Chocolate Truffles Three Ways

Each year I endeavor to come up with a new home-made Christmas item. This year, I was a little slow off the mark, but Design Sponge shared a brilliant idea. These truffles from Johnny Battles of Sweeteeth were so inventive that I had to give them a try, (with a twist, of course!) Here, I have down-sized the recipe a bit and used another three combinations of flavors: Lavender and Star Anise; Pink Peppercorn and Orange; and Vanilla Curry. These are very easy to make and you could add any of your own flavors, as it is so easy to modify! Thank you so much to Mr. Johnny Battles and Design Sponge! I feel like I might actually be ready for Christmas now!

Lavender and Star Anise Chocolate Truffles

Yield: Approximately 40 Truffles.

Ingredients:

7 Ounces of 60% Dark Chocolate (From a bar, not baking chocolate)
6 Ounces of Heavy Cream
2 Ounces of Light Corn Syrup
1 Tablespoon of Star Anise
3 3 Inch Sprigs of Lavender
1/2 Cup of Cocoa Powder for Dusting

Cooking:

Chop your chocolate into small bits. The smaller you chop, the quicker it will melt and you will have less issues making the ganache smooth. Place the bits into a large glass or stainless bowl. In a saucepan on the stove, heat the cream, corn syrup, star anise and lavender on high heat until it comes to a boil. Remove from heat and cover for 15 minutes. Place back on eye and heat until it comes to a boil again. Pour through a fine mesh strainer over chocolate. With a whisk, beat the chocolate cream mixture until there are no lumps and it is smooth. You can re-heat it over a double boiler or for 10 second intervals in the microwave if it cools too much and there are still lumps. I didn't have this problem though, so hopefully you will not. Pour into a shallow glass or metal pan. Cover with plastic wrap, with the wrap pressed to the ganache mixture. Cool in the fridge for approximately 1-1/2 hours, or until it is set. It will be firm, but still gives a little when you press it. Take a pan and sift cocoa powder into it. Remove the cooled ganache from the fridge. With a small spoon, gather approximately 3/4 teaspoon of the mixture (this does not have to be accurate at all, they're fun when uneven) and roll in your hands to soften the edges, then drop into the cocoa. Coat them entirely in the cocoa and place in an air-tight container. These will keep in the fridge for up to 8 months!


Pink Peppercorn and Orange Chocolate Truffles

Yield: Approximately 40 Truffles.

Ingredients:

7 Ounces of 60% Dark Chocolate (From a bar, not baking chocolate)
6 Ounces of Heavy Cream
2 Ounces of Light Corn Syrup
1 Tablespoon of Pink Peppercorns, Crushed in a Mortar and Pestle
3 3 Inch Pieces of Orange Peel, without Pith
1/2 Cup of Cocoa Powder for Dusting

Cooking:

Repeat above, but substitute Pink Peppercorns and Orange Peel for Star Anise and Lavender.




Vanilla Curry Chocolate Truffles


Yield: Approximately 40 Truffles.

Ingredients:

7 Ounces of 60% Dark Chocolate (From a bar, not baking chocolate)
6 Ounces of Heavy Cream
2 Ounces of Light Corn Syrup
1 Vanilla Bean

2 Teaspoons of Curry Powder

1/2 Cup of Cocoa Powder for Dusting



Cooking:


Slice the vanilla bean down the length and scrape the seeds from the inside. Put both the bean and seeds into the cream, along with 1 teaspoon of the curry powder. Repeat as above without the Star Anise and Lavender. For the dusting, add the remaining teaspoon of curry powder into the cocoa pan for a little extra punch!

Dark Chocolate Torte with Chambord Cream

I have recently noticed more and more people with gluten allergies. This is a really delicious dessert which is gluten free, but will also appeal to gluten lovers. It's very dark and rich, which makes the light and fluffy Chambord cream a perfect compliment. It's also very easy to make!

Dark Chocolate Torte

Ingredients:

16 Ounces Semi-Sweet Chocolate, Chopped or Chips
1 Cup of Unsalted Butter
2 Tablespoons of Chambord
9 Eggs, Separated
1 Cup of Sugar

Tools:

9" Spring Form Pan
1 Round of Parchment Paper, Cut to fit the inner bottom of the pan

Cooking:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a double boiler, or if you don't have one, I use a pyrex bowl on top of a saucepan of boiling water, pour in your chocolate bits, butter and Chambord. Melt slowly while stirring. Turn off heat once completely melted and allow to cool. Rub butter across the interior of a spring form pan very uniformly.Place your parchment paper inside the pan and smooth across the bottom. In a mixer, whip your egg whites into soft peaks. Remove from mixing bowl and set aside. Add to the mixing bowl your egg yolks and sugar, mix until a creamy, soft lemon color. Add 1/3 of your yolk mixture into your chocolate and combine. Repeat with remaining thirds until the mixture is incorporated. Remove 1/3 of this mixture and reserve for icing. To the remaining yolk/chocolate mixture, fold in 1/3 of your egg whites very gently. Once it is just incorporated, add another 1/3, and repeat until all the egg whites have been incorporated. Do not over mix. Pour the batter into your pan and bake for approximately 45 min, until the sides start to pull away just slightly. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 30 minutes. Unlatch spring form sides, and gently lift away. Place a cake plate upside down on the cake top and pick up the whole assembly and flip gently. Remove spring form bottom and parchment paper. Ice the top of the cake with the reserved batter from earlier.

Chambord Cream

Ingredients:

1 Cup of Heavy Whipping Cream
1 Tablespoon of Sugar
2 Tablespoons of Chambord

Cooking:

In a mixer, whip all of the ingredients on high speed until cream forms peaks. Cut your cake and serve with a huge dollop of Chambord Cream on top!

