a gourmet gift for the christmas table

 Wanting to take something home made for a hostess gift during the holiday season?    Then why not make up some little chocolate treats.  Providing you have the right ingredients, this could not be simpler.

All you need is good quality chocolate, either plain, milk or white,  and a garnish of your choice.   I sometimes use nougat, or caramel-led nuts or even cranberries.  Today I wanted a more exotic flavour, and added some sugar coated rose petals - so pretty and such a lovely taste.

Simply melt the chocolate very very gently and spoon onto greaseproof or waxed paper to form small discs.  While the chocolate is still warm drop the garnish on top and put the discs to harden in the fridge.

There are so many variants on this, even using pepper or paprika to compliment the chocolate flavour.  Also you can heat dark and white chocolate separately then spoon a little of each on the waxed paper, before gently swirling with a fork so the two colours blend without being thoroughly mixed.

And if you don't trust your hand to make the small discs, then simply pour the chocolate onto a large square of paper, sprinkle with the garnish and once hard don't cut but break into rough pieces of chocolate bark.

Wrapped in a pretty cornet, this is is home made gift that will always please in the holiday season.