Friday, August 6, 2010

GLEE: Make Your Own Chocolate Kit {Review}


I LOVE chocolate, anything chocolate, preferably dark chocolate, but when it comes to chocolate I seldom complain, and neither do my kids.

When given the opportunity to make our own Glee chocolate kit, my kids were in their glory, and to be quite honest, it definitely sparked in interest with me.  Let's see, spend time with the girls making chocolate.  I find this to be a win-win all around, don't you?  We received a Make Your Own Chocolate Kit in the mail and started cleaning up the counter toand made sure we had everything ready per the directions.

Ok, so Kylie & Emma sorted out the materials.  The Make Your Own Chocolate Kit consisted of 1 pack of cocoa butter, cocoa powder, confectioner's sugar, starter crystals, paper liners, temperature indicator and 2 whole cacao beans.  The cacao beans were to try to see what they taste like - these are not used in the process of making the chocolate).

You can either make this in the microwave or oven, because I do not own a double broiler, I opted to use the microwave.

Step 1:  Make sure we have everything (we did).
Step 2:  Add cocoa butter to microwave safe dish and microwave on high for at least 3 minutes.
Step 3:  Once melted, add confectioner's sugar.
Step 4:  Now add cocoa powder - and mix all together.  (Emma is trying very hard to be careful and not spill the cocoa powder.)
Step 5:  Place temperature indicator on the bottom of the bowl and wait up to 15 minutes until it reaches 94° Fahrenheit.  This is the longest process.  Waiting for the chocolate seemed like an eternity to the girls.  I don't know about you, but having 2 girls (ages 8 and 3) who don't really understand the concept of time, this was the longest 15 minutes of my night, but fun.
Step 6:  Insert chocolate into paper liners (I put in my mini muffin pan to make it easier).  I also added dabs of peanut butter and marshmallow to each liner before pouring the chocolate in to them.  (yum).  Once we added the chocolate, into the refrigerator they went to get hard.
Step 7:  After hardening, guess what came next?  Eating!  The girls loved them and so did I. 

Not only was this fun to do, it realy didn't take that long to do and we all got a great treat at the end. 

The Benefits of the "Make Your Own Chocolate Kit" are:

  • Kids make their own chocolate not by melting chocolate, but from scratch with cocoa butter and cocoa powder;

  • Includes story about the origin and development of chocolate, "the food of the gods!", from Mayan to modern times;

  • All ingredients are included, even actual cacao beans;

  • Perfect for fun and learning, at home, in the classroom or in any group activity; and

  • Makes the equivalent of 20 chocolates.
Glee makes 2 others "Make Your Own Kits", they are Make Your Own Gummies Kit and Make Your Own Chewing Gum.

Verve, Inc.'s other products include three flavors of GLEE all natural chewing gum (Tangerine, Peppermint and Cinnamon).

Not only is Glee Gum free of artificial ingredients, it's also gluten-free and Feingold-diet approved. Now that's good news!  Flavors of Glee Gum are Tangerine, Triple Berry, Peppermit, Cinnamon, Bubblegum Flavor and Spearmint.  I tried all 6 flavors and they were yummy at best!  Each packet size consists of approximately 18 pieces and has o preservatives, artificial colors, flavors or sweeteners.  Glee Gum is gluten, dairy, soy and nut free; the only gum made the old fashioned way, with chicle, and made in the USA!

If you would like to check out any of the Make Your Own Kits or Glee Gum, please visit Glee Gum and order your Kits today - your kids will thank you!

Disclosure:  A huge thanks to Molly at Verve, Inc. (Glee Gum) for providing a Make Your Own Chocolate Kit to abide in my review.  The opinions and words are my own, take em or leave em.  This was a great night spent with my girls, having fun, laughing and making chocolate - memories to keep forever!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Here to follow you from Friday Follow:) Have a fabulous weekend!

Michelle
Faith on Fire