Welcome to How To Cook That, I'm Ann Reardon and today we are making some
amazing chocolate balloon bowls! I first made a video showing how to make
chocolate bowls using balloons 5 years ago.
My filming quality was pretty bad back then but you get the idea 🤪 I did basic
ones, drip ones, multicolored ones and since that time there has now been over
200,000 different videos about balloon bowls uploaded to YouTube! Now you'd
think in five years and 200,000 videos there would have been heaps of
creativity and new ideas and things you could do but no ... for the most part
they're all just more and more and more videos of the exact same thing ... the basic
chocolate balloon bowl with the exception of a few people who were
adventurous enough to dip it into sprinkles. Well I think it's time that
we'll get a whole heap more creative so today we are going to make some much
more adventurous chocolate balloon bowls. Step one if you haven't seen one of the
two hundred thousand videos is to dip a balloon into some melted chocolate ... you
can use normal balloons or water balloons depending on what size you want
your bowl to be. It does help to rub a little bit of cooking oil on your
balloon first before you dip it so it's easier to get the balloon off the
chocolate. Then place the balloon onto some baking paper or foil to set. Now for
the fun part stretch up the neck of the balloon and make a little cut and let
the balloon start to deflate, then for the larger bowls press on the edge on
each side just to release the balloon from the chocolate. Once it's loose the
whole way around let it deflate some more and then squeeze the balloon as it
deflates to make sure it's loosened from the chocolate so the bowl doesn't break.
Then let it deflate the rest of the way and there you have a basic chocolate
bowl. One word of caution if your chocolate is too hot when you're dipping
the balloon this will happen so let it cool a bit before you dip it. Firstly
we're gonna make a chocolate dipping bowl. To make this make the normal
chocolate bowl like I just showed you and then dip a
water balloon into chocolate and instead of putting it flat turn it upside down
and place it on a bowl. Putting it upside down like this just means it stays
rounded and it doesn't get a flat bit on the bottom like this one has. Once
they're set you can deflate the balloon and then add some chocolate to the
outside of the little bowl and attach it to the big one. While that's setting
you'll need something to support it with so I'm just going to use some scrunched
up paper towel and then once that is set you can just remove the paper towel and
add some strawberries or anything that would be yummy dipped into sauce. I'm
using chocolate ganache in my bowl but salted caramel would be yummy too ... you
could even have two bowls one with the caramel one with the salt so you could
have just the amount that you like. Now this bowl is big enough to share but you
can of course make individual ones too ... just use a water balloon for the outside
bowl and a partially inflated water balloon for their little dipping bowl.
Next we have bowls with a custom top. These are really easy just make your
basic bowl then flip it upside down and put it onto a plate of melted chocolate.
Then gently roll it in the topping and sprinkle some anywhere that it has gaps.
I really like how these next ones turned out chocolate bark bowls. Dip your
balloon into the melted chocolate then give it a little shake to get off any
excess and then before it sets add to it things like freeze-dried strawberries and
then some pistachios ... these ones would make pretty Christmas gifts if you had
some little Christmas cookies inside them and wrapped it in some cellophane
or something like that. You can sprinkle them with nuts or I'm using cookie
crumbs here just use your imagination and add whatever flavors you'd like to
eat with your chocolate. Candy is always a popular one with the younger kids you
can pop those little Smarties or little M&Ms all over the outside if you're
having a party this makes a great dessert and once they're set you can of
course just deflate all of the balloons and then fill it up with mousse or candy
or ice cream works really well too. If you want to add something heavier like
Maltesers to your bowl ... if you try and add them like we did for the chocolate
bark bowls they're just going to fall off. So what you need to do is make a
basic chocolate balloon bowl then turn that upside down and use some melted
chocolate to add them to the side of the bowl until the whole thing is covered
yum! I always like to loosen the edges as it's deflating especially with the
larger bowls because the chocolate is quite thin and it can break if you just
let it deflate all at once. Look at that :) I like the way the light shines through
these next ones. To make them you just dip your balloon in white chocolate then
place that upside down on a bowl to set. Once that's ready dip it into milk
chocolate or dark chocolate and place it onto baking paper.
Once it's setting but it's still slightly soft use a teaspoon to scrape
off some of that chocolate and just keep scraping it until you're happy with the
amount of white chocolate that you can see showing through there. Keeping the
balloon inflated while you do this supports the chocolate but it also gives
you something to hang on to while you're doing it so that you don't end up with
your fingerprints all over the balloon bowl. Once they're set firmly you can
then just deflate those balloons. If you want to take that one step further then
dip the balloon into white chocolate then milk then white again and then
finally into some blue chocolate and you can color chocolate using oil based food
coloring just mix it into a small amount first and then mix it into the rest of
the white chocolate. Once it's set take a razor blade and gently scrape off layers
of chocolate to reveal the colours underneath. The exact look of your
circles and how thick they are will depend on the thickness of the layers of
your chocolate that you put on there. Now for a crazy bowl that looks like it's
made out of elastic bands! For this you'll need a piece of marble or Corian
bench top that's been in the freezer overnight. Spread out some melted
chocolate over the top and then quickly cut strips using a pizza cutter. Now
because the surface is so cold it will shock set the chocolate but if you lift
it off then it will become bendable and soft again.
If you're in a warm room like me it will become almost melted again so the
balloon is what we need to support it into the shape we want. Add several
strips over the balloon and then repeat that using other colours of chocolate. You
can trim the top or leave it uneven depending on the look you're going for
and then let that set and then once it is set you of course just deflate your
balloon letting it deflate slowly and squeezing it to loosen it from the
chocolate and then you can just let it deflate the rest of the way. Look at that
isn't that a cool bowl! Subscribe to How To Cook That for more crazy sweet
creations, click here for the latest video, here for my really old chocolate
balloon bowl video and here for my chocolate playlist. Make it a great week
and I'll see you on Friday.