i think it's clear that i enjoy eating chocolates, but i've never spent a significant amount of time trying to make my own. it always seemed like such a hassle (and besides, what if the chocolates i like most are things i can't easily recreate in a home kitchen?)

nevertheless, i spent some quality time in the test kitchen this weekend, attempting to gauge the practicality of chocolate making. i invested a few bucks in some chocolate (just a bar of TJ's bittersweet, not fancy couverture or anything) and some candy molds. for the choco innards, i used leftover banana caramel (i'd made this to put on top of panna cotta, but still had a ton) and a kind of mint fondant, which turned out to be rather delicious despite the recipe being all kinds of funky.

so, how easy was it? actually, it was really easy and the results were not only pretty (god, i need to bring a camera with me) but tasty as @#($(. but there are a few things to note:
(1) chocolate making can be messy, especially if you are using makeshift equipment. the kitchen looked like the aftermath of an easter bunny massacre
(2) tempering chocolate is CRITICAL to making chocolates you can actually handle, and figuring out how to temper chocolate is not easy for me
(3) one should probably make sure there are guests willing to take home bunches of chocolate, because i could've eaten a few dozen of these on my own

all in all, it was a fun experience and i think there will be a lot more experimenting in the future. imagine all the crazy things you can wrap inside a yummy chocolate shell!