Very rarely do new kitchen experiments work right off the bat. Sure, if I am veganizing a recipe of mine, I can usually do on the first shot. But a new recipe idea I have never tried before? That is going to take some work. Sometimes it is close, but needs tweaking; other times, it can be a complete flop. However, every now and then I have a kitchen event that is such an epic disaster I can only laugh about it after the horror is gone. What follows is one of those moments involving chocolate…  (and for those of you who were there in 2006 for the Chocolate Spin Art, that is not the event I am talking about.  The rest of you are really intrigued by that now, aren’t you?)  But I digress:

Picture it, New York City, 2005: Ethan had done a day trip to Albany to see his grandfather who was in the hospital. Zayde, his grandfather, was the husband of Bubby (of Apple Crisp fame’s husband).  I knew it was going to be an emotionally difficult visit and I wanted to have a nice meal waiting for him to come home to. I don’t recall what I did for the dinner, but I know for dessert I was making chocolate mousse.  I wanted some flair with this dessert, so rather than putting into bowls or even champagne slippers, I decided to make chocolate cups that I would then fill with the mousse.  Not only did I want chocolate cups, I wanted them to be bittersweet with a swirl of white chocolate around them.  Very stylish.

Once I had the mouse made and chilling in the fridge, I set about making the cups. This is where our adventure gets interesting.  I had watched plenty of cooking shows and I figured making the cups was pretty straight forward.  To make the cups I had the idea of coating balloons in melted chocolate, freezing them to harden and then just popping the balloons. I got the balloons and encountered my first hurdle: trying to blow two of them up to the same size, or at least reasonably close. It took about 8 balloons until I felt I had two the “right” size. I melted my chocolates over double boilers and was ready to start coating. I dipped one balloon into the melted bittersweet chocolate and then drizzled the white chocolate on top of it. OK, it wasn’t the swirl I was imaging, but it looked great and I was feeling good about myself. Then things went horribly wrong…

Remember in science class when you learned about hot air expanding? I apparently had forgotten that. As I am getting ready to make cup number two I notice the first balloon getting bigger and bigger and bigger.  And what happens when you over inflate a balloon? YUP!  There I stood just watching and waiting for the inevitable to happen.  “Michael,” you ask, “why didn’t you pop it or throw it in the freezer immediately?”  Well dear reader, I thought about popping it, but figured it would explode everywhere if I did. And I didn’t think about the freezer. Finally it happened.  POP!!! A chocolate explosion all over the kitchen.  From dip to pop was probably less than 30 seconds, but time seemed to slow down while I waited.

Like any good cook, I cleaned everything, including myself, before starting again. I thought about what happened and realized my error – Obviously, I shouldn’t have left the heat on under the chocolate, that caused the balloon to pop.  So, this time I removed the pans from the heat before dipping.  I dipped the balloon and within seconds it started growing. SHIT!!!! At least this time I thought to put the balloon in the sink and contain the mess. POP!  Again, I cleaned everything up.  Now feeling very humbled, but not defeated, I decided to give it one more try.  Before starting for a third time, I stopped to think. I finally realized it was the heat of the chocolate, not the stove that was causing the balloon to expand.  I let the chocolates cool down before dip number 3.

Once the chocolate cooled down, I prepared my balloons. Cautiously, I dipped into the bittersweet chocolate and then drizzled on the white chocolate. Then I waited. The balloon held its size!!! I dipped and drizzled the second one and got them into the fridge to harden. Once the chocolate was hard, I simply cut the knots off the balloons, let them deflate and pulled them easily away. I was left with 2 awesome chocolate shells just waiting to be filled with mousse.

Ethan was pleasantly surprised by the dessert, but loved hearing about how it came to be.

Moral of the story: just because it doesn’t work the first time, doesn’t mean it isn’t worth trying again. Oh, and when working with melted chocolate and balloons, wear goggles.