Recipe: Chocolate Covered Twizzlers

I made some chocolate-covered Twizzlers for Saturday’s Luau-party and I promised a few people that I’d post the recipe here:

Chocolate Covered Twizzlers

Ingredients:

• At least one bag of Twizzlers (I used the bags around 12oz)

• Twice as many bags of chocolate chips as bags of Twizzlers (assuming a bag of around 12oz). For instance, if you have 2 bags of Twizzlers, then you’d need 4 bags of chocolate chips.

Preparation:

The tricky part to this recipe is that the chocolate is melted over a double-boiler — except that a double boiler isn’t that tricky at all :). If you already know how to make a double-boiler, then you can skip the next section.

Setting up a Double Boiler:

A double boiler is simply a metal mixing-bowl set on top of a pot which has barely-boiling water (picture) such that the steam heats the contents of the mixing bowl. First, select a pot that has a diameter no larger than the burner. Then, you’ll need a metal mixing bowl since it has to be heat safe (though heat-safe glass may work as well).

The idea is to have boiling water in the pot — the bowl sitting on top of the pot — and only the steam heating the bowl. So, fill your pot with about an inch of water. Then, while the stove is still off, place the mixing bowl on top of the pot. Then lift the bowl off the put and check if the bottom of bowl is wet — if it is, you’ve put too much water in the pot and you’ll need to empty some out and try again.

Now that you have the right amount of water in your pot, leave the mixing bowl off the pot (for now) and turn the stove to about medium. Once the water is just-boiling, turn it down to about one-quarter heat. You want the water to remain steaming or just-boiling and not reach a rolling boil. Then, put the mixing bowl back on the pot.

After the Double Boiler Setup:

Before we get to melting the chocolate, be sure to set aside some cookie-sheets covered in wax paper. Twizzlers tend to be rather bulky when laid flat, so you may need three or four cookie sheets. The wax paper prevents the Twizzlers from sticking to the sheet after they’ve cooled, so don’t skip the wax paper.

So, your double boiler is setup. Now, pour all the chocolate chips into the bowl. I made my last batch with two bags of chips, and it went fine. In many ways, the dipping-process is even easier with more chips since you can submerge the Twizzlers.

As the chocolate chips heat, stir them with a metal spoon (an everyday flatware-spoon is fine). The melting-process may seem to go slowly at first, but it goes more quickly at the end. Once the chips are melted, you'll need to “whip” the chips: hold on to the metal bowl with an oven mit and whip the chips using the spoon in your other hand (as if you’re beating an egg in a bowl). The idea is to get the chips free of all clumps and evenly melted. (Be sure to leave the stove on during the entire Twizzler-dipping process so that the chocolate remains fully melted.)

With the chocolate ready, set the spoon aside on a saucer (you’ll need it again in a moment). Take a Twizzler and hold it by one end in your non-dominant hand. Then, dunk it about two-thirds to three-fourths the way into the chocolate. With your dominant hand, use the spoon to push the Twizzler into the chocolate and spoon-over the chocolate to ensure that the three-fourths (or two-thirds) of the Twizzler is properly coated.

Pull the Twizzler out and, while holding the Twizzler above the double-boiler, use the back of the spoon to smooth out the chocolate and brush off any excess chocolate back into the bowl.

Then, carefully place the Twizzler on the cookie sheet to cool. And, repeat the process (whip the chocolate, dip the Twizzler, set Twizzler to cool) for the remaining Twizzlers. If your mixing bowl is at a perfect heat, the chocolate may stay smooth enough and you may not have to whip the chocolate between each Twizzler-dipping; that’s up to you.

Once you're done, you’ll need to allow the chocolate to cool and harden: I would give this at least an hour, or preferably two or three hours. You may find that, towards the end, there’s not enough chocolate to fully cover a Twizzler but nonetheless some chocolate still left in the bowl — this goes quite nicely when spooned onto some graham crackers and allowed to cool (the chef’s treat — wink wink, nudge nudge).

A quick note on white chocolate vs dark/milk chocolate. Technically speaking, “white chocolate” isn’t chocolate at all (since it has cocoa butter but no actual cocoa). So, it doesn’t behave like chocolate, cooking-wise. I’ve tried both white and dark chocolate and both can work out fine. However, white chocolate tends to not melt as evenly and, if you’re undecided about whether to use white chocolate, I would recommend dark or milk chocolate instead.

Variations:

The classic combination is, of course, dark chocolate on strawberry Twizzlers. However, there’re also chocolate Twizzlers and white chocolate, leading to these possibilities: white chocolate on strawberry Twizzlers, white chocolate on chocolate Twizzlers, dark chocolate on chocolate Twizzlers and dark chocolate on strawberry Twizzlers (the original).