Turn 2-ingredient fudge into these adorable Caramel Chocolate Fudge Bears for Valentine's Day, a birthday party, or a baby shower. These cute treats are super easy to make and taste great.
Are you familiar with Bento, the incredibly creative meals common in Japanese cuisine?
It wasn't until I began blogging about edible crafts and spending much of my time gawking at artistic foods online. The art of making lunch boxes filled with elaborately decorated rice bears, cartoon character sandwiches, heart-shaped hard-boiled eggs, and carved vegetables is awe-inspiring.
I work and eat at home most days and aside from an occasional picnic, I don't pack lunch or dinner for anyone, so bento-making has just been something I have been admiring from afar.
I've spent afternoons looking at the works of imaginative bento makers and perusing the products they use to make their food come to life. Last week I discovered BentoUSA and I couldn't pull myself away from their site. I have a wish list a mile long of fun products that I can't wait to try out.
For this project, I used a plastic teddy bear-shaped mold that is usually used with rice. It worked perfectly with my caramel modeling chocolate recipe that is made with Dulce de Leche (caramelized sweetened condensed milk) and milk chocolate that I've also used to make Chocolate Caramel Pumpkins and Inside Out Chocolate Caramel Apples.
I also used a punch that is typically used to cut sheets of nori. I cut frosting sheets instead.
The set I used even includes a bunny rabbit which I'm excited to use for an Easter project.
Using the molds, I spent less than 15 minutes shaping all of my bears. These are super simple and quick Valentine's Day edible crafts.
Caramel Chocolate Fudgy Bears (makes 9-10 bears)
Ingredients:
14 ounces of milk chocolate
1 (13.4 ounce) can Dulce de Leche (caramel)
Teddy Bear Face:
dark brown or black frosting/sugar sheet*
*You can also just color some of the caramel modeling chocolate with black food coloring or some cocoa powder then roll it out thin and use the cutter that comes with the teddy bear rice mold to cut the face.
Supplies Needed:
plastic teddy bear-shaped mold
teddy bear face nori punch*
(you won't need this if you don't use the frosting sheet)
Instructions:
Finely chop the milk chocolate.
Melt the milk chocolate and allow it to cool to about 91 degrees Fahrenheit.
Stir in the Dulce de Leche.
See my How To Fix Greasy Modeling Chocolate Tutorial for a detailed explanation of melting chocolate and why using melted chocolate that is too hot will result in oily modeling chocolate, read this tutorial.
The mixture will thicken very quickly, but you need to make sure all of the caramel is mixed into the chocolate, so use your hands if needed.
Once well mixed, wrap it in plastic wrap and let it rest for at least 30 minutes.
When you unwrap it, knead it in your hands until smooth, about 30 seconds.
Divide the caramel modeling chocolate into 9 pieces (about a heaping ¼ cup.)
Press one piece into the front of the teddy bear mold mounding it up on the backside.
Press the backside of the bento bear mold over the caramel modeling chocolate.
You can, if you want, put the front side of the mold in the white holder to keep everything straight then you can press in the back part of the mold. I found I really didn't need it, though.
Squeeze the two sides of the mold together until the edges touch.
Remove any caramel modeling chocolate that has oozed out.
Remove the backside of the teddy bear mold. Your chocolate bear should have little dots all over it.
If it doesn't, you didn't use quite enough of the caramel modeling chocolate. You can just re-roll it and mold it again.
Gently tug on the chocolate bear, peeling it away from the front of the bento bear mold.
Pull the chocolate bear completely out of the mold.
Smooth out any rough edges.
Use a nori punch with a bear face to punch out a dark brown or black frosting sheet. Press the eyes and mouth onto each of the bears.
If you look at the picture at the very top of the blog post, you'll notice one bear has a different face. I used a different punch.
If you have chosen to color some of the modeling chocolate with food coloring or cocoa powder, dust your work surface with some cocoa powder, roll it out thin, and use the cutter that comes with the teddy bear rice mold to cut the face. You can press the pieces on the bear. If needed use some corn syrup to make them stick.
More Bear-shaped Dessert Ideas
Chocolate Reese's Cup Bear Cupcakes
Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Buckeye Bears
Chocolate Peanut Butter Fudge Potato Candy Bears
If you are looking for other treats or gifts to make for Valentine's Day,
you might like these other recipes too.
- Irresistible Sweets with Dixie Crystals® - July 13, 2024
- How to make peanut butter? - February 15, 2024
- OREO Penguins - December 20, 2023
CarolH says
Bento is so cute! Would love to win this!!
Chloeee4u@yahoo.com
Roman M says
Never made a bento, but how cute are these!
Sheree says
I have made bentos for years - not realizing that they were anything more than my attempt to brighten up my children's lunches.
Dony Johnson says
I have never made a bento, dont have the supplies 🙁
Secret Agent Cake Baker says
My daughter's panda bear bento box was lost. This reminds me to check out Bento USA for a new one. Great idea to use the rice molds for other things. Thanks!
Michelle Cordero says
I lived in Japan and loved to see how they prepared and presented food. I would love to do more bento style creations for my son.
Genie says
These are so cute. I could use them for several things! And I think I will have to make you caramel chocolate this weekend, yummy!!!
souphead says
i "like" cute z cute on FB too (sorry, not sure if that was one entry for each or one for both)
Julzie says
These are so darling!!! My special ed students are just going to go crazy when they see these. Thanks for the great idea!
Jessie says
I love packing cute foods for my girls' lunches! I'll be so sad when the day comes they tell me they're too old for it!
rachel says
I haven't but I think they are so cute!
JLL24 says
Love it! To bad we didn't have Bento when we were kids. Probably would have drove Mom nuts. Really cute bears.
Anonymous says
Marta
I love bento, but in Sapain is not usually. My friends think I'm crazy!!!
martabustia-face@yahoo.es
SailorAlphaCentauri says
I make bento lunches for myself, and I've made them for my family when we go to COSI. I've used rice molds to make onigiri (rice balls), so I was intrigued to see a recipe that used rice molds in a different way. This is rather cool, so thanks for posting this.
usagypsy says
I'm new to this blog and to Bentos. I saw this post on craftgossip and had to check it out. I have never been much of a candy maker, not for lack of trying, just didn't seem to be my talent. But lately I have discovered easier, more fullproof recipes and my goodies actually are tasty! These bears are cute! My grand-daughter, a chocolate freak, would love them!
Anonymous says
These bears are so cute. I have 16 grandchildren and my 10th greatgrandchild is being born as I write. The bear mold would be great for my own children as they all had a favorite when they were young and I could make them for them. Trish Butler
Regina says
Never made one -and when I lived in Japan there were not all these great gadgets out yet (about 20 years ago) - wish there had been!!!
Sheila says
I've never made Bentos, but those chocolate bears are adorable and just might inspire me to try.
Amelia says
I haven't, but I think these would be super fun for the kids...and me 🙂
Anne says
Bento is fairly new to me and boy that teddy bear is cute! Thanks for the chance to win!