Book Nerd Bites (#2)

Book Nerd Bites is an original monthly feature created by Becca, Cyra, Kristie, Natasha, and Valerie as part of the Book Blogger Creativity Project hosted by Nori. Each month we will be sharing exciting recipes inspired by some of our favorite books. Feel free to join in, but please make sure you link your post back to us so we can enjoy your favorite bookish delights as well!

Don't forgot to use #booknerdbites if you want to share your food inspiration with us on twitter or instagram!

For our second round of posts for this super fun project, our group decided to choose our recipes based on a theme! The theme is...

HARRY POTTER!!

What better theme is there after the recent release of Cursed Child? There probably isn't one, let's be real.

Anyway, if you've read Harry Potter, you know that it's plum full of magically delicious sounding sweets and dishes! As much as I want to make ALL of the recipes, I chose to make chocolate frogs!

For some reason, when I was thinking about how I would do this, I imagined it to be a lot more difficult than it actually was. As long as you are sufficient in using the microwave and the freezer, you will excel with this recipe.

I mentioned in my last post that I am not at all a chef and will never don their signature headwear, but just because this story will reinforce that idea for you and I can relate it to this recipe somehow, I will share this with you:

When I was in probably middle school, MAYBE like the ninth grade at the latest, I was trying to make puppy chow. I was attempting to melt the chocolate and peanut butter together, but somehow managed to burn it beyond all recognition. In the microwave. Like, it tasted like ashes. I ruined the bowl. I threw it away so my dad wouldn't yell at me about it. It was BAAAAAD.

But thankfully, I didn't relive the experience with this recipe!

Enough chitchat, these are the supplies, ingredients, and steps that I used to create these delightful chocolate creatures!

Supplies & Ingredients:

-Frog Mold

-Chocolate Chips

(I used milk chocolate)

-Optional Fillings

(I used marshmallow creme)

Instructions:

Empty your chocolate chips into a bowl. Microwave at thirty second intervals until melted.

When my chocolate was almost melted, I added a big spoonful of coconut oil to it. I did this because I vaguely might recall hearing somewhere that if you're doing something like this, adding oil will make the finished product more shiny? I don't know, I might have made that up.

If you're going to use a filling, add a little bit of the melted chocolate to each spot in the mold. I tapped it on the counter a few times to make sure that it filled in all the crevices in the mold.

Put these in the freezer for about five minutes so they harden a little bit so it will be easier to put the filling layer on.

Add your filling.

I just bought a jar of marshmallow creme. I aggressively sprayed my hand down with cooking spray so that I could more easily dollop the creme onto the chocolate.

It was a mess, but it was a more acceptable mess than being covered in sticky marshmallow creme.

Fill up the rest of your mold with the chocolate.

Put the tray in the freezer until the chocolate is firm and set.

Here is my finished product!

And a more poorly photographed close up of a frog. Doesn't it just look like it could leap off the plate? No? Okay.

I personally do not have a printer and I am far too lazy to go and find one, so I didn't make a chocolate frog package or any wizard trading cards. But I did have every intention of doing that.

If you have easy access to a printer, I found templates for the necessary parts here. The link goes to a template for the trading cards, but there is a link on that page to their container template!

What do you think of my chocolate frogs? Pretty sweet, huh? Which Harry Potter treat would you like to be able to try? Check out the rest of my group this week to find recipes for other Harry Potter inspired goodies!