, nuts, cookies, candies or other confections work well. I personally like making an assortment so people can try several different things and I like coming up with interesting pairings to make the gift extra special.
Both types of chocolates are very easy to make.
Coconut Oil Chocolates
- 1 cup virgin coconut oil
- 1 cup 100% cocoa powder
- ½ cup liquid sweetener (I used maple syrup)
- optional: dried fruits, marshmallows, pretzels, etc.
- Mix everything in a medium saucepan over low heat, allow everything to melt and mix together. Spread chocolate over a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and top with your fruits and nuts to make bark.
- Alternately, dip pretzels, cookies or dried fruits into the hot chocolate and then lay on a parchment lined cookie sheet until hardened.
- *Remember, this chocolate must be stored in a cool location or it will melt!
- 11.5 oz. package of high quality chocolate chips, like Enjoy Life brand * (which are also allergen friendly!)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- optional: dried fruits, marshmallows, pretzels, etc.
- In a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips over low heat.
- Spread chocolate over a parchment paper lined cookie sheet and top with your fruits and nuts to make bark.
- Alternately, dip pretzels, cookies or dried fruits into the hot chocolate and then lay on a parchment lined cookie sheet until hardened.
- 11.5 oz. package of high quality chocolate chips (I like Enjoy Life brand)
- 1-teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 10 oz. package of organic dried mission figs (I used Woodstock Black Mission Figs)
- 2 -3 TBS almond butter (I love Barney Butter)
- In a double boiler, melt the chocolate chips mixed with cinnamon over low heat.
- Meanwhile make a small slice into the thickest part of the fig, open gently with your fingers and fill it with about ⅛ of a teaspoon of almond butter.
- Do this will all the figs.
- Once chocolate and cinnamon mixture is melted, dip the figs into it and then lay on a parchment lined cookie sheet until hardened.
The next step is to wrap your chocolates in a pleasing way. I found very cute holiday boxes at Big Lots for $1 each. I covered the inside of each box with decorative tissue paper and then filled them with chocolates. Most craft and big box stores have a section for holiday gift-wrapping where you can find economic ways to wrap your treats.
To me there is nothing better than handmade gifts. The care and love that goes into a gift like that is more valuable than the sum of its parts. You still have time to whip up a few tasty treats for loved ones near and far. And if you receive a handmade gift this year, know it comes straight from the heart!
UP THE YUM: The Kitchen Witch in me is always at work when making food gifts for loved ones. I added cinnamon to my chocolate to imbue them with fire and sun energy (perfect for the solstice). Cinnamon also draws love, happiness, and money, properties anyone would love to have more of. Familiarize yourself with herbs and spices and their magical properties to add more intention to your handmade gifts.
Infuse Your Life with (more) YUM. YUM is the stuff that feeds not just our bodies but also our spirits. Offering simple recipes and tips, life hacks and tools and little pleasures to infuse life with more of the Good Stuff, the YUM.
Loved reading this. Can’t wait to taste. Oh and I believe in Santa too!!!
They all look good Jenn, we made some choccies too….great fun and so many things you can add.
Happy New Year’s to you all! 🙂
What kinds did you make? Happy New Year!
This year we made just trail mix choccies! 🙂
Sounds yummy!