Breakable Chocolate Heart

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How to make a trendy breakable chocolate heart that you can fill with candy and treats and then smash to bits! Get tips and tricks on how to temper chocolate using the seeding method and how to create a delicious white and dark chocolate geometric heart. A fun and tasty DIY treat for any occasion!

5 from 9 votes

Prep Time: 20 mins

cooling: 10 mins

Total Time: 30 mins

Serves: heart

Calories: 488kcal

Author: Elizabeth Marek

Ingredients

▢ 14 ounces (397 g) Callebaut Belgian White Chocolate or any high-quality chocolate with cocoa butter in it.
▢ 14 ounces (397 g) Callebaut Belgian Semi-Sweet Chocolate
▢ 1 Tablespoon Gold Drip
▢ 2 Tablespoons Crushed Freeze-Dried Strawberries
▢ 1 Tablespoon Sprinkles
▢ 6 Large Chocolate Covered Strawberries
▢ 4 Ounces (113 g) Candy Hearts

Equipment

▢
Instant Read Thermometer
▢
Geometric Heart Mold

Instructions

Tempering the chocolate

For this recipe, I am using the seeding method to temper my chocolate but you can also temper in the microwave. For more info, follow this tutorial.
Bring two inches of water to a simmer in a pot.
Add your chocolate into a wide, heatproof bowl, place it over the water, and begin stirring. Be careful not to get any water in your chocolate.
Once your chocolate is melted, take the temperature. You want it to reach between 110ºF - 120ºF (43ºC - 48ºC). I use an infrared thermometer but you could use any kind of instant-read thermometer.
Remove the chocolate from the heat and wipe off the excess water from the bottom of the bowl so it doesn't drip into your chocolate.
Transfer the chocolate to another bowl to start cooling it down immediately. It should drop about 10 degrees.
Add in about 1/2 cup of your chopped chocolate and stir. Each time you do this, the chocolate will cool down a bit. Continue doing this until your chocolate is at 90ºF.
Add in just 1-2 Tablespoons of your super finely chopped chocolate and stir.
Continue stirring occasionally until your chocolate reaches 79ºF.
Carefully re-heat your white chocolate on the pot of water for 1-2 seconds or in the microwave for 5 seconds until you reach 86º-88ºF. Never let your chocolate go above 88ºF for white chocolate or it will go out of temper again.
Working temperatures for different chocolate:
White chocolate - Heat to 113ºF - cool to 79ºF - heat to 86º - 88ºF for working
Milk chocolate - Heat to 113º F - cool to 79ºF - heat to 84º - 86ºF for working
Semi-Sweet and Dark Chocolate - Heat to 113ºF - cool to 82ºF - heat to 88º-90ºF for working
Test your temper. Place a small amount of melted chocolate onto some parchment paper. Refrigerate it for 5 minutes or until it's set. Take it out and break it in half. If it's shiny and has a nice snap, it is in temper. If it bends or is floppy, you may have not tempered correctly. Heat it back up to 90ºF, add 1/2 cup more chopped chocolate, then repeat steps 8-12.

Making A Breakable Heart

Pour about 1/2 cup of tempered chocolate into your mold. Move your chocolate around the mold to make an even layer. You can use a paintbrush or spatula if you have problems getting good coverage, make sure to build up the center point of the heart. Dump out the excess chocolate back into your bowl.
At this step, my white chocolate was at about 82ºF. It was still melted, but when I worked with it at 88ºF, it was too liquidy and wouldn't build up on the edges.
Scrape the upper edge to remove any excess chocolate.
Place the mold upside-down on a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat and place it into the fridge for 5 minutes.
Meltdown (temper) some semi-sweet or milk chocolate and brush the chocolate on top of the white chocolate in an even layer, making sure to build up the edges of the heart.
Place the chocolate heart back into the fridge for 5 minutes, or until set.
De-mold the heart and repeat the process if you want to make a two-sided heart. You do not need to re-temper the chocolate, just slowly heat it in the microwave again until it's at the right temperature. 88ºF for white chocolate, 90ºF for semi-sweet chocolate, 84ºF for milk chocolate.
Pour out the leftover chocolate onto plastic wrap, let it harden, and then wrap it up. Now you have tempered chocolate ready to be chopped and used again!
If your heart shells have rough edges, you can melt them down a bit and flatten them on a warm plate.
If you're making a two-sided heart box, place the top heart on top of the bottom heart and seal it together with a thin line of melted chocolate. I like to use a piping bag for this, but you can also just seal it together by melting one side on the warm plate.
To decorate, melt your gold drip in the microwave in 15-second increments until it's liquid. I give the bottle a squeeze after each time in the microwave.
Let the drip cool down a bit so it's not super loose. You can do a test drip on the side of a glass to see if it's thick enough.
Drizzle the gold drip on top of the heart and while the drip is still wet, add some crushed up freeze-dried strawberries and sprinkles.
Place some Valentine's day candy in the heart and fill it with chocolate-covered strawberries or any kind of treat that you want!
Note: chocolate strawberries can last for up to 12 hours at room temperature, you might want to place each strawberry in a cupcake liner inside of your breakable heart if you're not serving immediately.
Serve your breakable heart with a mini hammer and enjoy!

Notes

Using real chocolate will result in better tasting hearts. Chocolate chips, baking chocolate, or melting wafers contain wax and other emulsifiers that affect the taste and melting consistency.

Callebaut Belgian white, milk, or semi-sweet chocolate
Couverture White Chocolate (any brand)
Lindt chocolate bars (chopped finely)

Nutrition