Name: Bailey's Hot Chocolate Bombs
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 55 min
Yield: 6
Cuisine: Dessert
Ingredients: 1 cup high-quality chocolate chips (7 oz); 1/4 cup Bailey’s Irish Cream (2 oz); 1/4 cup hot chocolate mix (1.7 oz); 2 tablespoons white chocolate chips for decoration (optional); 1 cup mini marshmallows; 8 ounces whole milk; Whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles, if desired

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These Bailey’s Hot Chocolate Bombs are such a fun treat, especially when all dressed up for St. Patrick’s Day. They make a fantastic gift to give to your friends or to serve at a theme party.

» You might also like these St. Patrick’s Day Drinks and St. Patrick’s Day Appetizers.

If you’ve never seen these viral chocolate bombs, originally made by Eric Torres Garcia, later becoming a Tik Tok sensation, they are tempered hollow chocolate spheres filled with cocoa mix and mini marshmallows that will melt to create a cup of hot chocolate when dropped into a mug of steamed milk.

These ones have an added shot of Bailey’s Irish Cream in the center to make an adult hot chocolate. They are super festive and not all that difficult to make, despite what you might think, seeing how adorable they are.

If I can make these, anyone can. Seriously. I am not a perfectionist when it comes to baking and often my treats turn out looking a bit hokey, but I think mine are quite cute.

With tempering the chocolate, they only take about 30 minutes to make, start to finish. And all you need is a silicone sphere mold, a spoon, a spatula, a heat-proof bowl, and a plastic baggie. I’ll explain in a bit.

I like to make these bombs in a pack of 3 and give them out to friends for St. Patrick’s Day. They melt perfectly into a mug of warm milk and the little hit of Irish Cream is a great surprise.

By the way, you can make your own Irish Cream with this easy recipe.

Ingredients You Need for Hot Chocolate Bombs

High-quality chocolate – I always use Ghirardelli chocolate wafers or chips. They taste really good and melt well. You NEED a high-quality chocolate to make a good cup of hot chocolate. Just don’t use dark chocolate, because it doesn’t have enough butter cream and the spheres tend to crack.
White chocolate – I also used white chocolate wafers to mix with the chocolate in the end for the drizzle, just so it was a bit lighter color. This is optional.
Hot cocoa mix – It doesn’t matter what brand you use, but you’ll obviously want one that you enjoy drinking. I use Ghirardelli double chocolate premium hot cocoa mix.
Irish Cream – You can use Bailey’s Irish Cream or try this homemade version.
Mini marshmallows – I use Jet Puffed mini marshmallows and I cut them in half to make them a bit smaller. If you can find the really small ones, even better.
Sprinkles – If can be difficult to find good sprinkles, so get whatever you can find. I use Wilton Dark Green sprinkles which can be purchased from Amazon.

Equipment You Need

Silicon sphere mold – to make the chocolate spheres
Pastry paint brush – for brushing the chocolate into the mold – this is optional (you can use a spoon)
Plastic sandwich bag – for decorating the bombs
Milk chocolate wafers – I use Ghirardelli
Green sprinkles
St. Patrick’s Day cupcake liners
Waterproof digital thermometer

How to Make Bailey’s Chocolate Bombs

Step 1: Temper the chocolate

Set up a double boiler with a heat-safe glass bowl that fits over a small pot on the stove. The glass bowl shouldn’t touch the water.

Heat just about an inch of water in the pot over medium heat. As it heats up, place half the chocolate wafers into the heat-safe glass bowl and place it on top of the pot. I get it to just about boiling and then turn it down to simmering. You don’t want to allow the chocolate to get too hot or it will scorch.

Stir the chocolate with a silicon spatula as the chocolate melts. If you have a digital thermometer, place it in the chocolate and set it against the pot while you stir. As soon as the chocolate is about half melted, remove the glass bowl from over the heat. Set it on the counter and continue stirring until all of the chocolate melts.

The chocolate needs to get to about 100° F, but not go over. Once the chocolate is completely melted, stir occasionally until the chocolate cools to 82° F. Now place the bowl back on the double boiler and bring it back up to 88°F to 91°F.

Try to keep the chocolate between this range while working, if possible. If it goes a little below, that’s fine, but you don’t want it to get too cool or it’ll seize up.

Step 2: Create the chocolate spheres

Once the chocolate is back up to temperature, use the back of a spoon or a pastry brush to cover the inside of each sphere.

