How-to Avoid Mistakes Making Chocolate Bowls with Balloons Tutorial
I ran into the picture above of this sweet but frustrated person on the floor after they lost their battle with making chocolate bowls/cups with balloons. xD
Even though their experience wasn’t as fun as they thought it would be they very kindly shared their experience on their Tumblr (and tagged it, thankfully cuz that’s how I found it! always tag people! always!).
Anyway, they inspired me enough to make a how-to or better said a not-to do guide on how to make these chocolate bowls properly…
And believe me, I should know cuz I had the same experience as they did many moons ago…. You see, chocolate bowls with balloons was what got me interested in the kitchen! It was one of the first things I learned to do :)
When I was a teen and made these for the first time my balloons actually popped (it was more like an explosion LOL) they popped cuz they were a bit warm.
Needless to say, melted chocolate ended up all over my mother’s kitchen ceiling, walls, stove, floor……. all over my hair, face, shirt and my sisters face/hair. I honestly believe that if I go back to that old apartment there would still be traces of chocolate all over that ceiling today. xD (my family loves to bring this up in the ‘you remember the time you xyz’ moments at family gatherings… brings a lot of laughter at my expense…) :/ :D
Anyway, I learned to make them in a very random way…. I was watching TV/ flipping channels one day and I saw these two little old ladies teaching how to make the bowls! (they should have given me a heads up about the chocolate explosion thing, but I guess that should have been obvious?) :D
Anyway, The ladies did have pretty awesome tips on how to get it right that I never see in any of the “chocolate bowl” tutorials online…. so I’ll share those and some of my tips from years of experience making them :) ENJOY!
BUT FIRST: Let’s look at what the original poster had to say about their experience, and view their pics of what went wrong…….then I’ll go into my tips :)
This is what they posted:
What I expected to make:
What I actually made:
ROMEO WHAT’S HERE? POISON? DRUNK ALL AND LEFT NO FRIENDLY DROP TO HELP ME AFTER. FUCK YOU ROMEO.
FUCK YOU AND YOUR GROSS ASS CHOCOLATE.The Cake Bar’s Tips:
- 1) Wait till your chocolate is completely, completely cool before applying unto baloons (not even remotely close to being almost warm) this might sound obvious but the balloons will pop if the chocolate is even remotely close to being almost warm :)
- 2) For the balloons, you can either make a knot that you can cut or a knot that you can untie yourself later to deflate balloons (very slowly so the cups won’t break)
- 3) You can use a piece of tape ON the balloon and then put a needle through the tape/balloon to slowly release the air out of the balloon . This way you have more control of how fast the balloons deflates. (the slower the better so you have time to help separate the balloon from the chocolate cup and they won’t crack/break) **the needle will not pop the balloon with the tape over it.***
- Don’t choose skinny balloons, nice and strong so they don’t pop
- Don’t pick balloons that will make the cups too high/too skinny. Make sure the balloons have a flatter bottom/wide sides look to them. You’ll thank me later when you’re removing the cups from the balloon. :)
- After dipping balloons in chocolate, place the balloons on parchment or wax paper so the chocolate bottoms don’t stick to your plate (unless you are going to serve them on those plates, then this method is a good idea because the cups will stay firm on the plate) But if you’re not going to serve them where you place them to dry/cool use parchment paper/wax paper so they don’t get stuck.
- Make sure you slather a nice thick layer of chocolate so when you try to slowly remove the bowls they won’t easily crack/break. So two layers of chocolate is good enough.
- Use the bain marie method to melt the chocolate. It’s the best way
- White chocolate dries up very fast, You have to work faster with it. It dries much faster than regular chocolate. mooooove quickly with white chocolate ;)
- If you’re going to use a combo of white chocolate and regular chocolate for design, use less regular chocolate and more white chocolate not 50/50 because the dark chocolate will eat up your white chocolate…. You’ll see what I mean when you make them :) I would say use 25% regular chocolate 75% white for a 50/50 white/black look.
- Let the air out slowly on the balloons, make sure u have control of the deflation.
- It’s best to serve a cold dessert on the cups because it’ll help keep the cups from melting :) (specially if you’re going to serve them outside like at a BBQ, you don’t want the cups to fall apart/ melt easily)
- Instead of using chocolate use colored wafers/Candy melts for fun looks:
- Some of the balloons WILL break, don’t sweat it. Just make sure you make back-ups. So if you’re making dessert for 6 people make sure you make like 9-10 bowls just in case. You didn’t fail, some always crack, some always break. no biggie!
- I’m sure I have more tips, so maybe check back to this post. If I remember more I’ll add more. (they’re really not that difficult to make, just a bit high maintenance that’s all) :)
- SORRY FOR THE UNUSUALLY LONG POST, I just wanted to share :x
- and last but not least, thank you Nate for letting me use your pictures, and for reminding me why I have my blog in the first place. Brings back memories of fun times!
picture credits:
mmmm these are lovely. my next scones project :)
Chocolate Coconut Almond Scones
makes about 8 to 10 scones
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons raw or granulated sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold and cut into cubes
1 large egg
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons buttermilk
1/3 cup shredded coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
1/3 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
buttermilk and sugar for topping before baking
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place shredded coconut and slivered almonds on a baking sheet and toast in the oven for about 8 to 10 minutes. Keep your eye on the coconut. It browns quickly. Remove from the oven when toasted and allow to cool. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
In a large bowl, whisk together flour sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
Toss the cold butter cubes into the flour mixture. Using your hands, quickly work in the butter into the flour mixture, breaking it up with your fingers. Some butter bits will be the size of small pebbles, and some will be the size of oat flakes. Set in the fridge for a few minutes.
Whisk together buttermilk and egg.
Remove the flour and butter mixture from the fridge and add coconut, almonds, and chocolate chips. Whisk together and create a well in the center of the mixture. Add the buttermilk mixture all at once to the well. Use a fork to bring the wet and the dry ingredients together. Mixture will be shaggy. Lightly flour a work surface and dump the shaggy dough mixture out onto the counter. Bring together the dough with your hands into a 1 1/2-inch thick disk . Use a 2 1/2-inch round biscuit cutter to cut out biscuits. Flour the biscuit cutter if it starts to stick to the dough.
Place biscuits, about 1 inch apart, on the prepared baking sheets. Brush with a bit of buttermilk and a few pinches of raw or granulated sugar. Bake biscuits for 14-18 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through. Remove from the oven and serve warm, with jam.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough BAKED Brownies Submission!
often when i go home (i go to college out of state) i like to do experimenting. and experimenting always starts with your tumblr. so i decided to make these awesome brownies, partly for the joy of experimenting, and partly to spite all the people who i live with who think that because they’re “dieting”
(i really dislike that word) means they can disrespect my baking artwork (which does not sit well with me, of course). as a result i take my baked goods to my boyfriend’s family’s house where they are alwaysappreciative. anyway, thanks again for a wonderful post! i’ve already got a running list going for more experiments ;) <3
