How to make number four, Crunchy Frog.
These are not lightly killed and lovingly coated in glucose, but they do contain whole (gummy) frogs. We recommend Haribo Gummi Frogs. Off-brand frogs may have more prominent eye bulges, but don’t have quite the right mild apple flavor.
(If you go with Haribo, note that Amazon offers gift wrap for the 5 lb bag.)
Since gummy frogs normally come boneless, you’ll have to add them back in manually. It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it. Conventional confections employ nuts,
puffed rice, wafers, or corn flakes for crunch, but these are no ordinary confections: we use Pop Rocks.
Pop Rocks have a relatively short shelf life, so it’s best to get them just before you are going to use them. They are available as a single pouch with a third of an ounce or in a movie candy style box with several three gram pouches. (Question: whose bright Idea was it to sell these as movie theater candy?)
There are two remarkable things about this recipe. First, Pop Rocks survive being immersed in melted chocolate surprisingly well– they still pop after the chocolate solidifies. Second, the artificial fruit flavor of the Pop Rocks is completely overwhelmed and masked by the bittersweet chocolate. We anticipated a bit of flavor conflict, but the chocolate won out completely, leaving only the pop-whiz-bang of the Pop Rocks.
Update: a reader points out that unflavored “pastry rocks” are available in specialty shops– that could be very helpful if you use something that isn’t as strongly flavored as bittersweet chocolate.
The procedure is straightforward: melt your chocolate in a double boiler. It needs to be real, pure chocolate. We like Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet chips. They’re readily available, not too expensive, and have excellent texture. You’ll want just enough to coat your frogs. Too much chocolate with a finite amount of crunchy bits will leave a poor crunch density.
Add the Pop Rocks and stir them into the chocolate. Use lots of Pop Rocks; As many as you dare. They’ll crackle a bit when you stir them in, but don’t worry, there will still be plenty of crunch.
Coat your frogs and place them on parchment paper on a cookie sheet. A chocolate fork works great for this, but regular forks work, too.
Chill in the refrigerator until they solidify, preferably in a sealed container to prevent condensation issues.
NOMNOMNOMRIBBITCRUNCH!
This project is included in the food category in our Halloween Project Archive where you can find more ideas and recipes.
Not even a reference to the Monty Python sketch by the same name…
@ #1: It says at the beginning "number four, crunchy frog", a link is provided on the words "crunchy frog", and it continues with "These are not lightly killed and covered in glucose". Do you consider the absence of the transcript of the entire skit as a lack of a reference to it?
That flavor combo sounds NASTY.
FYI, you can get unflavored pop rocks:
http://shopchefrubber.com/product.php?productid=10342&cat=0&page=1
#1 There was a link to the Monty Python video on YouTube. I think that’s reference enough.
@1, see subject– if they took the bones out then it wouldn’t be crunchy, would it?
They now do have Chocolate covered pop rocks from Wonka. They call them Tinglerz.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/typetive/3036994236/
They are pretty tasty. I found them recently at a local Walgreens in St. Paul MN.
J.T.
You don’t even have to get those, they actually have pop rock candy bars. I found them at Spencer’s and in a gas station.
How about pretzel sticks for the bones? No fizzle-sizzle, but plenty of crunch, and quite inexpensive.
A better quality video is found here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy6uLfermPU&feature=related
With the pop rocks mixed in there, don’t we run the risk of exploding our stomachs if we eat these things with a can of soda?
There would be green and brown frog guts everywhere.
Nah, mythbusters did that one – your stomach won’t explode, but you might get awfully sick. That’s one of the things the throat is for, after all, a release valve so you only go kablooie in one direction, teehee.
don’t put chocolate in the fridge. it ruins it. Just leave it in an environment of about 25 degrees, it will set fine and won’t go white like in the fridge (which is really just reflection of light after a chance of cristals and not a fungi or whatever)
Putting chocolate in the fridge, temporarily, in a sealed container, is a *fine* way to set chocolate, especially on warm summer nights like the one where we made these. The ones that we left out, by comparison, did *not* set gracefully.
—
Windell H. Oskay
drwho(at)evilmadscientist.com
http://www.evilmadscientist.com/
The white coating is the cocoa butter leaching out.
it’s called blooming and it doesn’t happen if the chocolate is tempered properly. (aka to the correct temperature)
xDDDD "so we only go kablooie in one direction" Nice way of putting it.
Our stomachs will not explode. This was proven on Mythbusters.
I’m in awe. I think you’re my new hero. I can’t *wait* to make these. Thanks so much!
+Jessie
To make them better looking and not have the spread out look of the melted chocolate on wax paper AND have ease of dipping, spear them with wood shiskabob skewers and then dip. After dipping, stick the reverse end of the skewer in something handy to hold it upright ( I use a old gallon milk container with a little bit of water for weight in the bottom. This works well for chocolate covered strawberries as well, though sometimes the container is a little tough to pierce so you gotta get PSYCHO on it and stab some holes in it with a spare skewer.
I made this with worms and my family loved it.
I’m hoping that your recipes start showing up on the new google recipes search tool. I was surprised that this recipe didn’t show up when I searched http://www.google.com/landing/recipes/ for crunchy frog recipes….
This is great! Perfect for my son who was wanting a pop rock snack for school!