Spread it on thick enough so it won’t break when you take it out of the mold, look around for any holes to patch, and make sure the chocolate goes a little bit up over the top. Doing this will make sure the sphere is whole when you remove it from the mold.

Once you’re done painting, place the mold in the refrigerator for 5 minutes to firm up. When you take it out, look for any holes that remain, add a second layer of chocolate, if you want, to make it firmer. Let if chill for another 5 minutes in the refrigerator.

Remember, you don’t need to make the chocolate layer super thin. The more chocolate you put on, the more that will melt into your drink (yay!) and the studier the bombs will be.

Take the mold out of the refrigerator and carefully remove the chocolate shells from the mold. Place them on a piece of parchment paper or a baking tray.

Step 3: Fill & seal the bombs

Heat a small pan over low heat on the stove for about 15-30 seconds, then turn it off. Take one of the empty halves and quickly melt the rim of it on the pan, just for a second. This will be the bottom of the sphere.

In a small bowl, mix together the Bailey’s Irish Cream and the hot chocolate mix. Now you can fill each half with 1 tablespoon of hot cocoa mix and some mini marshmallows. Don’t fill it too much or you’ll have trouble attaching the top half.

Now melt the rim of the second half and quickly place it on top of the filled half. If you do it quickly enough, while the chocolate is still melted, it will attach right away, with no fuss.

Working quickly, do this for of the all spheres.

Step 4: Decorate the bombs

To complete the look, you can drizzle melted chocolate over the tops of your spheres and decorate them with sprinkles, if you like. I like to vary the colors and lighten the color of the drizzle by adding a few white chocolate wafers to the chocolate and melting them in.

If you want to also decorate with white chocolate, put 1/4 cup of white chocolate wafers in a microwave safe bowl and microwave it at 15 second intervals until it’s 1/2 melted. Remove it from the microwave and stir until it’s all melted.

When it’s cool slightly, place the white chocolate into another sandwich bag to drizzle over the bombs.

If you have sprinkles to put on, add them while the chocolate drizzle is still wet so that it adheres well.

Serving Instructions

To serve the hot chocolate, you just need to steam or microwave 8 ounces of milk until it’s warm/hot. I say this because the milk needs to be hot enough to melt the chocolate, but not so hot that it’s boiling. Be very careful not to overheat the milk!

Pour the milk into a mug and drop the bomb into the mug. The chocolate will begin to melt and the marshmallows will float to the top. Stir it really well until all of the cocoa is incorporated and the chocolate is melted in. Enjoy.

How To Temper Chocolate

The thing that keeps people from making these beautiful sphere chocolate bombs is often tempering the chocolate. However, tempering is actually pretty easy, so I encourage you to give it a try. It doesn’t have to be perfect. No one expects that.

To temper chocolate, you need to do these steps:

Create a double boiler by placing a glass bowl over a pan, filled with an inch of water on the stove top. Heat the pan so the water is at a low boil, while the glass bowl does not touch the water.
Add the chocolate to the bowl and stir until it starts to melt. When half melted, remove it from the boiler and stir until all the chocolate melts. Take its temperature with a digital read thermometer. It should be about 100°F.
Stir until the chocolate reaches 82°F. Return to the water and heat back up to 86-90°F. Keep the chocolate at this range while using it.

What If the Chocolate Gets Too Hot?

You don’t want to let the chocolate exceed 120°F for dark chocolate or 105°F for milk or white chocolate. Going above this has a high chance of ruining the chocolate. It might scorch and burn. If it hasn’t burned, but you’re not willing to see if it will work and maybe have to try again, you should just throw out the chocolate and start over.

If you’re willing to try to work with it, bring the temperature of the chocolate down as quickly as possible by adding more chocolate and stirring rapidly. It’s possible it will survive the overheating.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I use a different type of chocolate?

You can use any type of chocolate you want to make chocolate bombs. The only chocolate I’ve had not work well is dark chocolate, around 65% and higher. This is because dark doesn’t contain as much milk fat and it cracks too easily. You can use semi-sweet, milk, white, etc.

Can I use another type of mold?

You can use any silicon mold to make these bombs. You can use a heart-shaped mold for a more romantic one. Here’s another cool heart-shaped mold. Here’s a flower-shaped mold to try.

Do I need a food paint brush to make there?

I found that the back of a spoon works just as well as the paint brush. If you have one, it’s great for filling in holes in the spheres, but it’s not necessary to have it.

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6 Bombs