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Everything you EVER wanted to know about How to Make Cocoa Bombs! PLUS all the equipment you need and LOTS of helpful tips.

How to Make Hot Cocoa Bombs, LET’S GO!

Cocoa Bombs are the HOTTEST trend right now but when you properly know how to make cocoa bombs they’re going to turn out so much better than if you wing it. This post is here to help you!

I know there are TONS of recipes out there but this post is about MAKING THEM, and making them right!

As you scroll through you’ll see lots of different cocoa bombs in different stages of being made. Bear with me though because I’ve been making a lot and they’re all going to be linked to this post!

Remember you can make them from chocolate, candy melts, OR white chocolate, so they all look different! That makes them so much fun!

Equipment Need to Make Hot Chocolate Bombs:

Sphere Silicone Mold be sure it’s a big one and NOT a small mold, you will be disappointed if you get a small one. The one I use is AND linked to is 2 1/2 inches across.
OR alternatively, you can use other molds! Just make sure they fit in your cup, are silicone, and hold enough cocoa and marshmallows!
Small Baking Pan to hold the mold steady and to keep the chocolate hard and cool while filling.
Chocolate Melts, Chocolate, White Chocolate, you need about 1 cup to make 3 big molded cocoa bombs.
Hot chocolate mix, you really only need about 1/2 a serving PER bomb because it’s got ALL the chocolate around and hot milk to make the cocoa.
Mini-Marshmallows, these are the STAR of the show here so they’re not optional. They POP UP when the milk is poured over the hot chocolate bomb.
Double Boiler OR a sauce-pan and bowl combo you use to melt the chocolate. You can use a microwave too, I just don’t have one.
A small plate. This is used to warm the edge of top of the cocoa bomb to stick it together.
Spoons for filling the molds.
Sprinkles is desired, make sure they’re edible and won’t stay solid. This is especially important when serving these to small children, they pose a choking hazard. MOST but not all sprinkles for cookies make fine toppings as they melt away quickly in hot milk.

How to Melt Hot Chocolate Bombs Like You’re in a TikTok Video

It SEEMS like it should be EASY to just pour hot milk on these and make them work like in all the videos. But I have seen way too many of these videos with folks trying their best to melt them and THEY FAIL.

WHY?

They’re not doing it the right way.

The BEST way to melt Hot Chocolate Bombs:

put them seam side UP in the cup and pour directly on the seam, it’s weakest there and will melt first! To get there turn the empty cup on it’s side, set the cocoa bomb in the way you want it to sit and gently upright the cup it will easily slide into place.

Have STEAMING HOT MILK, it MUST BE STEAMING HOT, not just warm
Use a little teapot or something with a pour spout so you pour slowly. You must direct the flow of milk where you need it
Don’t rush it! If you do this slowly it will work and you’ll have the desired effect

HELP My Hot Cocoa Bomb Has a Hole in it!

NO WORRIES! They all do, or most of them do anyway. If you’ve made the hard chocolate shells and find a hole, you can fix it. Or the edges don’t come up far enough to meet the other half it’s salvageable.

Still in the mold? Get some of the melted chocolate add a dab to the area it’s missing in and pop it back in the freezer.

Unmolded it and it’s got a hole? OR it’s broken? You can patch it anyway. Just get some of the cooled chocolate that you used to make the shell, and dab it over the hole. Put the shell back in the freezer and let it cool.

If you’ve filled it and MOST of the two sides meet but there’s a little missing piece of chocolate we can fix it. Cool the whole thing in the freezer for a few minutes. Get some of the chocolate you used to make the shells and make sure it’s still melted. BUT NOT HOT. Pull the bomb out of the freezer, patch the hole, and refreeze it.

If the chocolate patch material is HOT it will melt your shell. Be sure it’s cool but still pliable when you patch it up.

Can I use Boiling Water Instead of Steaming Hot Milk?

You can. Although it doesn’t sound particularly delicious you can use water instead of milk. The benefit of using water is that the chocolate flavors come through stronger but if you’re using candy bark then the flavor will be more like vanilla.

On the other hand using milk instead of water makes the cocoa more creamy. The chocolate shell flavors may be obscured but you’ll have creamy hot cocoa.

Personal preference here, I guess.

Things to Avoid When Making Hot Chocolate Bombs

While these seem pretty straight forward I’ve seen some seriously WEIRD ways of making the cocoa bombs.

Don’t overfill your spheres. You really only need about 1/2 serving of cocoa for these
Some people double coat them but that causes them to be too thick and they don’t melt easily
using too small of spheres, then you can’t fit in all the cocoa and marshmallows
trying to seal them with a BIG GLOBBY THICK spoonful of melted chocolate. This looks terrible and melts the sides of your sphere. Use a warm plate to gently melt the edge and fuse the pieces together.
Underfilling them, putting in just a few marshmallows. These are the star of the show, when that bomb melts and they POP up that’s what people want to see so don’t cheat them!
Adding toppings that don’t melt. Everything on top or IN a cocoa bomb should quickly melt away don’t add plastic or other bits of stuff that won’t melt
Pouring the milk too quickly doesn’t give your bomb time to melt.
Using lukewarm milk it must be steaming hot milk!
Putting the bomb IN warm milk, also a no, there’s no wow factor here, it takes too long to melt!

Let’s DO THIS!

Yield: 3

How to Make Hot Chocolate Bombs

These Hot Chocolate Bombs are ALL the rage right now. Learn how to make them the RIGHT way and you can make them quickly and easily.

Prep Time 15 minutes

Active Time 20 minutes

Additional Time 40 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Difficulty easy

Materials

1 cup chocolate, can be melts OR real chocolate
3 TBSP cocoa mix
mini-marshmallows
contrasting color chocolate for drizzle, optional
sprinkles as desired

Tools

double boiler
sphere mold
mini baking sheet
plate

Instructions

melt one cup of chocolate or candy melts in the double boiler OR microwave 30-second shifts stirring between each cycle until melted, usually, 3 times is good
put the sphere mold on the baking sheet for easy moving
when the chocolate is melted use the spoon to line the inside of the sphere mold be sure to cover it well, don't leave any thin spots, and make sure to go right up to the top of the mold
once all the spheres are full check to make sure there are no thin spots or places where you haven't gone to the top edge
then place the baking pan in the freezer and chill for 15-20 minutes
put the small plate over the double boiler in preparation for sealing the bombs
when they're set and very firm peel them out of the molds and set on the cold tray
fill the bottom half of three spheres with a TBSP of cocoa and top with mini marshmallows
take one of the top spheres and quickly set the open side down on the hot plate and let it melt just a moment
place it on top of a filled half and seal it up
repeat with the remaining pieces
if you have ANY holes in where the pieces meet you can use a small amount of any remaining melted but COOLED chocolate and dab over the hole to carefully cover it-be aware that use the chocolate hot will further enlarge the hole...
cool the cocoa bombs for another 20 minutes to completely set them
if you're using a drizzle to decorate them melt it now and allow to cool so when you drizzle it on it the cold cocoa bombs it set immediately and doesn't melt them
once you've drizzle quickly add sprinkles before it sets

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1 thought on “How to Make Hot Chocolate Bombs”

Scarlet

February 9, 2021 at 7:04 am

What fun! Thanks for the detailed step by step on how to make hot chocolate bombs. Your pictures were very helpful as were your suggestions on fixing holes. I’m going to pin this so I can use the recipe again next year.