Chocolate Covered Yummies

Last month I attended a chocolate workshop at work and learned about tempering chocolate.  Tempering is method for heating and then cooling chocolate so that the finished product has a nice gloss sheen, and snap.  If tempered correctly, the chocolate will not bloom due to poor technique.
 I chose the Seeding Method as my method of choice because I have a small surface area in my kitchen, and it was just the easier method. The seeding method involves heating chocolate to a temperature to about 115F and then adding chocolate to reduce the temperature down to 90F.  .
If I'm feeling up to it, I'll add a detailed post about the different methods of tempering chocolate. 

Chocolate covered almonds

Chocolate covered almonds with Heath toffee. I swear, these chocolate covered almonds tasted just as good, if not better than store bought chocolate covered almonds.

Chocolate covered apricots, kettle potato chips, and senbei (from Hawaii). Good thing Mike was taking a nap when I was experimenting in the kitchen, or he might have thought that I was a bit crazy dipping all this food in chocolate.  

This looks like a mash-up and on the verge of kind of gross looking, but I thought that this was delicious! I chopped up some dried apricots, cherries, and almonds and then poured the leftover chocolate on it.  It's my version of a fruit and nut bark or chocolate mendiants.  So good! I guess I have to work on making it look pretty.