Hi Bold Bakers. Today is a very special day because I have a baking buddy with me here
at Bigger Bolder Baking and that is Brandi Malloy.
Oh my gosh, thank you so much for having me. I am so excited to be here.
It’s great to have you here. I watch a lot of your shows. A lot of you know Brandi, actually,
from POPSUGAR Food. She has a lot of shows on there. They’re very exciting.
Myself and Brandi are going to make homemade chocolate bars with flavors inspired by the
holiday season. Are you ready to get…
I love that we’re finally collaborating!
I know, it’s great! Long time in the making. Are you ready to make some chocolate bars?
Yes.
Okay, let’s get started.
Homemade chocolate bars are incredibly easy to make. You just pick your chocolate, you
pick whatever flavors you want to go in it, whether it be nuts, fruit, like orange zest,
whatever, and then you set it in a mold. The molds that I’m going to use today are these
lovely chocolate molds that I got online and I’m going to put a link in the description
box below of where I got these. Or, another great idea is…
Cookies cutters. And actually I love those molds because they really do make them look
store bought, but another trick is to use cookies cutters. So you just put your cookie
cutter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment and then just pour your melted chocolate into
the cookie cutter and let it set that way. And I love this because it makes it even more
festive.
Isn’t it a good idea? And you know what else? If you were a really nice person, you
would actually give them the cookie cutter as well.
I love that. That’s a great edible gift. Okay, I’m stealing that idea.
Yeah, there you go.
So now that we have our molds, we are going to start making our first flavor. Now, it
is nutty, it’s kind of squishy and gooey…
Stop. Are we doing Rocky Road? Because Rocky Road is one of my favorite flavors.
Is it really?
Well because you get that luscious chocolate and then the gooiness from the marshmallow,
and then the bite from the almond… I mean, Rocky Road is one of my favorite... I know
you chose this because I’m here.
Absolutely. Like I’m all about texture and it sounds a little like bit you are too. So
that’s why I love this flavor. So yes it is Rocky Road.
Yay!
The most important ingredient you need for your homemade chocolate bars is good quality
chocolate.
Yes.
Good quality chocolate with a good percentage of cocoa solids. It makes your bar so much
more smoother, richer. So we’re going to pop this guy in the microwave and melt it
very gently or you could put it over a double boiler and melt it that way. So now that we
have our chocolate, we are going to add in our mix-ins for our Rocky Road.
Yay, awesome.
So we have our toasted almonds and Brandi, I’m going to get you to bash these up.
Okay. And how big do we want to break these up? Just small enough for the candy bar or…
Yeah, you know what? With me, I always like a bit of texture so like some big bits and
some small bits.
Okay.
Okay, Brandi, those are looking great.
Awesome.
Some big chunks and small chunks. We have our marshmallows here. Mini marshmallows.
I’ll take one of those.
And we are going to add them into our chocolate. And then Brandi, you can toss in the almonds.
Awesome. Rocky Road is just one of those flavors that reminds you of your childhood. I feel
like Rocky Road ice cream, Rocky Road bars, or when you make sundaes adding the chocolate
and the marshmallow… I feel like this is definitely one of those bars that everyone
is going to love.
Once you have it all mixed up, just pour it into your mold.
That looks so good Gemma.
Doesn’t it?
Okay, so I’ll just use the spatula to kind of…
Yeah. For sure, spread it out.
…Spread it out. Okay….
And you know what I like to do is, especially to make sure that there’s no air bubbles
or anything like that in your chocolate bar, give it a bash… on the countertop and it
just naturally evens itself out. And it makes sure that it’s all nice and compact in there.
People always ask me do you have to spray the mold or anything? But you don’t have
to; these are going to pop right out.
No. I don’t like those sprays either. And then also, we are going to chill them in the
fridge, so once they’re like nice and cold, they pop right out, like you said. Okay, there
you go. Lovely. Now, these actually set pretty quickly. So we are going to pop them in the
fridge, let them set and we’re going to get started on our next chocolate bar.
Our next homemade chocolate bar is definitely more on the festive side. It is white chocolate
and peppermint.
Ah, I love peppermint, and especially when I see these little candy canes.
Yeah.
It totally get me in that holiday spirit.
Aren’t they the sweetest? And also it works really well with white chocolate. And for
a little bit of texture and some crunch, I’m actually going to add in some, crushed cookies.
They still stay actually quite crunchy in the chocolate bar.
Ooh.
Yeah, and these are graham crackers because I love graham crackers but you can use Oreos,
you can use any type of cookie that you like.
