Chocolate Dessert Cups

You can use any kind of chocolate you like for this recipe. Milk chocolate is probably the easiest to start with, as well as the most popular. Milk and white are the most sensitive chocolates and melt at a lower heat than dark.

I would avoid using grocery store chocolate candy bars, they have a higher wax and filler content and a lower cocoa butter content. Use a high quality chocolate such as Guitard, Peters, Ghiradelli, or Merckens… Good chocolate is not going to be cheap but if you work with chocolate a lot you know it is worth it. If you are using white chocolate do not add any cocoa butter.

You are going to temper the chocolate. Remember that this is a skill that takes time to develop, don’t get frustrated if you cause a mess or it isn’t perfect right away. You can remelt your mistakes and start over, or better yet, eat them! Every time your chocolate completely hardens and you need to remelt it, you need to re-temper. Chocolate loses its temper every time it melts.

Tempering your chocolate:
Chop your chocolate into bite size pieces. Place 3/4 of the chocolate (1 1/2 pounds of it) and all of the cocoa butter in a double boiler and heat over medium high heat, stirring constantly, or use a slow cooker at low heat and stir every couple minutes (note: using a slow cooker is best for novices, that way you avoid accidently seizing your chocolate or causing “blooms” with the water/steam from a double boiler). NEVER EVER melt your chocolate directly on the stove in a regular sauce pan OR in a microwave, it is a surefire way to scorch and ruin it.

You need to heat dark chocolate to about 115F, milk and white need to go to just 105F. Once you reach this temperature, then remove it from the heat and stir vigorously to finish melting all the chocolate. Pour half of the liquid chocolate onto a stone slab, place double boiler on a trivet near your stone. Add the remaining 1/4 (the last half pound) of the unmelted chocolate to the hot melted chocolate that is still in the pan and allow it to melt while you work.

On the slab spread the chocolate thin with your hand or a spatula and then gather all the chocolate back to the center with your hand, repeat about 6 or 7 times until it starts to cool to the touch and thicken. Scrape the chocolate off the stone and back into the rest of the chocolate. Stir chocolate until everything is melted and smooth.

How to make the cups:
When the chocolate is completely melted and a nice smooth texture, fill/inflate the water balloons and tie them off, do not over fill the balloons – there should be some give on their surface or else they may pop when the chocolate contracts as it cools.

Stir the chocolate briskly just prior to dipping. Holding the tied off end of the balloon in your hand, dip the smooth bottom end of each balloon in the chocolate, up to about 1/2 of the way up the balloon. Give it a little shake to remove excess chocolate to ensure a light layer. To make petals, dip the balloon at a 45 degree angle, then remove it from chocolate, turn it 1/4 and then dip at the same angle, repeat 2 more times so you have a total of 4 petals.

Do not let the balloons touch the sides of the chocolate container or they may pop. Place the dipped balloons on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Hold them in place for 10 to 20 seconds to allow them to set enough to stand up on their own.

When all the balloons are on the tray, place tray in a fridge or freezer for at least 30 minutes to set (do not leave them in any loger than that). Remove tray from fridge/freezer and use a pin to pop each balloon. Gently remove balloons from cups and they are ready to serve.

Fill them with anything you like; mousse, ice cream, candies, etc.

If you cannot find cocoa butter you can substitute 1 1/2 tablespoons of vegetable oil instead. The purpose of adding the butter or oil is to aid the tempering by thinning and smoothing the chocolate, it also adds a nice sheen to the finished product.