.:Chocolate Bowls:.

I have been wanting to try this out ever since I saw it posted on another blog. Well, we just got done with a huge production with our youth group, and we want to do something nice for the parents who have been SO helpful throughout it all. We are having the girls in my young women's program come over tonite to make 'sweet treats' to take around to them. I thought that these beat out a paper plate any day!

All you need are some balloons, semi-sweet baking chocolate, and some wax paper.



Put your chocolate in a microwaveable bowl. Since I was doing such a large batch, I started off with 60 second intervals. For smaller batches, you'd probably only want to do 30 seconds. I stirred it in between.

While the chocolate was microwaving, I lined a cookie sheet with wax paper and blew up my balloons.

Once the chocolate is melted, LET IT COOL. On the website I got this from, it says even when you think it's cool enough, let it cool some more. Otherwise, you end up with popped balloons and chocolate all over. For my large batch (four boxes of 8 oz. of Baker's chocolate) I let it cool for almost an hour. I stirred it about every fifteen minutes to check the temperature.

Then, take your balloon and dip it in the chocolate.

Set it on the wax paper to cool. (I put mine in the fridge).

Take a pin, and poke a small hole at the top. You don't want the balloon to explode - only the air to let out slowly. I stuck the pin in, and then kind of held the hole open to let the air out.

Peel the balloon out and you have a chocolate bowl! We haven't added any treats to it yet, but once we do, we'll probably wrap it up in cellophane and deliver as gifts!

What a fun way to serve dessert at a dinner party or special occasion!

And what fun are desserts if you don't share them? Here is Reece enjoying her first tastes of chocolate. I think she liked it....