Oh, I like that idea.
Okie dokie, Brandi, I’m going to get you to bash up some of these guys.
Alright, these are looking good…
Perfect.
…so can I add them in?
Yes, add them right in there. Lovely. Look at that color. That’s going to be really
nice color. Brandi, I’m going to throw in a few cookies in there.
Okay.
Give those a bash. Lovely. That’s great.
Alright. And I’ll throw those in there.
Okay, Brandi, can you give that a stir?
Sure.
These chocolate bars make really great edible gifts for the holidays. You can wrap them,
put little like personalized labels on them. They look really really good and there’s
something kind of special because like they are from the heart.
Yeah, people love homemade gifts.
They do! They love them. Who doesn’t like edible gifts. So also, myself and Brandi,
over on Pop Sugar Food, we made…
Birthday cake truffles. And we used Birthday Cake Oreos. They also make awesome edible
gifts so if you need gift ideas…
Oh, those were so good.
You could do the chocolate bars, the truffles… Alright, I think this is ready for the mold.
Lovely.
Great, so I’ll go ahead and add half of this to my mold.
Sure, I’ll hold your mold for you.
Thank you.
Looks good. If you are looking for the recipes for these chocolate bars, they can be found
on my website BiggerBolderBaking.com.
Alright, let me get these air bubbles out.
These are looking great.
Alright, let’s pop them in the fridge.
Yeah.
So our next homemade chocolate bar is a flavor that I absolutely love: that is chocolate
and salted caramel.
Oh my gosh, yes, you are speaking my language.
So for this chocolate bar, I’m actually using more of a bittersweet chocolate. I think
it just works nicer with the salted caramel. It’s kind of a deeper flavor. Okay, so Brandi
we are just going to scoop it into our mold.
Okay.
All you have to do is bring your chocolate shell all the way to the edges. Yeah, that’s
great. Because what you want to do is have it come all the way up the side so…
So that when we pour the caramel in, got it.
Yeah.
It’s going to be like that pocket of caramel.
Yeah. And we’re going to top that with another layer of melted chocolate, let that set, so
you have, like, a whole big chocolate bar. Okie dokie, we are going to pop these in the
fridge. Let them set like maybe five, ten minutes and then we can go in with our salted
caramel.
Awesome.
It’s been a few minutes and our chocolate shells have set. Looking pretty good. Brandi,
I’m going to go in with my signature salted caramel sauce. Look at that.
That looks awesome.
This stuff is dangerous.
So sick.
It’s fantastic. So I’m going to drizzle this into the shell. I’m going to do a thin
layer of it all around. Get it right there into the corners. What a nice to get this
in the middle of your candy bar. Especially in a homemade candy bar. Who would think that
you were going to put this in the middle? So you are going to go in with the same chocolate
that we were using and just pour it right on top.
Okay. Buh-bye, no one knows you’re in there.
What we’re going to do is like, a little bit like we did before. You can flatten it
out with a spoon or you can even just shake it around…
Tap it out…
Sometimes its easier just to shake it.
Alright. And then you taught me about little air bubbles.
Yeah, give it a little bit of a tap.
Alright.
Perfect.
And we just need this to set all the way through.
Pop this back in the fridge, set for maybe like another ten minutes or so, and then we
are ready to try them.
Best part.
So this is my favorite part on Bigger Bolder Baking. After a little bit of time, our chocolate
has set. And now we get to see what it looks like and to taste it. So I’m going to flip
this one over. This is Rocky Road. Give your mold a little bit of a push.
But that’s so cool. It really is just kind of popping out.
Give it a little bit of a shimmy.
Oh my gosh.
Oh my gosh. Look at that.
No, seriously Gemma…
Isn’t that gorgeous?
…this looks like gourmet chocolate bar.
Cheers.
Gemma, these are so good, but honestly I had so much fun today.
I know.
Thanks for having me.
Thank you very much for coming. It was great to have you here. I hope you’re going to
come back.
I would love to.
Let me know in the comments below if you want Brandi to come back because I definitely do.
And over on Pop Sugar Food, myself and Brandi did a video together.
It was so much fun. We made birthday cake truffles with birthday cake Oreos. And they
actually make really great edible gifts too.
They were fantastic.
So check that out. And make sure you go to POPSUGAR and subscribe because I know you’re
going to like those videos. Thank you so much for watching and subscribing to my channel.
And I’ll see you back here every Thursday for more Bigger Bolder Baking.
Bye.
Bye guys. Cheers Brandi.
Cheers.