Coraline is a great movie to watch for Halloween. It’s eerie, puzzling, and slightly dark. It simply fits the Halloween mood perfectly and it’s not too scary to watch with the kids. I found this movie thanks to my YouTube subscribers who asked me to make a recipe based on Coraline’s story. After thinking it through, I chose these cocoa beetles because they make for a scary and delicious treat!
Now, this recipe is easy to make but it takes some patience and skill. Particularly when adding the final details, like the beetle legs and antennas.
To fill these chocolate beetles I will use a treat that I remember having at my childhood best friend’s house a while ago: a mix of chocolate puffed rice and sweetened condensed milk.
Making this recipe doesn’t require special kitchen equipment. The only thing you’ll need is a mold, like one of those molds for chocolate eggs. I chose a mold that had cavities the size of my fingers, that’s the perfect size for our chocolates. Just make sure the bottom of each cavity in your mold is hollow and curved.
Find below the recipe with all the ingredients and a step-by-step guide so that you make these chocolate beetles at home.
Cocoa beetles from Zanzibar
Equipment
- Chocolate egg mold
- 2 brushes
- Circular nozzle
- Pastry bag
Ingredients
- 1½ cup of milk chocolate
- 1 cup of dark chocolate or black candy melts
- ½ cup of chocolate-flavored puffed rice cereal (or your favorite cereal)
- Golden color powder for confectionery decorations
- 7 oz of condensed milk
Instructions
- Melt your milk chocolate in the microwave oven at 20-second intervals. Continue until the chocolate is thick and fudgy.
- Then, take your chocolate egg mold and put a bit of chocolate in each hollow. Now, match it up with a brush or a chopstick. Try to make it neither too thick nor too thin.
- Make the rest and give the mold a couple of soft blows against the table to remove air bubbles. Then, take this to the fridge for 10 minutes.
- While that gets cool, let's make our delicious filling. To start, melt butter at medium heat and add condensed milk. Cook it for 15 minutes, constantly stirring it. When the blend gets thick, turn off the heat and add chocolate puffed rice.
- Take the mix to a plate with wax paper. Then, spread it to cool it down until it gets at room temperature. This process takes around 15 minutes.
- Now the beetles' shells should be ready. Before taking them out of the fridge, check if the filling is cool enough.
- Let's create that delicious stuffing. Use the mold as a guide to calculate the size. Get some butter on your hands and make rolls with the filling. To make them, grab some mixture, make a little ball and give it an oval-like shape. Repeat this process until you get as many fillings as you need. And make sure they are not too fat so that they can fit in the chocolate.
- Melt more milk chocolate to cover the bottom of beetles. First, fill them with the mixture. Then, fill and cover with chocolate. You can use the brush or chopstick you used already for the chocolate. The stick helps to soften the chocolate appearance.
- Now stick into the fridge for 10 minutes.
- When they’re ready, make them come off the mold very carefully.
- If there is excess chocolate, you can cut it off with a knife. And now prepare some strips of aluminum paper. Cut them so that it covers the beetles' width.
- Then, put one stripe on the top of each chocolate, covering a bit less than its half.
- Melt the black chocolate or the candy melts, using the 20 seconds process that you used before.
- Now, using the foil as a guide, paint the darkest part of the beetle. Make quick strokes with the brush, covering all very quickly. The chocolate may dry as the bottom has been in the fridge, and it's going to be cold. Then, take off the aluminum paper.
- Prepare a pastry bag with a small circular nozzle add more melted black chocolate.
- We will use this mixture to make the antennas and legs for our Cocoa Beetles,with thick lines over wax paper. I recommend making a couple of extra sets. You might need replacement parts. Let them dry completely.
- To put the antennas and legs to your beetles you'll have to be fast and careful. They're very fragile and can melt if you have warm hands. So, I recommend you to get your hands in the fridge. You can put your hands in cold water and get them dry before dealing with this.
- First, take the chocolate off the paper and put some black chocolate drops to glue the antennas and legs. Once you stick the antennas put more chocolate over to secure them.
- Repeat this process with the legs, piece by piece. If chocolate dries, just put the choco-glue in the microwave oven for a few seconds. And so, all the rest until they become alive.
- Turn around your Cocoa Beetles carefully. We will give it one last touch with golden powder for decoration. Put the golden powder in a small container and add a few drops of water. Once you get a dough-like texture, you can use your brush to paint lines in the beetles back. In this way, they will look like wings. Add another line at the top for the head.
- Now they look so professional. Enjoy your Zanzibar Cocoa Beetles!
Video
Notes
If you liked this Zanzibar Cocoa Beetles recipe, you might like some of my other recipes too.
And remember, if you try this recipe and want to share your pictures, tag me @lacooquette on Instagram. I’d love to share your pictures on my IG stories.
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