Easy Hot Cocoa Bombs

The nice thing about these hot chocolate or hot cocoa bombs is that there is really no limit on what you can put inside these little treats along with the cocoa mix. They are all the rage this year and are getting hard to find, but are fairly easy to make at home, especially with the right mold. And what a great gift idea!

What makes this recipe easy is the large mold that enables you to not have to fuse together two different halves like this…

I tried that, but I just didn’t have the time or patience to try to get the two halves to get together. That is when I decided to try a different mold….

These molds are large enough to fit all the goodies in, and then you can just spread the chocolate over them, chill, and remove!

This is all you will need…

• Hot cocoa mix
• Miniature or dehydrated marshmallows
• Candy melts
• Any other candies or sprinkles you would like to add to the bombs
• The candy mold above.

There are several brands, flavors and colors of candy melts available, depending on what kind of a flavor you want….

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One bag of these are enough to make 6 of the bombs.

Melt the candy melts in a double boiler or microwave at 15 second intervals until they are melted. Use a paint brush or small spoon and paint about a tablespoon of the melted chocolate into each circle.

Make sure all sides are covered and place in the freezer for about 10 minutes. Remove and put 1 tablespoon of marshmallows in each circle.

There are only 5 here because one cracked and I had to eat it! Then add 1 tablespoon of cocoa mix to each circle.

Then add baking chips or m&m’s or sprinkles, or crushed candy canes, heath or caramel or peanut butter chips? Or – just use your imagination! Maybe a spoon of something like this? Get creative!

I used rainbow colored baking chips and some snowflake sprinkles.

Spoon the rest of the melted chocolate onto the top and spread over the top of the circles.

Place back in the freezer and let sit for another ten minutes until hardened, then turn over and pop them out of the molds and trim any loose strands of chocolate off the bottom. Here is what you now have.

For the top, I melted a few red and green candy melts and piped the squigglys on with a piping bag.

Then I added some sprinkles on top.

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That’s it! Add one bomb to 8 ounces of steamed milk and enjoy! They da bomb!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your loved ones!

Apricot Almond Logs

When I was a kid growing up in Iowa, I always looked forward to tasting our Uncle Leo’s apricot bars around Christmas time. Our grandparents and him lived a couple of hundred miles from us in northwest Iowa and we would sometimes visit them around Christmas. Our uncle Leo always made candy for us when we would visit, usually his world famous fudge and apricot bars. If we didn’t visit, him and our aunt Marie would send some to our house around Christmas. She made some delicious green mint leaf marzipan type candy, too.

I still always imagine the taste of those delicious apricot bars around Christmas, and wish I had the recipe. Unfortunately, both our aunt and uncle have both been deceased for several years.

I called my father to see if maybe he had the recipe, but he did not, and he referred me to my sister Cathy. Maybe she had the recipe? Nope. Rats!

We both decided to research apricot bars online, and Cathy’s husband John sent me one that he found online that he thought looked similar. I used that recipe as a base, but made a few changes to try to mimic our uncle Leo’s recipe and came up with these.

While these are delicious and taste very similar, the texture is not quite the same. His tasted a little leathier, almost like a thick fruit roll up. If any of our Joynt cousins read this and have Leo’s recipe, by all means send it to me!

Oh well, I will enjoy these this year and experiment again next year!

Cook/Prep time – about 4 hours

Yield – 2 logs

Ingredients:

• 1 cup dried apricots, roughly chopped
• 6 chopped dates
• 1/2 cup coconut water
• 1 cup golden raisins
• 2/3 cup sweetened desiccated (finely chopped) coconut
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tsp finely grated orange rind
• 1/4 cup finely chopped almonds

Place the apricots and dates in a saucepan. Cover them with the coconut water. Let them cook until softened and strain them, pushing as much liquid as possible out of them.

Place in a bowl and add the orange rind and golden raisins. Place the fruits in a food processor and chop them well. This will make a paste. Press the paste onto waxed paper and let it dry in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Mix the coconut together with the coconut. Chop the almonds.

Spread the coconut sugar mixture onto a counter.

When the fruit is chilled, place it on top of the coconut mixture.

Sprinkle the almonds on the mixture.

Roll up jelly roll style. Roll into a long log then cut it in half to make two logs.

Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator or freezer to chill again.

Cut and serve as needed.

That’s it! Enjoy!

Suggested music to enjoy while making the apricot logs…..

Since Keith Richards turns 76 today, and he’s likely to live to be 150, how about The Rolling Stones “Hot Rocks 1964 – 1971 ? A classic album released in December 1971.