Activity:
Chocolate Gelt
This chocolate gelt is the perfect Hanukkah treat. During the Festival of Lights, grandparents and adults often give small children bags of coins or circular chocolate gelt wrapped in gold foil. The word "Gelt" means "money" in Yiddish.
Chocolate gelt is a treat that you can easily make at home with your child's help. Have your child give chocolate gelt to friends at school, to honor the tradition and include their friends in Hanukkah gift giving. The chocolate gelt can also be used in playing the Hanukkah dreidel game.
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What You Need:
- 1 lb. semi-sweet chocolate (either in chips or in a bar)
- 24 aluminum foil candy wrappers
- Parchment paper
- Small pot or double boiler
- Baking sheet
What You Do:
- Break up your chocolate (if you have a bar of chocolate) and put it a small pot or double boiler.
- Melt the chocolate on low heat, stirring regularly. Make sure the chocolate does not boil—or it will stick to the pan and burn.
- Cover a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper.
- When the chocolate has melted, turn off the heat. The chocolate should be glossy and smooth without any lumps.
- Spoon the chocolate in rounded tablespoons onto the parchment paper, making thin cirlces of chocolate on the paper, leaving an inch or so between each coin.
- Refrigerate until the chocolate has firmed up, for at least a half an hour.
- Once the coins are hard, remove them carefully from the paper. You might want to use a flat, metal spatula for this.
- Wrap each coin in an aluminum foil candy wrapper. If you don't have aluminum foil candy wrappers, you can cut out 2"x2" squares from regular aluminum foil.
Your children can give small gift bags of the chocolate gelt to other children as a Hanukkah gift, or it can be used to barter in the game of dreidel.
