Left-over Chocolate? What to Do?

What to do with that left-over chocolate from Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter or any other significant celebration? We seem to stock in enough chocolate for an upcoming ten-year-drought of the sweet stuff? 

You, of course, may wonder what I'm talking about as you may have eaten all the chocolate in your house.  It seems that we did not and never do when it comes to chocolate Santas, bunnies and hearts.  There's always some left over that no one wants to eat (probably because of overload or maybe a cheap brand of chocolate).  It lingers on the counter or in the cupboard for months until someone decides it's time to throw it out because it's not fresh anymore or worse yet gone bad. 

But there is another choice for that uneaten sweet and that's to chop it up and use it for baking.  Use it in chocolate chip cookies, melt it with a little cream for a ganache to spread over cake or brownies or stir some into hot chocolate for a real treat.

Chop any left-over chocolate in small chunks.  If you have any expensive, good chocolate put that in a separate bag to use for special desserts.

Bag up the chocolate chunks and keep in a cool dry place.  You can even freeze it because it will be used for baking.

Replace chocolate chips with an equal amount of your chocolate chunks when making cookies.

Use the chocolate chunks to make a thick ganache to use as frosting on cakes and squares.

Brownies will taste amazing with a frosting of ganache.

 

Enrich hot cocoa or hot chocolate with a handful of chopped Santas, bunnies or Valentine hearts.

Everyone is happy with a mug of chocolate enriched hot chocolate.