You know chocolates are loved by almost everyone, be it a kid or a 50 year old grownup! I literally drool over dark chocolate specially in different dry fruit combinations or a rum raisin flavor! It is just soooooo not avoidable! :p So one fine day I decided to make these drool worthy chocolate bowls which could be used as a bowl for anything and the best part?! You can eat the bowl too! 😀

While making these and having a discussion about chocolate as an ingredient with my mom, I realised that chocolate is one ingredient that is so much used – ‘Chocolate making is some billion dollar industry in just the US!’- but hardly anyone knows about the origins.

So I did some fast google search to understand that chocolate is actually manufactured from the CACAO beans; which grow on a tree called ‘Theobroma Cacao‘ – which literally means ‘Food of the Gods!’.  The word chocolate is derived from the Aztec word – ‘XOCOLATL‘ which referred to a bitter sweet drink made from the CACAO beans. The earliest presence of chocolate is said to be found as early as 900 AD in presently what is know as Mexico. While at that time, people had chocolate in a much different manner than how it is sold and consumed today in the Cafe generation, it is interesting to know that the solid form of chocolate appeared much later after the process of converting the cacao beans into a fine paste was discovered.

While I plan to dedicate another full article to chocolate, its origins and making, another thing to know here that these cacao beans are very high on nutrients; some of which are listed here. So many reasons to have chocolate right!?! 😀 

Easiest of any chocolate recipe is the one I am about to write. Its actually just a 2 step process and your bowls will be ready in a jiffy! Here go the details – 

Prep Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

1. 200 gms dark chocolate compound 
2. balloon

Method:

1. First heat the chocolate compound in a double boiler. If you don’t have a double boiler at home then simply follow these steps –> Take a large pan and add sufficient water in it. Put a small vessel inside this pan and put the chocolate compound in this small vessel. Now put the water on a high flame until the chocolate compound starts melting inside the small vessel. 

   

2. Once the chocolate compound is properly melted – let it cool off for a couple of minutes.

   

3. Take a small balloon inflated with air and arrange it in a manner that the round part is facing the ceiling since we would be pouring the melted chocolate over it. Since I did not have any support, I used a glass and kept the balloon inside it. 
4. Now pour the melted chocolate right on top of the balloon until the entire thing is covered properly. Let the excess chocolate drip down and then set it in a fridge for about 30 mins to let it harden. 

   

5. You can do this process without using a glass also. With a glass, once your chocolate has hardened over the balloon you will have to cut the chocolate from the sides in order to release the balloon from the glass, as chocolate would have dripped from the balloon to the glass as well, fixing the two together.
6. Once released from the glass, gently prick the balloon with a needle or a knife taking care not to break the chocolate layer outside. And lo! your chocolate bowl is ready! 😀

   

Chocolate, specially dark chocolate can be a rich source of nutrients if had correctly! So make this utterly simple chocolate bowl to combine with other desserts or to just use it as a bowl or a dome for other desserts! It will be a hit! 😀