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How to Make Hot Chocolate Bombs

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red mug filled with hot cocoa, marshmallows, and a candy cane sitting next to a plate of Christmas cookies.
Pixabay

Nothing screams of the cozy winter holiday season more than a mug of creamy, rich hot chocolate. While you can certainly go the conventional route and stir together your favorite powdered mix in warm milk, if you want to kick things up a notch and elevate your hot chocolate game this winter, you can make fun hot chocolate bombs with a few easy steps.

Hot chocolate bombs are delicious spheres of hot chocolate mix and mini marshmallows encased in a luscious chocolate shell. When you drop one in your mug and then pour steaming milk over the top, the hot chocolate sphere starts to melt, releasing the mix and marshmallows into your mug. With a few stirs, you have your creamy, dreamy mug of hot cocoa. It’s a fun way to enjoy the same nostalgic drink, and you can customize your hot chocolate spheres with different fillings and types of chocolate used in the shell. They also make great gifts or party treats when you’re entertaining around the holidays.

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Curious to try your hand at making hot chocolate spheres? You’ll just need a silicone mold to form the spheres and a few simple ingredients.

Hot Chocolate Bombs Recipe

Equipment needed

  • Food thermometer

    , like those used for meat, to monitor the temperature of the chocolate.

  • Spherical silicone food molds

     to make the spheres.
  • Small, clean paintbrush for coating the melted chocolate inside the silicone molds.
  • Piping bag or clean Ziploc bag with a corner cut-off for sealing the chocolate spheres together.

Ingredients

  • 24 ounces high-quality chocolate in bar form, such as Lindt bars. Semi-sweet works really well. Avoid chocolate chips or candy melts.
  • 1 cup mini marshmallows; colored or plain
  • 6 tbsp hot chocolate mix of choice
  • Optional: Sprinkles or crushed candy canes to decorate outside

Method

  1. Clean and polish the inside of your silicone molds with a paper towel.
  2. Chop the bars of chocolate as finely as you can and place them in a large, microwave-safe bowl.
  3. Begin tempering your chocolate by microwaving the bowl of chocolate for 40 seconds, then stir, moving the chocolate on the outside toward the inside, and heat again for 15 seconds.
  4. Continue heating and stirring the chocolate for 15-second intervals until it is nearly melted but NOT fully melted. The residual heat will melt the final bit of chocolate, and if your chocolate gets too hot, it will not create a crackable shell. Here’s where the food thermometer comes in: you do NOT want the chocolate to get above 90 degrees. If it is getting too hot, wait before microwaving it more.
    Once the chocolate is nearly melted, stir it to combine it together, then paint a thin layer in the chocolate molds, being sure to come up all the way to the rim.
  5. Refrigerate the molds for 5 minutes, and then paint another full layer all the way up to the rim. Refrigerate again for 5 minutes.
  6. Gently pop the chocolate out of the molds and fill each half with 1 tablespoon of powdered hot cocoa mix and mini marshmallows.
  7. Use a spoon or spatula to add some of the melted chocolate to a piping bag and pipe it along the rim of your sphere. Attach two semi-spheres together by pressing them gently using this piped chocolate as the “glue.”
  8. Wipe away any excess chocolate at this seam or roll the bomb in crushed candy canes or sprinkles.
  9. Store in the refrigerator or freezer until use.

How to Enjoy Hot Chocolate Bombs

  1. Place your hot chocolate bomb inside your favorite mug.
  2. Gently pour in 14 ounces of steaming, but not boiling, milk.
  3. Watch the hot milk open the bomb and release the marshmallow and cocoa.
  4. Stir with a spoon and enjoy!

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Amber Sayer
Amber Sayer
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Amber Sayer is a fitness, nutrition, and wellness writer and editor, and was previously a Fitness Editor at Byrdie. She…
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