Happy New Year to all my readers!
One of the best things that helped me beat the stress during the pandemic last year was cooking and getting back to blogging. I wish I could have continued through the year. However due to other commitments (read – new puppy; #dogmom ) cooking and blogging took a back seat. Meet Bheem our six month old German Shepherd !
We got him home when he was 8 weeks old and it has been a life changing experience ( read - sleepless nights, potty training, biting issues etc). Now that things are getting back to normal, I am excited to start blogging again and hopefully continue to share posts often. I wanted to start my new year post on a sweet note. So here is an easy Hot Chocolate Bomb recipe.
Chocolate Bomb is nothing but spheres of chocolate that is filled with hot chocolate mix and marshmallows. They melt beautifully when you pour hot milk over it. Its fun to make it with kids. All you need is good chocolate, some marshmallows and hot cocoa/chocolate mix and of course a silicon mold (which is easily available in Amazon). I just used the regular chocolate chips which I had in hand. But I would strongly suggest to use a good quality chocolate as chocolate chips contain stabilizers and may not be the best to make bombs. But if you want to just have some fun playing with it, go ahead and use it:) . My kids were helping me to make this, you can see fingerprints on the sides of the bombs:)
Note : While these are fun to make, melting chocolate can be tricky, there is a point where chocolate begins to harden and it ruins the chocolate, so be careful. Candy thermometer is pretty useful. If you have one make sure the temperature is around 90F. You can melt all the chocolate chips at once but I did not want to take a chance.
INGREDIENTS
Makes 3 cake bombs
½ cup + ¼ cup milk chocolate chips
Mini marshmallows, as needed
Hot chocolate mix, 3 -4 tablespoons
Sanding sugar and sprinkles for decoration
Take ½ cup chocolate chips in a cup and melt it in the microwave for 10 seconds. Remove and give it a good mix. Put it back in the microwave for another 10 seconds. Using a spoon, stir it until it is completely melted. As you keep stirring it will melt on its own from the warmth of the chocolate. Now using a spoon pour chocolate into the mold and run the pastry brush around all sides( you can use your fingers too😊). You need a thick coat. Keep it in the refrigerator for 5-6 minutes. Melt the remaining ¼ cup in the similar way and do a second coat especially on the rim ( make sure the first coat is dried before the second coat). Refrigerate it again until it sets. Carefully pop chocolate half circles out of the silicone mold. Now add spoonful’s of hot cocoa/chocolate mix and marshmallows in one half.
To seal – slightly heat up the remaining chocolate in the cup and using a brush/ spoon or butter knife gently apply chocolate on the filled sphere side. You can even fill a piping bag and pipe the chocolate on the sides. Top it with a second sphere and press together to create a seal. Put it back in the refrigerator.
Decoration – Just brush some melted chocolate on the top and sprinkle some sanding sugar/sprinkles. You can also apply melted chocolate on the sides of the ball to hide the seal and roll over sanding sugar. You can also melt some candy melts and quickly decorate on top.
To Serve – Place one chocolate bomb in a cup. Pour hot milk on top of it and see it beautifully melt. Enjoy your hot chocolate!!