Ice Cream and EDIBLE Chocolate Bowls!

It's okay, you can admit it... you probably thought I jumped the shark when I posted about my first ice cream. But hey, this blog is all over the place so I figured it fit right in! Well, I'm hoping to rebound your confidence in my ice cream skills... at least a little bit. Before you get too excited about the ice cream part of this recipe, I need to give you a little backstory. I have this wild and wonderful, silly and creative job. No two days are ever the same and I never know what is going to land in my lap. Allow me to present, exhibit A:

I'm not kidding. Someone randomly acquired this during an afternoon and it ended up in my office. Shockingly enough, it didn't surprise me :) How much fun will this be?! But I needed a good excuse to use it. That excuse came in the form of two adorable kids at my house last night. We had friends over to grill out and they brought their beautiful children (ages 4 and 8). Needless to say when I asked them to help me with an ice cream project, they were more than willing to be put to work. Since I realize most of you don't have an ice cream ball, I'll keep the recipe brief. Ingredients:

• Ice cream ball (duh)




• 1 cup rock salt




• 




• Ice




• 1 quart half and half




• 3/4 cup plus 2 TBSP sugar




• 1 TBSP vanilla

Directions:

• One one side of the ball, open and fill with as much ice as will fit.




• Pour in rock salt over ice.




• Now, seal up the ice cream ball and flip over. Open the other side.




• Mix together half and half, sugar, and vanilla. Pour in to ball (there are two separate places -- one for ice/salt, one for ingredients).




• Now have a ball!




• 

They started inside but quickly moved outdoors after deciding that sending it down the slide would be the next most logical step :) They kicked it around the yard, let the dog chase it, and shook it until they were out of breath! The whole process took about 20 minutes of good, clean fun.

While they were 'working', I started on my edible bowls. Now THIS was going to be cool!

Ingredients:

• Balloons




• 




• Chocolate chips




• Vanilla chips (optional)

Directions:

• Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.




• Blow up your balloons. They should be small enough to dip, but large enough so that a bowl would make sense out of the bottom half (keep reading, it will make sense soon).




• 




• Now, melt your chocolate chips. To melt chocolate, place in a microwave safe bowl. Heat in small increments, stirring often.




• LET THE CHOCOLATE COOL A BIT. I had a few balloons pop because the chocolate was too hot!




• Put one small blob of melted chocolate onto the parchment paper for each balloon that you plan to make. This will help form a base for your edible bowls.




• Now dip your balloons into the chocolate. This should cover the bottom half of the balloon. Place on top of the chocolate blob you reserved for that balloon. They should easily stand up on their own.




• 




• ****this is the optional part from above. If you want, melt some vanilla chips in a separate bowl. Slowly mix into your melted chocolate to create a cool, swirled effect before dipping!




• Now place the cookie sheet full of balloons in the fridge to cool down.

Phew. I know it seems like this is a long process, but it's really simple and quick! Stay with me people...

• Once the bowls are cooled, remove from the fridge.




• Gather eager 8 year old to help pop the balloons :)




• As long as they're cooled completely, a small pin to pop the balloons is all you need! The balloon pops and you simply pull out the deflated balloon. Leaving you with delicious, edible bowls!

Top with homemade ice cream and enjoy!

I'll admit, I was a bit suprised at how tasty the ice cream turned out! I'm excited to experiment with some new flavors.

My helpers enjoying the fruits (err sweets?) of their labor:

Pin It