DIY Harry Potter Chocolate Frogs! (19 Years Later Anniversary Edition)

That Weird Girl Life

It's September 1st, 2017. The Hogwarts Express is setting off from Platform 9 3/4 at King's Cross Station to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry for the start of the school year. And do you want to know why the beginning of this particular school year is so special? Because it's exactly 19 years later, when the epilogue of the last Harry Potter book (aka the Deathly Hallows) took place. That means that Harry and Ginny are dropping off their two eldest boys, James Sirius and Albus Severus (c'mon, Harry, you could have at least let Ginny name at least one of the kids!), for a new year (and the first year for Albus Severus) at Hogwarts. (This is also the start of Harry Potter and the   Cursed Child but we are NOT getting into that now, I already did last year) Ron and Hermione are there with their two kids (Rose Weasley is going back this year to Hogwarts), along with Scorpius, Draco's son, and many old and new faces, all coming together once again for the ceremonial sendoff of shipping their kids off to a magical boarding school. And I'm still waiting for my damn letter! (I'm not bitter about a fictional children's book series not being real. Not at all)

What better way to celebrate this historic day than by making our own versions of a certain Wizarding World treat, fresh off of the trolley while we're waiting for the train to arrive at Hogsmeade Station! What candy, may you ask? Drooble's Best Blowing Gum? Nah. Fizzing Whizzbees? Please. Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans? As if.

No, we're talking about the magical bonding power of the candy that basically made Harry and Ron friends AND first introduced Albus Dumbledore to Harry via a magical, moving trading card.

Yes, I'm talking about the famous and deliciously yummy Chocolate Frogs!

Warner Bros.

The Chocolate Frogs from the books hop realistically around like real frogs (even in your stomach after you've eaten them) and each frog comes with a trading card featuring a famous witch or wizard (Ron apparently had a very extensive collection of the cards). And since we can't get the actual magical Chocolate Frogs in the Muggle world (we have to settle for the stationary kind sold at either locations of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and other locations, though the frogs are huge and do come in super cute boxes and include the trading cards) I wanted to make my own, with my own fillings and flavors. Plain Chocolate Frogs are delicious, but can you imagine a peanut butter cup Chocolate Frog? I could and I wanted to make that happen!

First, I need a chocolate mold shaped like frogs. Thankfully, Amazon exists and you can pretty much find anything on there, including multiple chocolate molds shaped like frogs. I ended up going with this one because I personally thought they most resembled the official ones that they sell at the Wizarding World parks. Once it arrived in the mail, my sister and I started planning and then shopping for the chocolate and the fillings!

That Weird Girl Life

We went with the Wilton melting chocolate, along with marshmallows, caramel bits, Heath candy bits, Reese's spread (which is life changing. Try it!!), and Oreo's (not pictured, but I'm assuming you know what they look like). We also bought some Ghiradelli white melting chocolate, but decided to stick with plain old chocolate frogs to start with. Those albino frogs will have to wait!

It was pretty easy to make the chocolate frogs, though I have to say, follow the instructions on the melting chocolate bag! My sister and I made the mistake of NOT lowering the power when microwaving the first bag of chocolate and ended up completely drying up the melting chocolate (apparently there was a way to rectify our mistake by adding canola oil, but we ended up tossing that batch of chocolate). Oops. We know better now. Then we filled in the bottom (well, the top of the frog, once you pop it over when the frogs are all set) of the molds with chocolate and used a paintbrushbutnotapaintbrush specifically made for chocolate work (I know. They literally have everything in the baking section at craft stores!) to paint the sides of the molds with chocolate. We then tapped the mold a couple of times on the counter to get out any bubbles and let the chocolate set into the mold and put it in the fridge to set for 10 minutes, took it out and starting filling the molds with candy/fillings! After that, we put more chocolate on top, did another round of tapping on the counter, put it in the fridge to set, and 10 minutes later they were ready! Easy-peasy!*

*To be fair it wasn't all easy. This was our first time working with melting chocolate and it was MESSY, despite us buying chocolate decorating bags. And it was hard to make sure that the chocolate on the bottom of the molds and on the sides were completely covering the molds and that there weren't any holes in the chocolate. We ended up holding the chocolate mold up to the light and trying to find the holes and then filling them all in, with the help of the chocolate brush. So our frogs weren't exactly the smoothest looking- not that real frogs are totally smooth, so I guess the added lumps of the uneven chocolate makes them a bit more life-life. I unknowingly solved my own problem!

And I thought they turned out super cute! All is missing is the cute Chocolate Frog box, but I had a trading card from when my sister bought a Chocolate Frog at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando (which was amazing and you should check out my blog post about it), my Honeydukes jar with lemon candy and cauldron mug that I got from Harry Potter Studio Tour in London (not to brag but I went there last year), and my vintage pre-movies Harry Potter plate to display the frogs on, so that kind of makes up for the lack of box, right? (Just tell me yes to make me feel better. I know there's a DIY, printable version out there, I'm just lazy)

That Weird Girl Life

That Weird Girl Life

That Weird Girl Life

That Weird Girl Life

Not perfect, but still adorable. The only thing I wished I had done differently were a) used different chocolate. The Wilton melting chocolate melted great and set well, but the taste of the chocolate was meh. It kind of put a damper on eating the Chocolate Frogs. In the future, I think I'd go with Ghiradelli's melting chocolate or a better brand of chocolate to make the frogs with next time. Oh well. You live and learn!

But I still got to celebrate the beginning of the Hogwarts school year (19 years later) in a very Harry Potter themed way! If I can't go to Hogwarts, then eating homemade Chocolate Frogs is the next best thing! (Is what I keep telling myself as I cry myself to sleep in my bed that is not in the girls' Ravenclaw dorm room in a tower at Hogwarts. *sigh*)

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What did you think of my Harry Potter candy themed DIY? Should I do more of these? (Meaning Harry Potter themed and edible, the most wonderful of combinations) But I could also try to do Harry Potter themed crafts too! Also, would you try to make chocolate frogs? What candy/cookies/fillings/flavors would you put in them? Let me know in the comments!

Stay Weird,
Emily

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