Remember the last time I made hot chocolate bombs and stomped my feet while crying that I’d never look at a silicone mold again?
Well, it turns out I’m more stubborn than smart.
A few weeks ago, Scott’s sister reached out to me and asked if I’d be interested in picking up some extra cash if I made 20 bombs for her to hand out for Valentine’s Day. Although spending the weekend hunched over my double boiler wasn’t my first idea of a good time, it did present an opportunity to get better at making them. Plus, “perfection” is one of my major flaws, so of course I said yes.
I guess I learned something the last four times I made these because this round was relatively painless. In fact, I have the process down and spent my Saturday night alternating between reading The Sanatorium (this month’s Reese’s Book Club pick) and melting/refrigerating chocolate molds. Two months ago, I’d have been babysitting the stove and liquefying the chocolate with my tears. Instead, after three hours and many book chapters, I had 40 halves and no patience (considering I had to fix more than a handful of cracked chocolate edges), so I went to bed around midnight, dreading Part 2: piecing them all together and pipe on the decorations.
But even that worked out. I prefer melting the edges on a hot plate and sticking them together, as that’s worked best in the past, but I’ve had varying levels of success. This time, I figured out I’m a walking user error and wasn’t pressing the halves together hard enough for the edges to truly stick. YouTube makes it look like you can just gently drop the top half on the bottom half and they’ll attach like magnets. YouTube is wrong. These guys need a little push to melt and stick together.
I also nixed the piping bag, which made a giant mess last time, and went with my trusty sandwich bag to get the chocolate drizzle applied, making four bombs at a time so the chocolate didn’t have a chance to dry (pro-tip: because the chocolate has to be at room temperature so as not to melt the bombs, it dries quickly once exposed to air, especially in my cold kitchen because I don’t think Scott knows what heat is).
Also notice the severe lack of white chocolate. That stuff is the devil.
That said, I really want to try making white chocolate RumChata bombs, and a friend of mine just ordered 10 more bombs that I promised to make this weekend, so it looks like I’ll get to experiment with the white stuff again soon. If this past experience has proven anything, it’s that I can learn to make these and will eventually make them well. It’s also proven I’ll always have some type of side gig.
For packaging, Scott’s sister got these cute Valentine’s Day bags that I topped off with heart ribbon I bought off Amazon. I think they turned out really cute and make for great gifts, so I’m assuming I’ve been pigeon-holed into this undertaking for every winter holiday until I die.
So hey, if anyone wants custom hot chocolate bombs and like doesn’t care what they do with their expendable income, let me know because I’ve surpassed wanting to have a life outside of work and making things.