Chocolate Dessert Bowls

Make and fill with whatever goodies you can dream up.

Ingredients:

• whatever sort of melting chocolate you prefer.  
• whatever filling you can think up.

Break it up into pieces or shards first.

The smaller the pieces of chocolate you use, the lower the heat will be required to melt them.  (Think surface area here.)  So I am throwing them in my mini-chopper to grind them up.  You could also grate the chocolate.  I had a few stubborn chunks in there, but that's okay.

Put about 2/3 of the chocolate into a microwave safe bowl.  Don't use a glass bowl, because glass will retain the heat and continue to "cook" the chocolate after its melted.

I microwaved the chocolate in 10 second increments, stirring after EACH one.  It took probably 5-6 cycles of that.

Now add in the remaining 1/3 chocolate.

Melt again.  It will probably only take 1-2 more times.

Pour the melted chocolate into a zip top bag.  If the chocolate is too hot, it may pop your balloon, and will be too runny.

Snip the corner and we are ready.  First, I tightly covered a small bowl in aluminum foil.  I'm going to try making sort of a basket or nest with this one.

Just drizzle the chocolate over the top.

Turn 90 degrees and repeat.  Then turn 45 degrees and repeat. 

Next I'm going to use the white chocolate candy.

Just leave it alone and let it dry.

After it hardens, you can turn it over, unwrap, and remove the aluminum foil.

Kinda cool.  Some of them broke as the chocolate is fragile, but it was still cool.  I think next time, I will put the bowl on some type of pedestal... like over a small class or something - so that the melted chocolate will not be in contact with the parchment paper.  Those pieces seemed to be the ones that broke when I removed the foil.

Then fill with something. :)

And next, I tried the balloon.

Use a small balloon or else your chocolate bowl will be huge!  I just squirted it over the balloon and used my finger to spread it around.  I wanted an uneven, jagged edge, but you could do any design.

I repeated with the white chocolate. I let the whole thing dry sitting in the rim of a glass.

When hardened, I popped the "stem" end of a balloon (so it wouldn't explode) with a toothpick and there we have a chocolate bowl!

Then we had a lot of fun eating them!

It makes for a wonderfully chocolaty face!

Written Directions

The short version:  Slowly melt your chocolate so it will stay tempered.  Put the melted chocolate into a zip top bag.  Snip the end end of the bag and squirt it over a small balloon.  I also did one over an aluminum foil covered bowl.  Let the chocolate dry.  Pop the balloon and voila, you have a chocolate bowl.

The longer version:

I am using a product called Almond Bark.  I have no idea where this name came from or what it has to do with almonds.  It's a chocolate candy coating that is frequently used for candy making, dipping your fruit, etc.  It's easy to work with and comes in "brown" chocolate and "white" chocolate.   But you can use regular other melting chocolates as well.

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