Playing with chocolate

We don't normally do very much, if anything, for Valentines' Day as a rule other than make cards for friends if we will be somewhere there will be an exchange. With Covid and the fact that my children go no where and see no one, I decided that making a bigger deal of minor holidays is needed. To that end, I had planned ahead and purchased the supplies to make hot chocolate bombs. My children adore hot chocolate in all it's forms, so this seemed like a treat. 

Today I set myself up in the kitchen and made them. While they turned out well enough to eat and enjoy, there is a significant learning curve involved. I also way over bought the good chocolate bars I was using, so we have plenty to make many, many more. Here's how the initial batch turned out.

This is the nicest one.

As you can see, those in the back were not, um, perfect.

The only thing I would change is the thickness of the chocolate shell. Next time, I will paint the chocolate on, chill it in the refrigerator for a few minutes, and then paint on another layer. You really want that top edge thick or it just all falls apart. I also experimented with different ways to put the two halves together. I tried piping melted chocolate on first. This would have worked well if I could have kept the chocolate liquid enough to pipe. It worked for one before it become too hard. Then I tried briefly melting the edge of the top half on a heated pan. This worked the best, but if the shell is too thin, even the brief heat will cause issues. Then I tried to use a small icing spatula to cover one edge in melted chocolate. This was only marginally successful, but it kept the last few together enough to use them. 

Everyone did enjoy them very much, so it made a nice holiday treat. Since I overestimated how much chocolate I would need, partially because I just didn't use enough to make the spheres, TM came up with the idea of putting into another of my silicone molds. Here is what we had for dessert tonight.


Because who doesn't like dark chocolate insects?

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