Make Your Own Chocolaty Treats for Halloween, like these White Chocolate Ghosts!

Tired of handing out the same ol' mini KitKat and Mars bars for trick or treaters?  Make your own chocolate treats this year!  These Halloween Ghosts look great in cello bags or on Halloween dessert platters at the annual office costume party.

Here is how you make them:

You need:

-340 g / 12 oz (makes 22-24 ghosts) or 16 oz / 454 (makes 30-32) of white chocolate.
-semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips (about 70 to 100 pieces).

Instructions:

1. Lay out a very long piece of waxed paper on your counter top.

2. Melt and temper 12 ounces of white chocolate.  (Tempering is an important step to ensure your treats look and taste their best. See here for instructions on tempering white chocolate).

3. Place your chocolate in a plastic pastry bag with a very small round tip, or cut a small hole in the end of the bag.  A sandwich or freezer bag can also be used with a small hole cut in one corner.

4. Squeeze the white chocolate out in a circle, then drop the white chocolate below and squiggle it to the right to make a ghost belly shape and its tail.

5. Let cool and set.  Once completely hard (about an hour) peel off the waxed paper and place in cello bags or on a Halloween Party treat platter with other desserts.

Makes 22 to 30 ghosts (15 grams or 1/2 ounce each).

White chocolate tips:

• I used Camino brand of organic and fair trade white chocolate, but you can buy large quantities of good quality white chocolate at bulk stores, such as Bulk Barn in Canada. You can also purchase white chocolate online at many sites, such as the CacaoBarry and Callebaut brands, as well as Valrhona at Vanilla Food Company (ships to both the U.S.A. and Canada with low flat rates). At Walmart, Joe's is a good brand of white chocolate to use. Learn about and compare about other brands of white chocolate here.

• White chocolate can be finicky and hard to work with, compared to darker chocolate. Ensure your room is no less than 21 degrees C (70 degrees F) when working with white chocolate, or it will harden on your before you are done making your ghosts.  As soon as it starts to stiffen in the pastry bag, throw it into the microwave for 5 seconds only and squeeze the bag to mix the chocolate around and re-melt the hardened bits. If you wait too long to re-heat, it will harden completely and you will need to re-temper it. I find the best temperature of white chocolate while working with it is 80 to 81 degrees F (27 degrees C).