Want some foreshadowing for this experiment?
“The quietest poetry can be an explosion of joy” – James
Broughton
I have no idea who that guy is. His quote just had the word
explosion in it. Let me get started.
I LOVE crunch bars. I went through a phase earlier in this
school year where I stashed them in my secret compartment in my desk and went
to town during my conference. I was then able to focus and get stuff done. Let
me clarify that they were MINI crunch bars.
I saved this onto my “Fun looking FOOD!” Pinterest board and
thought I would never actually do it because it was too tedious. So instead of
attempting it at my house, I opted to do it at my mother in laws house and use
all of her utensils.
When I went to the grocery store, I realized I hadn't thoroughly read the directions before buying. I knew I needed crunch bars and
balloons. I only bought 4 crunch bars, because I assumed that would be enough.
I also bought raspberry sherbert (mmmmmmmmmmmm) and off to mother in laws we
go.
Lucky for me, she had a candy thermometer (temperature will be
important here) and a double boiler. Her double boiler had holes in the top
part so I just put foil over it and solved that problem.
Here we go. I got the water in the boiler hot, but not
boiling. I break up my 4 bars and dump them in, then clip the candy thermometer
on the side. I completely misread or forgot what I read. Here is what I was
supposed to do…
“Do not let the chocolate
exceed 110° F. Use a spatula to stir chocolate thoroughly and regularly for
about 1 minute or until melted and smooth. Remove the bowl of chocolate and
stir in the remaining
1/3 of chopped candy
bars. This will lower the temperature of the chocolate. When the chocolate is
about 84° F, place back on double boiler or saucepan to raise the temperature
of the chocolate back to 86-87° F. Do NOT let the chocolate reach 88° F.”
Here is what I did…
Dumped it all in, melted
it, stirred it, kept it on the stove, and let it get to 175 degrees.
Well gee whiz, the
chocolate is melted! Time for balloons! My husband’s 80 year old grandma was in
the kitchen during this part of the process. She was hanging out with her
walker, enjoying a strawberry, just talking away while I start dipping the
balloons.
When I dipped the first
balloon, it was hard to cover it with chocolate because the chocolate wasn't deep enough. I had to scoop it and try to slather it. It actually didn't work
that well. The chocolate kept sliding off. After trying very hard, I was
satisfied with the coverage and put it on my cutting board.
 |
| I guess you can call that "satisfied" |
On to balloon #2. I
dipped it in the chocolate and BOOM! There is this loud explosion, the word
S--- came from somewhere (I think me) and chocolate went EVERYWHERE. My jaw
dropped, I turned around to Granny and she just gave me the biggest WTF look I've ever seen. She said “Well, Jamie, do you know what you’re doing?” and I
promptly answered “No.”
I dug the balloon out of
the chocolate and dipped balloon #3. I started to slather it when BOOM!! I
screamed this time and was blinded by chocolate. Once again, I dared to look
back at Granny and she was calling me an idiot with her eyes. When I turned back
around, I saw the mess that I had made in my mother in laws kitchen. Chocolate
on my shirt, on the microwave above the stove, on the counter, on the stove, on
the wall behind the stove on the wall BEHIND me, everywhere. I gave up at this
point. I would make do with my one bowl.
I let it freeze for a
couple of hours. I was able to let the air out of the balloon without it
exploding but as much as I tried to get it out of the chocolate, the bottom
just wouldn’t budge and it was stuck. My last attempt at getting the balloon
out ended in part of the bowl breaking off. And to add insult to injury, the bowl
was stuck on the cutting board.
I tried. I tried really
hard. I really need to learn to read directions thoroughly.
I am quite sad about this one...
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