Local Chocolate for Valentine's? Hit up Cacao

While I fully comprehend that Valentine's Day was created to sell cards and things covered in hearts, alongside frightfully overpriced red roses, sometimes it's really wonderful to receive a little gift from someone you love, right as the winter doldrums start taking their toll. Since this item is on my Valentine's wish list, I wanted to share the goodness.
Cacao Laboratoire opened in 2009 as the storefront of Chef Kristen Hard's chocolate company K Chocolat. Chef Hard had sold her artisan truffles wholesale for 5 years before opening the delightful Inman Park boutique, sharing those truffles with the general public. The chef spent years researching chocolate, mainly from the Caribbean, and is now hailed as the first southern bean-to-bar producer.
So, as I'm sure you've realized at this point, this is not a quantity-over-quality-Whitmans-box-o'-chocolates type of place. Each piece of chocolate is carefully conceived and handcrafted. They are precious, but the outstanding flavors are worth it. They are special treats to be savoured with a cup of tea, or a mug of coffee, or after a delicious meal.
Favorites so far have been the: Lemon Curd, not the first chocolate-citrus combination that comes to mind, but is wonderfully bright tasting; the Fig Preserve and Balsamic, the fig comes through first with a delicate sweetness, and then you get the faint tang of the balsamic; and also, the Blueberry Beet, which is very subtle, sweet with the slight spice of the beet coming through at the end.
If you're thinking chocolate, I recommend giving Cacao a look. It's really wonderful to have something locally produced and that is so lovingly created.

A Chocolatey Twist on my Grandmom's Poundcake

We have passed this simple pound cake recipe down three generations, if not more, and I thought about humbly trying to improve upon the classic. I loved it! The cream cheese addition makes the cake wonderfully moist. Even after a week, it was still delicious!

Chocolate Chip Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Ingredients:

1-1/2 Cups of All Purpose Flour, Plus a Bit More for Flouring the Bundt Pan
1 Teaspoon of Baking Soda
2 Teaspoons of Baking Powder
1 Pinch of Salt
1 Cup of Sugar
1 Stick of Butter, Room Temperature
2 Eggs
1 Package of Cream Cheese
1 Cup of Milk
1/2 Package of Bittersweet Chocolate Chips (Or chop your favorite dark chocolate bar into chips and add instead)
2 Teaspoons of Vanilla Paste

Cooking:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Sift together all the dry ingredients (sugar is always considered a wet ingredient.) In your electric mixer, put in the stick of butter and the sugar and cream together on medium speed. Add the eggs, then cream cheese, then milk. Blend until smooth. Slowly add in the sifted dry material, a little at a time, to the wet mix, until it's all incorporated. Add your chocolate chips and vanilla paste, blend until just incorporated. You do not want to over mix. Meanwhile, take your bundt pan and smear the entire inside surface with butter, then put in a bit of flour and shake around the pan until all inner surfaces are coated in flour. Pour your batter into the bundt pan, and place the pan in the center of the oven. Bake for approximately 1 hour, or until the sides start to pull away from the pan and a knife comes out of the cake without any batter attached (you will see some melted chocolate on the knife, which is fine, but you don't want any wet batter on the knife.) Let the cake cool for about 10 minutes, run a knife around the sides and the center of the pan, then place a cake plate on top of the pan, and flip the cake out. It should release easily if the pan was evenly floured. Serve hot! To store the cake leftovers, I recommend covering and placing into the refrigerator. A cold slice can sometimes make a delicious breakfast treat!

Amazing Cupcakes!

Last Sunday, I had the wonderful opportunity of joining my fellow members of the Atlanta Food Blogger's Alliance at the lovely Chocolate Pink. Chocolate Pink began 5 years ago as the brainchild of Pastry Chef Christian Balbierer and Michael Goodrich. They were driven to create a dessert shop of quality, hand-made, from scratch pastry available to the general public. They have definitely succeeded.
The AFBA was invited to participate in the first ever Chocolate Pink Cupcake Tasting Contest. Everyone present was able to taste 8 amazingly inventive cupcake flavors: Chocolate Fudge, Sweet Potato with Brown Butter, Chocolate Peanut Butter, Chocolate Nutella, Dulce de Leche, Pumpkin Maple with Bacon, Strawberry Pop-Tart, and Cookies 'n Cream. Incredibly enough, they offer even more cupcake flavors on their everyday menu!
Of the eight flavors, I thought Strawberry Pop-Tart was outstandingly original, and it tasted just like a Pop-Tart's sophisticated city cousin. The icing was light and airy, but creamy and buttery, as well, because Chocolate Pink uses a Swiss Meringue Buttercream (which I have to learn to make!) The strawberry jam swirled beneath the icing evoked just the right amount of tartness, and the cookie on top added a great crunch. Another favorite was the Chocolate Peanut Butter, which tasted just like a certain peanut butter filled cup. There was a layer of creamy peanut butter buttercream, with a layer of chocolate ganache below and a roasted peanut on top. The textures were fantastic together, and this cupcake won the vote for Best Overall Cupcake. My other two favorites, while the flavors may seem odd, were Sweet Potato and Pumpkin Maple, which I loved more than the Chocolate Peanut Butter!
Another cool thing about Chocolate Pink Cupcakes are the variety of icing and cake base combinations. There are 7-8 different types of cake bases used. These are not your grocer's boxed cupcake mix!
So...enough waxing on about all those cupcake flavors. I have good things to share! I am posting a coupon below for one free cupcake, no purchase required, with an additional 25% off anything else you might like to purchase in the store AND the recipe for the amazing Chocolate Pink Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcake! They were so generous to share this with us and I hope that you will enjoy this in your own home!