Okay folks, gather ’round the digital campfire. Today’s experiment? Dessert trees. Yeah, you heard me. Not real trees, obviously. Felt like trying something sugary and sculptural, you know? Saw this idea vaguely online – looked cool in pictures, but pictures lie, right? Had to try it myself. Buckle up, it got messy.
The Grand Plan (Or Lack Thereof)
Honestly, winged this one. Grabbed what sounded good and might stand up:
- Chocolate bars – Dark stuff, 70%. Figured it holds shape better.
- Caramel candies – Those little square ones.
- Almonds – Sliced ones. Think I grabbed salted? Accidentally. Oops.
- Pretzel sticks – The thin kind. Fancy name for chocolate sticks? Nah.
- Sugar sprinkles – My multi-coloured jar from last year’s cookie disaster.
The Meltdown (Literally)
First step: melt the chocolate. Easy peasy? Wrong. My microwave hates me. 30 seconds on high? Burnt edge, weird lump center. Total flop moment. Threw it out. Round two:
- Chopped the chocolate fine this time.
- Microwave bursts – 20 seconds, stir. 10 seconds, stir. Like watching paint dry.
- Finally got a pool of smooth, dark liquid. Felt like a tiny win.
Building Franken-Trees
Now for the “tree” part. How hard could sticking things together be? Harder than it looked.
Laid out parchment paper on the counter – essential mess defence system.
- Took a pretzel stick, my “trunk”. Dabbed some melted chocolate on one end.
- Stuck a couple almond slices onto the chocolate blob – instant “branches”? Optimistic.
- Drizzled more chocolate over the almonds trying to glue them to the stick. Looked like a chocolate spider web.
- Shoved a caramel candy onto the main chocolate blob on the stick. It slid. Used more chocolate to anchor it. Became a caramel-heavy monstrosity.
- Before the chocolate set completely, threw some sprinkles at it. Most missed, some stuck randomly. Abstract art vibe for sure.
Rinse and repeat. Made about six of these sad little things. Confidence: waning. Looked nothing like the pretty pictures. More like chocolate-covered tumbleweeds.
The Hard Part: Waiting
Stuck the whole parchment sheet on a baking tray and shoved it into the fridge. The longest thirty minutes ever. Every five minutes: “Are they hard yet?” Nope. Still sticky. More waiting.
The Big Reveal (And Snack Time)
Finally! Took the tray out. Chocolate felt hard. Carefully peeled one off the paper. Surprisingly, it mostly held together! One almond fell off immediately. Re-attached it with leftover chocolate glue (salvage operation).
Taste test? Essential research. Bit into it.
- Crunch from the pretzel and almonds.
- Chew from the caramel.
- Deep chocolate flavour cutting through the sweet.
- Random sprinkle crunch here and there.
Okay, verdict? Weirdly delicious chaos. Would I serve it at a fancy party? No way. Share with the neighbours? Absolutely. Mrs. Henderson next door actually asked for another one. Success? Of a very messy, delicious sort.
Lessons learned: Melt chocolate slowly, don’t trust pictures, and caramel likes to slide. But sometimes, ugly dessert trees taste pretty darn good.
