Chopping Chocolate - An Ancient Polish Family Tradition

 Chopping chocolate was a fun memory of my childhood.    

At Easter time, my dad would bring home a ten pound block of Mercken's milk chocolate -

and we would all set about chopping chocolate into shaved pieces.   Actually, my father would usually buy 60 or 70 pounds of chocolate and divide it up among his siblings who also molded their own Easter candy.  My mom would then melt the shaved chocolate in a double boiler and set to work molding the sweet warm molten chocolate in molds of assorted designs.  Chickens, ducks, rabbits, kewpie dolls, etc.  She would make a combination of flat, solid and hollow molded chocolate that would then get put into our Easter baskets.  She would also make coconut clusters, nut clusters and caramels.
It's a strong memory - the act of chopping chocolate.
This year I bought some Trader Joe's chocolate in pound blocks and Anders, Kuba and Hannah chopped it up for us.   I then used my mom's candy molds (some over fifty year old!) to create our own chocolate.   My favorite being the chicken and the Easter nest.