Chocolate Bowls

Idea found at Kelli Crowe and this is a Paula Dean Recipe



1. I used 10 oz. of semi sweet baker's chocolate in chunks. (I learned a while back on Alton Brown's cooking show that the actual chocolate chips are not good for melting because of the binding agent in them that helps the chips to keep their form. It interferes a bit with the melting process.)

2. Then I chopped the chocolate into pretty small pieces.

3. I melted 5 oz in a double boiler. And, per the instructions, I removed it from the heat once those 5 oz were totally melted. Then I stirred in the remaining 5 oz of chopped chocolate and continued to stir until it was all melted. (This is why the chopping up the chocolate was so important, so the heat wouldn't have to be that high to melt it all.)

4. Then I put a small, quarter to half dollar size, round smear of chocolate onto my wax paper on my pizza cooking sheet (which I already checked to make sure it would fit into the fridge). This was the base of the bowls.

5. Some people on line had a hard time with their chocolate covered balloons popping and sending hot, melted chocolate all over their arms and kitchen cabinets. I did not have the problem but I took 2 precautions:

A. I followed the directions about taking the chocolate OFF the heat to stir in the second 5 oz. of chocolate. The overall temperature of the chocolate had dropped by the time everything was smooth and ready to use.

B. I followed the suggestion of one of the people who posted on FN. I didn't use small, cheap balloons completely filled. I used higher quality balloons and just didn't blow then up all the way. Not a single one popped. However, because the balloons were not inflated all the way, there was a small protrusion at the end of each one. It did cause there it be a hole in the bottom of the bowl.

But that was ok. I just served them in actual bowls instead of on a plate. (I mean, unless you are serving soup in the thing, it really didn't seem like a big deal.)

6. I coated the bottoms of the balloons with a thick layer of chocolate. They stayed standing up on the little medallion of chocolate already on the wax paper pretty well. (Too thin a coating and it will collapse on itself when you puncture the balloon later on.)

7. The platter of balloons went into the fridge for 30 minutes.

8. Another tip I learned from the commenters, puncture the balloons to deflate them and then let them sit out for 10 minutes. The chocolate actually gets a little sweaty and loosens up on the balloon and you can peel it off of the chocolate super easy. A few of my bowls looked pretty uneven and I just trimmed the top edge with scissors.

9. I put the chocolate bowls back into the fridge until right before I was ready to use them. I used a tiny scoop, sprinkles and blackberries to 'style' my dessert. They were a big hit:)