Ann Reardon

How to Make Chocolate Bowls

chocolate bowls howtocookthat ann reardon

In this post I will show you how to make seven chocolate bowls using 3 different techniques – balloons, ice and lined containers.

You will need to use chocolate melts or tempered chocolate to make these, if you are not sure how to temper chocolate it is explained here.  If you use melts that contain vegetable fat, not cocoa butter so they do not need to be tempered.

Let’s start with making four different chocolate bowls using balloons
This is not my favourite method and here’s why…

*As the balloon deflates the inward pull on the chocolate will break any intricate pieces.

*I find that balloons can leave a bit of a rubbery taste to the chocolate

* If your chocolate is too hot your balloon will pop – and yes, trust me, that does make a mess in your kitchen!

But they do have a nice shape that can be tricky to recreate with other methods,watch the video below for how to make these four bowls.  If you make some bowls yourself remember that you can upload your photo in the comments section at the end of this post.

chocolate bowl recipe chocolate bowl balloon howtocookthat
howtocookthat chocolate bowls chocolate bowl how to cook that ann reardon

 

You can make more intricate chocolate bowls using ice as a mold like the two below.  The larger the bowl, the less stable it becomes – this is because the ice starts to melt so as you are working you get little bits of water in the joins of your chocolate.

how to make a chocolate bowl howtocookthat ann reardon howtocookthat chocolate sphere ann reardon

 

 
Or in my opinion the best way is to make chocolate bowls using a lined container as a mold. Aluminium foil or waxed baking paper can be used to line a container that is the shape you are after, then pipe your design over the top.

chocolate bowl howtocookthat ann reardon chocolate bowl dessert

On the right is a chocolate bowl with white chocolate mousse, raspberries, mango sorbet and pashmak (iranian fairy floss).

 

If you have no time to bake a cake you can even make a chocolate bowl, cover it in smarties, sprinkles or anything festive looking. Fill it with lollies then invert it onto a plate and walaah you have Piñata birthday cake!  Boys love to smash things so why not karate chop the cake.
chocolate bowl pinyata filled with lollies howtocookthat ann reardon

You may also be interested in
* how to temper and chocolate and what chocolate to use for decorations
* How to make a box out of chocolate
* chocolate decorations for desserts

2013

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

119 Comments View Comments

  1. Rating: 5

    Hi!!! Thank you I loved your beautiful recipe n ideas

  2. Rating: 5

    Hi… love your balloon technique… To have no rubbery taste i covered my balloon with cooking foil before I apply my chocolate thought this idea may help you… 🙂

  3. Hi – just wondering what brand colouring you use to colour your chocolate? (I’m in Australia). Thanks 🙂

  4. Hi Ann! Do you think we could do one of these techniques with completely sugar free chocolate so just raw cacao powder, cacao butter and rice malt for sweetener? We don’t eat sugar or anything artificial so hope this works!!! Thanks so much!! Em + Carla

    • Hi Em + Carla, It should work well

  5. hello what kind of chocolate do you use?

    • Any chocolate containing cocoa butter, then I temper it.

  6. Rating: 5

    Thanks for a beautiful idea for my birthday

  7. Where can I get your chocolate? What chocolate brand do you use? I love you’re channel I hope you get this Message

  8. love your link

  9. Every Friday I eagerly wait for ur new recipes.U are very much talented. And I am always inspired and impressed by ur creations.They are perfectly magical.Thank u so much.

    • Thanks Priym.

  10. I didn’t kno u could make chocolate bowls

  11. Rating: 5

    That is so cute, did not know u could make chocolate bowls out of chocolate

  12. Ann, I am making the rock candy geodes and some are coming along as planned at 24 hrs (those that are poured into to foil directly) but alot of them are simply not setting up. I get crystal growth on the top but the bottoms where it should be growing are just really gooey. Do you think I have done something wrong or could it be the humidity in my house? I have a candy store on the oregon coast and want to make them as oregon coast thunder eggs. Some websites say to boil the sugar to 300 degrees F. is that necessary?

    • Hi leslie, the humidity could be a factor. Next time if you have this issue, just push the crystals that are forming down to where they are not and they should encourage crystal formation.

  13. Rating: 5

    Love your recipes Ann.. your recipes are inspiring me to bake. Decorated a cake for the first time today for my husband’s birthday. He loved it. .. Thank you so much…

    • Rating: 5

      Ann you are such a wonderful woman, God bless you and your hand work.
      please like how many minutes or hours do i need to let d chocolate bowl be set or firm because all the ones i have been doing are melting and i already have a temper chocolate.
      pls i will love your quick reply. thank you.

  14. Which chocolate is used for making chocolate bowl

  15. I really loved ur recipes and loved ur chocolate ideas thank u

  16. Rating: 5

    I made a bowl! It’s not even or pretty but I used the lined container mold. Thank you so much for the great tutorials!!

    • well done Andrea, excellent 🙂

  17. Rating: 5

    Hi Ann,

    Oh I simply love the way you teach making things and turning them simple. I am vegetarian and I hardly eat eggs. Can u please help me in other cake recipes…

    Thank you so much.
    Manish

  18. Rating: 5

    I made this for a friend before I moved away. she said she loved it… thanks Ann, please keep up with the awesome things you create

  19. hi Ann,

    Can I know what brand of chocolate that you used?

    • usually cadburies, sometimes nestle

  20. Hi Ann,
    Can you tell me which chocolate do you use? when i took them from refrigerator they have been melted

    • What kind of Chocolate do you use & if you want to freeze the chocolate what the temperature should be ?

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