Choco-Roaches

October 14: National Chocolate-Covered Insects Day

Gross out your guests when you gather together during the month of Halloween! Serve up some creepy critters we call “choco-roaches”! They look like chocolate-covered insects but they are really chocolate-covered dried dates with eerie innards of white frosting and nut chips. The string licorice antennae add disgusting details to the dates. Instead of eating real roaches for National Chocolate-Covered Insects Day, chew on “choco-roaches”!

Recipe

Ingredients

• Dried, pitted dates
• White tube frosting
• Chopped nut pieces (we used pecan chips)
• Black string licorice, sliced thinly
• Chocolate squares or candy melts

Directions

Slit open the dried dates. Using a small round tip, pipe white frosting inside. Tuck in a few nut pieces. Close the dates and set aside.

Print out a template of a cockroach clip art. Place under waxed paper on a cookie sheet. Slice the black string licorice thinly to make antennae. Position them on top of the waxed paper.

Melt the chocolate and fill a pastry bag with a small round tip. Trace over the cockroach clip art, filling in the body and incorporating the antennae. With the lefttover chocolate, dip the dates until coated. Place on another cookie sheet lined with waxed paper.

Refrigerate both cookie sheets until the chocolate is chilled and set. Carefully remove the flat roaches from the cookie sheet and place on a treat liner or plate. Pipe melted chocolate on top of the body and “glue” a chocolate-covered date on top. Refrigerate to set. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Notes

• Some cultures consider insects a delicacy, whether plain or chocolate-covered.
• An easier version of “choco-roaches” would be to eliminate all the ingredients except the chocolate, which could be melted and piped into cockroach shapes. They are flatter but still freaky!
• We serve our “choco-roaches” in individual rectangle treat liners sold by Wilton.
• Search our blog for more gross-looking goodies for Halloween.