This recipe came from a very sweet woman I know. My family absolutely loves these little candies and they could hardly be easier. The hardest part is spooning the candy onto the paper to cool, that and not eating them all before they set. Please note only use DRY utensils when making chocolates; water can ruin your candies. You may need to put the candy into the fridge for a little while to get it to set if it is very warm in your house the day that you make them. For example, last time I made them I was also baking bread that day; the kitchen was too warm for the candies so I had to very carefully cut my parchment to manageable sizes so that my candy could be placed in the fridge. If it is more than 72 degrees in your kitchen, you may want to plan on chilling them in the fridge, and that means making sure you can safely make it from your crock pot to your fridge or a really cool place in your house without dropping all your goodies on the floor. I use what I consider to be an average-sized family crock pot for my candy; I believe it holds about 3 quarts. I have successfully halved the recipe and used a smaller crock pot; the candy will only take around 1 hour and 45 minutes for the half batch to melt.
This recipe came from a very sweet woman I know. My family absolutely loves these little candies and they could hardly be easier. The hardest part is spooning the candy onto the paper to cool, that and not eating them all before they set. Please note only use DRY utensils when making chocolates; water can ruin your candies. You may need to put the candy into the fridge for a little while to get it to set if it is very warm in your house the day that you make them. For example, last time I made them I was also baking bread that day; the kitchen was too warm for the candies so I had to very carefully cut my parchment to manageable sizes so that my candy could be placed in the fridge. If it is more than 72 degrees in your kitchen, you may want to plan on chilling them in the fridge, and that means making sure you can safely make it from your crock pot to your fridge or a really cool place in your house without dropping all your goodies on the floor. I use what I consider to be an average-sized family crock pot for my candy; I believe it holds about 3 quarts. I have successfully halved the recipe and used a smaller crock pot; the candy will only take around 1 hour and 45 minutes for the half batch to melt.
The ingredient list alone will not reveal how sensitive chocolate coatings are to residual moisture. Even a single drop of condensation falling from the slow cooker lid will cause the melting chocolate to seize into an irreversible, grainy paste. Always wipe the interior of the lid completely dry before heating.
Scaling this bulk confectionery production requires a proportional shift in vessel size. Halving the ingredient weights successfully reduces the melting window to roughly one hour and forty-five minutes, provided a smaller three-quart cooker replaces the standard six-quart model. Chopping the German chocolate and vanilla bark into uniform half-inch pieces ensures even thermal transfer across heating cycles.
Finished clusters solidify fully at ambient room temperatures below 72 degrees Fahrenheit; warmer kitchens necessitate refrigeration on parchment-lined baking sheets. Stored inside airtight containers with parchment separating the layers, these candies maintain quality at room temperature for up to three weeks or freeze for three months without blooming.