If there was ever a holiday season we could use a little extra something - this is the year. And, since I love making things beautiful, I came up with an amazing way to create some beautiful-little-extra-somethings with IOD Moulds in the kitchen!

There was a little experimentation with trial and error in my project. But I kept track of everything that worked so I could pass it along to you. If you scroll down to the step-by-step tutorial and supply list below - you’ll get my perfect instructions!

Or you can watch me create Herbed Butter molds and Chocolates (and a mess in my kitchen) with IOD Moulds right here on the video. Hit the subscribe button while you're there!

 

To make the Herbed Butter and Chocolates, you have so many choices with all of the IOD Moulds. Here are the ones I used in the video:

 Boughs of Holly 

 Snowflakes

Here Are The Other Tools + Ingredients I Used

Note: I found a couple of recipes for Herbed Butter and picked one and that’s what I recommend you do as well. The ingredients here include the Rosemary + Garlic butter recipe I made.

Food Ingredients

• Butter (Salted or Unsalted, depending on your recipe)
• Garlic
• Herbs (fresh or dried)
• White, Dark, and/or Milk Melting Chocolate
• Candy Canes
• Slivered Almonds (or other nuts of choice)
• Edible Flowers

Cooking Tools

• Cutting Board for chopping
• Chef’s Knife
• Piping Bag or Pourable Measuring Cup
• Regular Spoons
• Spreading spatula or Butter Knife
• Chopstick or Toothpicks
• Double Boiler or Bowls/Microwave
• Mixing Bowls (butter, chocolates)

 

Step-by-step Instructions for Herb + Garlic Butter with IOD Moulds

Whether you use dried or fresh herbs in your recipe, make sure everything is chopped as finely as possible. Larger chunks and bits will prevent the detail of the moulds from showing up. That’ll rob you of the gorgeous butter molds and all the oooohhhhs and ahhhhhhs you deserve!

 

Step 1 Prep Work -

Make sure to start out by leaving the butter out so it’s at least room temperature. It definitely needs to be soft and stir-able before you start.While that’s happening, chop all of the dry ingredients that will be mixed in with the butter. You’ll need as fine a chop as possible.

 

Step 2 Mix Ingredients - 

With butter soft enough to easily blend with a large spoon or spatula, add all the dry ingredients called for in your recipe. I add chopped Rosemary and minced garlic to the butter in a large mixing bowl. Make sure you blend the ingredients well.

 

Step 3 Add Mixture to IOD Moulds -

Begin spooning the butter mixture into your mould. I used the IOD Snowflake and Boughs of Holly moulds to start. Squish the butter mixture into the mould just like you do with the IOD Air dry clay - push it into the mould so there’s no air in it. This will also make sure you capture the detail of the design.

Then clean the excess off the top of the mould with the edge of your spreader (the backside of a butter knife works fine, too.) If you see any chunks of garlic get those out because they’ll lift away from the design of the mould. 

I filled most of the Snowflakes up and experimented with the smaller ones to see if they pop out cleanly enough. It did feel strange since I’m used to doing this with clay, but it works!

 

Step 4 Freezer to Serving Plate

Once you’ve scraped off the excess butter mixture, pop the mould into your freezer. It won’t take long for them to set! When they’re ready, tap the mould lightly on the bottom and they lift right out. 

Pro Tip: the edges of the Snowflakes are a little delicate and might be tricky so just take it slowly with those. Then all you have to do is arrange them on a serving plate. I recommend a colored plate, because these beautiful butter molds will look amazing on your Thanksgiving and Christmas table!

 

Step-by-step Instructions for Chocolate Candy with IOD Moulds

This holiday candy turns out fantastic whether you have semi-professional equipment in the kitchen or not. I definitely went lo-tech and you can see how wonderful my Chocolates turned out.

 

Step 1 Melt the Chocolate - 

There are so many ways to melt chocolate - stirring the melting chocolate in a double-boiler, tempering chocolate. Or there’s the microwave and a spoon to stir with after every 30-second zap, which is the method I used!Anyway you choose to melt your chocolate, just know that it’s going to harden quickly so you need to be prepared.

 

Step 2 Fill the Moulds with Extras -

While the chocolate is melting, prepare all the other ingredients you plan to add. I used candy canes crushed into granules and then I left some candy canes in small sized bits as well. 

Next, I pulled the petals off some edible flowers for a gorgeous and creative twist to my Chocolates. I also had Slivered Almonds to add. The trick to adding larger bits to the chocolate in the moulds is to add it on the top once you’ve put the chocolate into the mould. 

I think the skies the limit on the variety of recipes you can use making your Chocolates. I even found Peanut Butter chips that would work great! 

So for this step, I spoon crushed candy canes into the bottom of the Boughs of Holly, Seashells, and He Loves Me Moulds, as well as petals I’ve pulled off edible flowers. 

 

Step 3 Add Melted Chocolate - 

Put your melted chocolate into a piping bag, a pourable measuring cup, or just spoon it into the moulds. Remember - the chocolate will start to harden really fast so have your plan ready and add the chocolate right away. Once you’ve poured it in, you can use toothpicks or, like I did, the narrow tip of a chopstick, to get the chocolate into all the edges of the designs. 

Pro Tip: Who doesn’t love a mess when you’re creating, right? I let all the mess just happen but you can always put parchment or wax paper down for an easy clean-up. Plus, as the chocolate hardens, it’s easy to scrape off of stone countertops.

I also combine some white and dark chocolate into the evergreen trees in the Boughs of Holly mould. You’ll see at the end that it looks like they’re dusted with snow! Mix different chocolates as you’re pouring because it’s all about being creative.

Once the chocolate is in the mould, you need to scrape off the excess. The easiest way I found to do this was with an old flour leveler, moving the excess chocolate right onto my counter. You can reuse the excess chocolate if you get it back into your bowl.

The final step is to add any larger ingredients to the top of the chocolate.  I added slivered almonds   and some larger bits of crushed candy cane.

 

Step 4 Freezer to Serving Plate -

Once you’re all set with adding anything to the back of the Chocolates, go ahead and pop the Moulds into the freezer to set. Once they’re done and out of the freezer, the Chocolates come out like a project using casting resin. They really pop right out.  And that’s it! I plan to spend one whole mess filled day cranking out all the Chocolates I need.

Creative Inspiration comes to me as I take the Chocolates out of the Moulds, and I’m sharing them here with you! You could put a red cranberry at the top of a tree or the red petals from the edible flowers. If you add them just on the edges, especially on the bigger tree, they’ll look like lights or bulbs.

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes - they’ll still taste yummy. And by the time you’re on your third set, I guarantee you’ll be an expert!

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