For me, mid-november typically signals the start of the holiday season. All of the leaves have fallen off the trees, the local mountains have opened for the season and it is extremely cold outside. So what better way to kick off the holiday season and get into the holiday spirit with some delicious, rich, creamy hot chocolate?!
Hot chocolate is a holiday staple. It’s warm, yummy and tastes amazing on its own, spruced up with a few toppings, or spiked with some liquor. Recently, the internet has taken hot chocolate to a new level by making something called hot chocolate balls or hot chocolate bombs.
These balls are essentially a hollow sphere of chocolate stuffed with marshmallows and a bit of extra hot chocolate mix on the inside. All you need to do to have one is to make yourself a hot glass of milk, plop your hot chocolate ball inside, wait for it to melt and for the marshmallows to pop out (which is incredibly satisfying to watch).
They’re also a fun project for someone looking to change things up in the kitchen. I spent the days prior to making these baking cookies and cooking pasta (healthy, right?) so it was a fun change to pretend to be a chocolatier and work with chocolate, which I don’t have a lot of experience with.
Not to mention, these make really cute christmas presents and stocking stuffers! Wrapped in a bit of cellophane and tied with a ribbon, these hot chocolate balls look beautiful and pose as a thoughtful gift. I opted to drizzle some chocolate over mine to make them look more complete, but there’s lots of opportunity for creativity here. I think coloured chocolate such as red and green would look great for christmas.
Now usually when people work with chocolate, they use silicone molds such as these. However, hot chocolate balls are trending right now and all the stores around me were sold out. I didn’t want to wait for them to come in the mail so I was able to find these plastic dome moulds from Michaels that would help me form my chocolate into a ball. An ice tray might also work. Although it is admittedly harder to get the chocolate out of the plastic, it’s doable and it’s also way cheaper (six dollars compared to the fifteen dollar moulds). So if you’re able to get your hands on a silicone dome mould, go for it! Just know that there are alternatives if you can’t find or just don’t want the silicone moulds.
The moulds I used had a few small holes in the bottom but I was able to work around them by covering them with a small dollop of melted chocolate and placing on a plate to harden before I moved on to coating the entire dome. Melted chocolate dries relatively quickly so this extra step didn’t set me back too much time wise. However, I found that putting the melted chocolate in the fridge helped even more with hardening the chocolate and getting it ready for a second layer.
I believe you can use any type of chocolate for this. I just picked up some chocolate melts from the bulk section of the grocery store but I don’t see why chocolate chips wouldn’t work. I found the milk chocolate and dark chocolate to be easier to work with in regards to drying time and their tendency to not break as easily. The white chocolate was a bit trickier but it was also the yummiest one to drink IMO so definitely give it a try if you love white chocolate.
This recipe will yield about six to eight hot chocolate balls. If you’re like me and don’t work with chocolate that often, don’t be intimidated by this recipe! I have found that chocolate is very forgiving and if you end up breaking a dome you can always remelt it and start over, which doesn’t take much time to do.
So with that being said, here is the recipe! Feel free to contact me with questions either through the comments or the contact me page of my blog. It’s a pretty fun and straight forward process and I’m excited to be kicking off the holiday season with this post!
Hot Chocolate Balls
Equipment
- Dome moulds (plastic or silicone)
Ingredients
- 3 cups chocolate milk, dark, white or a combo
- 6 tablespoons hot chocolate mix
- 1 cup mini marshmallows
- canola oil or cooking spray
Instructions
Make the chocolate spheres
- To make the chocolate spheres,melt the chocolate in the microwave for about two minutes, stirring every 30 seconds so that the chocolate doesn't burn.
- Coat the moulds with a little bit of cooking spray or oil, rubbing it with a pastry brush or paper towel so that it does not pool inside the domes. Cover a plate with some parchment paper and set aside. Using a metal spoon or small spatula, coat each ball with one layer of chocolate then flip it upside down onto the plate. Working quickly, repeat with the rest of the moulds and place in the fridge to harden, about five minutes.
- Once the first layer is hardened, repeat step two a couple more times, adding about three layers of chocolate in total. Once your third layer has hardened, place the chocolate filled moulds in the freezer for an hour to set the chocolate a bit more and help it pull away from the edges of the mould (this is especially important if working with plastic moulds).
- After an hour, take the moulds out of the freezer. Using a butter knife, rim the edjes of the moulds to loosen up the chocolate and using your fingers, slowly pry/shift the chocolate dome out of the mould. If using silicone, this process with be much easier as you can squish the mould to get the chocolate out. Place your chocolate domes on a plate and set aside.
Assemble the balls
- Have ready the mini marshmallows and hot chocolate mix. Place a frying pan on the stove on high heat for about 30 seconds , just enough to warm it up slightly. Now, take two halves of the domes and melt the edges on the warm pan. This melted edge will work as the glue which will help connect the dome with another to form a sphere. You might need to melt the chocolate domes on the pan for a bit to get a dome that will form a perfect sphere when stuck together with another.
- Working quickly so that the chocolate edges don't harden, stuff one dome with the marshmallows, packing them in tightly. Fill the other dome with a tablespoon of hot chocolate mix and press the dome with the marshmallows onto it to form a ball. Press together firmly so that the melted edges can "glue" together. You might need to use some extra melted chocolate to fill in any crevices. Repeat with the remaining domes.
- Once all of the domes have been filled with marshmallows and hot chocolate mix and stuck together in a sphere, decorate them by drizzling some melted chocolate on top or dipping in more chocolate and covering with sprinkles, nuts, etc.
- To drink, place one ball into 3/4 cup of hot, steaming milk. Wait a minute for the ball to melt on its own and for the marshmallows to pop out or stir right away to enjoy it sooner. Enjoy!
Chocolate ball melting in hot milk 
Marshmallows burst out of the melted chocolate ball
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