Kyl Haselbauer has 20 years of experience working in fine-dining and modernist kitchens, including Bar Cotto and Anchovies &amp; Olives in Seattle. He is also the owner of Bright Spot, a café and coffee shop in Seattle.

Kyl Haselbauer

Rejoice, you dreamer of dreams! It’s now possible to make your wildest Willy Wonka chocolate fantasies a reality—and you don’t need any special equipment, a river of chocolate, or an industrial extractor pipe (this is especially good news if you’re Augustus Gloop). After developing our <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/recipes/from-bean-to-bar-understanding-chocolate">artisanal dark chocolate bar</a>, visions of milk chocolate still danced in our heads. But unlike that recipe, in which you can simply melt and then whisk everything together, we knew that we’d need to give the ingredients here an extra whirl—the milk powder particles are larger and need to be pulverized a bit more. From those earlier dark chocolate experiments, we knew that a blender (and a spice grinder, if you have one) would make it easy and accessible to create a milk chocolate bar at home. The milk powder here mellows the intensity and bitter notes of dark chocolate. While this bar isn’t quite as smooth as a store-bought bar, it has a great flavor and is a fun technique to try!You can use any chocolate mold you’d like to make full-sized chocolate or small fun-shaped chocolates. You can also use this recipe to make chocolate for dipping strawberries, or pipe your own chocolate chips. Pull out your blender and put on your best Willy Wonka-esque hat. It’s time to make chocolate.

The Easiest Way to Make Milk Chocolate Bars at Home