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Yesterday was PapaBear's birthday and as usual I ended up with a million things on my plate...for this reason we kept it simple but definitely sweet in more ways than one. Since we have a lot of cake go through here I decided that I wanted to create something for dessert that had not been done in this house before...Chocolate Bowls was the final decision. I first saw this posted on Pinterest a few months ago. The link led me to this very comical post about what not to do when creating edible chocolate bowls. I definitely did my best to follow her instructions to the letter and even still I had my own episode of mishap, that I forgot to take a picture of.
To get started today all you will need is: Balloons ( I used the water balloons we had leftover from our last water fight) Chocolate disks (I purchased at the cake store here in town) Double Boiler (or what I use ...a pot with bowling water and a heat proof bowl on top) Bowl Parchment Paper (Dollar store is a cheap way to keep this item in supply) Cutting Board or Cookie Sheet Pin
First of all place HOT water in your pot and put it on the stove with the bowl of chocolate disks inside on top. Bring your water to a boil, stirring the chocolate every so often to help it melt down in to a nice, soft liquid.
Once you have achieved the melt, remove your pot from the stove and take the bowl off the top, placing it somewhere on your counter to cool to room temperature. It is very important to follow this step otherwise you will end up with POPPED balloons and chocolate all over your kitchen...and even in your eye (today's victim will remain anonymous...wink, wink! OUCH!...that hurts...shhh remember anonymous!) While your chocolate is cooling, take your balloons and blow them up to the size that you would like your bowl to be. This is also a good time to lay out your parchment paper on your cutting board or cookie sheet.
Taking a balloon, hold it by the tied end and dip the rounded part into the chocolate. I found that if you dipped it in and then leaned it to all the sides moving the chocolate up evenly around the balloon you got a nice deep bowl result. Place each one on your parchment paper covered tray.
My recommendation to you is DO NOT press too hard on the balloon, especially if using the small water balloons ...well you can imagine I am sure what the result of that pressure would be...POP!
Once you have all your balloons covered in chocolate and placed on the parchment, making sure to have done a couple spares in case of breakage, move them on their tray to your freezer. Leave them to sit until the chocolate is no longer shiny and is set up. Once they are set up, remove them from the freezer and use your pin to poke a small hole or two in each balloon. This will allow the air to escape a little at a time...at least this is the idea...as you can see in my picture the balloon just popped. Fortunately, in this case it did not break the bowl as well.
From what I have read online it says if you cut a hole with scissors or break it too quickly, you up your chances that when the balloon pops, the bowl will break with it.
Once all your balloons are deflated and peeled out from the chocolate bowl you are now ready to add your toppings. In our case I started with some ice cream, layered with the bottom half of a cupcake, another layer of ice cream, the top half of the cupcake, a swirl of whip cream and topped it off with a few squiggles of caramel syrup... doesn't it look delicious?
You could always just put out some toppings, ice cream and your chocolate bowl creations for a fun ice cream sundae building party...what kid or adult wouldn't love that?
Be Brave and Try Something New Today...Trust me Homemade Chocolate Bowls will definitely add that WOW!! factor to your next party...feel free to share your comments below...I would love to hear from you.
