by Skye Dean (’27) | November 17, 2023
It’s time! The holidays have almost arrived. Mariah Carey has officially defrosted, Starbucks has started serving its holiday flavors, and there are only five more weeks until winter break. With the new season on its way, soon enough, we’ll have holiday food, time with family and friends, decorations, celebrations, gifts, and maybe even some jacket-worthy weather! Nonetheless, even with all the festivities, my favorite part of the holidays are the drinks, especially hot chocolate. Picture this: You’re sitting on the couch, wrapped in blankets, hot chocolate in hand, rewatching Home Alone for the third time in a week. In my opinion, there’s nothing better, so when I discovered there was a way to make hot chocolate even more magical, I had to try. Where does this magic come from? Hot chocolate bombs! These chocolate spheres are filled with marshmallows, cocoa powder, and other sugary goodness that slowly melt to become your drink. Here is my experience trying to make hot chocolate bombs and my thoughts on whether or not you should make them too!
To start, you need to gather your supplies: a microwave, a thermometer, silicone molds, a paintbrush, mini marshmallows, hot chocolate mix, and 24 ounces of a good quality, semi-sweet chocolate bar. Now that you have your ingredients, it’s time for the assembly. The steps are as follows:
- Finely chop up the chocolate.
- Temper the chocolate. This step ensures a glossy finish and satisfying crack once you break your chocolate. (To do this, microwave the chocolate for 30 seconds, stir, microwave for 15 seconds, stir again, and then continue microwaving and stirring for 15 seconds until the chocolate is almost melted.) Throughout this process, make sure your chocolate’s temperature never reaches over ninety degrees Fahrenheit.
- Paint a thin coat of the melted chocolate onto your molds. Then, refrigerate the molds for about five minutes. Repeat this until you have two even and chilled coats of chocolate.
- Remove the hemispheres from their molds and fill half of them with your desired amount of cocoa powder, hot chocolate mix, and marshmallows.
- Using the remaining melted chocolate, paint a border around the edge of your spheres. Then attach them to one another and refrigerate.
- Use your leftover chocolate to repair holes, add decorations, or simply enjoy!
After completing this recipe, here are some of my tips. First, give yourself extra time to chop your chocolate because it is not as easy as it seems on TV. It took me roughly 25 minutes to cut up 24 ounces of chocolate. Next, don’t stress about incorrectly melting your chocolate or not having access to a thermometer. As mentioned, the purpose of tempering chocolate is to add shine and a crunch. However, this is pointless since you are letting it melt into your drink. Lastly, connecting the spheres is probably the hardest part of the process and is a two-person job! The method that worked best for me was to have one person paint the initial line of melted chocolate onto the rim, and then have another person hold the two half-spheres together while the painter fills in the holes.
Hopefully, you feel prepared to tackle this recipe, but is it worth it? Practicality-wise, no. This recipe took me around two hours to complete with the help of another person and was more expensive than buying premade hot chocolate bombs. However, it was a great experience, and isn’t that what the holidays are all about? I got to spend time with my family, making a dessert we could all enjoy—one that was different from anything I’d ever done before. While it may not become a new tradition, I’ve created some holiday memories that I’ll be reminded of whenever I look for a mug of hot chocolate. So, if you’re excited for the holidays, have a friend who wants to help, and an hour (or three) to spare, make yourself some hot chocolate bombs!
Here is the recipe I used:
Sugar Geek Show, Liz. “Shiny Hot Chocolate Bombs with Marshmallows.” Sugar Geek Show, 16 Dec. 2020, sugargeekshow.com/recipe/shiny-chocolate-bombs-with-marshmallows/.