Pour hot milk over these salted caramel hot chocolate bombs filled with hot cocoa, caramel, and marshmallows and watch them turn into a delicious, chocolaty, creamy cup of hot cocoa!
This recipe is super simple to make with just a few ingredients. Melting candies, hot chocolate mix, mini marshmallows, and caramel are all you need to make these kid-friendly treats!
About these salted caramel hot chocolate bombs
A cozy mug of hot chocolate is a traditional drink both kids and adults turn to after a long day of outdoor winter activities. But these hot chocolate bombs are a step above and beyond your everyday hot chocolate and we can easily see why they are becoming so popular.
Why not try your hand at making them yourself and see what all the fuss is about! These fun and creative treats are so cute and make the experience of drinking hot chocolate even better! Plus, they make sweet gifts.
These chocolate spheres filled with hot cocoa, mini marshmallows and caramel are are melted in a cup of hot milk so that all of the hidden contents inside are released.
This is the perfect easy recipe to start with if you’re just learning how to make hot cocoa bombs. This step-by-step guide will give you the basics, and all you need is a few simple ingredients, a silicone mold, and a brush!
Optional: Why this recipe works
- Quick and easy
- No tempering required
- Kid-friendly
- Totally customizable
- Can be decorated to suit any occasion
- You can get creative with the contents inside
- No baking required
- Minimal chill time
- They make great gifts
Ingredients
- Chocolate candy melts – Using candy melts means no tempering needed! For the sake of this recipe, I used brown, but you can use any color you’d like.
- Hot cocoa powder – Your favorite mix will work just fine. Either storebought or homemade.
- Caramel – Reserve caramel for drizzling. Will be used inside as well as on the outside.
- Mini marshmallows – Use mini so you can fit more inside the sphere. Keep extra to add more to your cup.
- Sea salt – The combination of caramel and sea salt is the best salty-sweet balance.
How to Make this Recipe
To prep, grease your silicone molds and melt candy melts in the microwave for 1 minute. Remove and stir thoroughly then continue for 30-second intervals. Stir in between each interval until everything has melted completely.
Add the melted chocolate to the greased mold and brush the chocolate onto the side wall. Make sure that chocolate is completely coating the inside of the mold. Put in the freezer for five minutes to set.
Remove the molds from the freezer, but do not remove the spheres from the mold. Add cocoa powder, caramel, and marshmallows to each sphere. Add additional melted chocolate on top of the marshmallows to close the mold
Place in the freezer again until completely set. Once they are set, gently remove the cocoa bombs from the mold by pushing on the backside of the mold until it pops out.
Using a spoon, drizzle caramel over each cocoa bomb and immediately add a pinch of sea salt before the caramel hardens.
Variations/Options
Variation 1: Melting Chocolate or Candy Melts in an Instant Pot
- This is a quick and easy way to create your own double boiler. Add the rack to the bottom of the Instant Pot and turn it to sauté mode.
- Pour two cups of water inside and place a glass bowl on top of the rack. Add candy melts to the bowl and stir until they are completely melted.
Variation 2: Melting Chocolate or Candy Melts in a Double Boiler
- If you have a double boiler, this is another simple way to melt your candy. Add a cup of water to the bottom pan. Place candies in the top pot and turn on the heat to boil water.
- Candies will start to melt, at which time start stirring continuously until it’s completely melted.
Tips
- You can use hot milk or hot water. Milk will provide a creamier sip, but either will work.
- Be careful to not overheat the chocolate or it will become too thick to pour. If this does happen there are a couple of tricks you can use, such as adding a bit of vegetable oil or shortening to it. But in the end, it’s probably easier just to start over and keep an eye on it.
- Make your own hot cocoa mix. Mix ½ cup cocoa powder, 1 cup powdered milk, and 1 cup of powdered sugar.
- To make a mocha hot chocolate bomb add a bit of instant coffee to the mix.
- Use a few caramel bits instead of caramel sauce inside.
- To create a whole sphere, use two mold trays. Brush melted chocolate into both sides, and only fill the halves of one tray but do not add chocolate on top to close. To connect the two sides, heat a plate in the microwave for 30 seconds, hold the empty half down on the plate for a couple of seconds to melt the edge. Connect the two halves and hold them together gently while it sets.
- Candy melts come in all kinds of different colors. Use pink and red for valentine’s day, green for St Patrick’s day, red and green for Christmas, white for birthday parties, the sky is the limit!
- Decorate with sprinkles, drizzles, crushed candy canes, gold flakes, and whatever else you’d like.
FAQ’s
Place one or two bombs in your favorite mug and pour hot milk over it to melt the chocolate releasing the hot cocoa and marshmallows.
Stir and enjoy! Add additional marshmallows if desired.
No, they don’t. Candy melts are not actually chocolate, which is why they work well without needing to temper any actual chocolate. They will remain solid at room temperature once they are set!
Either will work. As you can imagine, milk will be creamier and have a bit more body and texture to the drink, but hot water will work too!
Other Easy Drink Recipes
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Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate Bombs
Ingredients
- 24 oz chocolate candy melts
- 7 Tablespoons hot cocoa powder
- 1 cup caramel reserve 2 tablespoon caramel for drizzling
- 1 cup mini marshmallows
- 1 Tablespoon sea salt
Instructions
Melting Chocolate or Candy Melts in an Instant Pot
- Add the metal rack that comes with the Instant Pot to the bottom of the pot and turn the Instant Pot on sauté mode.
- Place 2 cups of water inside the Instant Pot. Place a glass bowl that will fit in your instant pot, which will act as a double broiler.
- Add the candy melts to the bowl in the Instant pot.
- Stir the candies until the chocolate has melted completely.
Melting Chocolate or Candy Melts in the Microwave
- Place candy melts in a microwave safe bowl and heat at 50% power or defrost mode for 1 minute. Remove and stir thoroughly.
- Return to microwave and heat at 30 second intervals, stirring in between each interval, until candy is melted completely. (usually 2- 30 second intervals is enough)
Melting Chocolate or Candy Melts in a Double Boiler
- Add a cup of water to the bottom of the pan.
- Place the the candies in the top pot and turn on heat to boil water.
- When candies start to melt, stir continually until melted completely.
Assembling the Cocoa Bombs
- Add the melted chocolate to the greased mold and brush the chocolate onto the side well. Make sure that chocolate is completely coating the inside of the mold.
- Put in the freezer for five minutes to set.
- Remove the molds from the freezer and add half a tablespoon of cocoa powder, 1 tablespoon of caramel and 4-5 marshmallows per mold.
- Add additional melted chocolate on top of the marshmallows to close the mold
- Place in the freezer again for another 5 to 10 minutes until completely set.
- Very carefully remove the cocoa bombs from the mold by pushing on the backside of the mold until it pops out.
- Using a spoon, drizzle caramel over each cocoa bomb.
- Immediately add a pinch of sea salt before the caramel hardens.
To use: place one or two cocoa bombs in a mug and pour hot milk over it to melt the chocolate and release the hot cocoa and marshmallows.
- Please one or two bombs in your favorite mug and pour hot milk over it to melt the chocolate releasing the hot cocoa and marshmallows.
- Stir and enjoy! Add additional marshmallows if desired.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional Disclosure
Nutritional facts are estimates and are provided as a courtesy to the reader. Please utilize your own brand nutritional values to double check against our estimates. Nutritional values are calculated via a third party. Changing ingredients, amounts or cooking technique will alter the estimated nutritional calculations.
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