Hot Chocolate Bomb DIY Do’s + Dont’s

In my mind, everything is “easy” to Do It Yourself…until I actually Do It. I decided I was going to make Hot Chocolate Bombs this year 1. Because they seemed easy enough and 2. Because I wanted to make sure they were safe for Vera’s allergies (Soy, Peanut, Tree Nut, all Legumes) but really, because 1. They seemed easy enough.

I tried a few times to make these (quite a few times, actually) because I wanted to give you guys some easy “hacks,” and alternatives since these molds are pretty much sold out everywhere, but if we are being honest here the easiest thing is to just use the damn mold or even better, do yourself a favor and just order them!

Assuming you have kept reading because you are as hard headed as I am, here’s my step by step guide on how to make them + some of the tips and tricks I learned along the way:

Ingredients:

Chocolate Chips or a good quality Chocolate Bar like Lindt: I used Enjoy Life Chocolate chips because they are free off the top 8 allergens and I always feel safer using those for Vera. You can also get some white chocolate to drizzle or make some white chocolate bombs.

Butter: Other recipes didn’t call for butter but I found that the Enjoy Life chocolate chips were too dry and would burn easily when I microwaved them, so I added some of the Vera’s safe butter (Land o Lakes with Canola) by teaspoon scoops as needed while melting to get the chocolate to a consistency where it wasn’t too runny but easy too maneuver.

Hot Chocolate Mix: I used the basic Swiss Miss Hot Chocolate Mix* without any extra additives. *We don’t react to soy lechitin.

Toppings: Marshmallows (we use Jet-Puffed), Sprinkles, or anything you want to add too your hot chocolate drink that would fit inside the little ball.

A small paintbrush: I didn’t think this was necessary and my first batches come out super clumpy. This definitely makes a difference in order to get that smooth look.

Hot Chocolate Bomb Mold: Here’s the link for these; A fair warning, they are selling FAST so if those end up selling out, you can technically use these cake pop molds (or any cake pop mold) as long as you don’t use the side with the hole or you cover the little holes with aluminum foil below it when hardening the chocolate.

Small Ziplock Bag or Piping Bag: You can use the ziplock bag as a piping bag by snipping the tip.

Milk: for your hot chocolate bomb.

Pro tip: You can use gloves in order too minimize fingerprints on the chocolate.

Step by Step:

Pour chocolate into a Microwave Safe Cup to melt SLOWLY in 30 second increments until the Chocolate is soft enough to paint onto the molds but not too runny that it won’t mold the way you want it.
Use the paintbrush to fill the molds with chocolate. Try to cover the entire mold to the edge. Set aside the extra chocolate for later.
Set the chocolate to cool. You can either do 30 minutes in the refrigerator or you can do about 5 minutes in the Freezer.
Once chocolate is hardened, fill half of the spheres with hot chocolate mix, marshmallows, sprinkles or any toppings you choose.
Remove the remaining half of the spheres from the mold to use as the top “close” the spheres.
Pour some of the remaining chocolate into the ziplock bag and snip the tip to make it into a piping bag. *You may need to reheat the chocolate a little to make it work.
Pour the chocolate as the “glue” to attach the sphere that has toppings to the piece that will cover them.
Drizzle remaining chocolate from the piping bag over the top or melt some of the white chocolate and drizzle too decorate.
Place mold back into the freezer or refrigerator to harden.
Warm milk, drop in the hot chocolate bomb and Drink Up for some warm and fuzzy Christmas Magic.