Truffles

   If you've been reading my blog, you'll notice that chocolate is a familiar topic. In my world, you just can't go wrong with chocolate, the result of the magical transformation from the cacao bean.  Really, cocoa in general. From chocolate chili waffles to chili to the most recent chocolate blocks, a little chocolate and/or cocoa added depth to the food. Now that it's Holiday baking time and I have to think of delectable gifts to send to recipients who'll appreciate homemade food, I've been thinking a lot about truffles. Some of the best chocolate truffles I've ever had were not expensive yet had just the right creamy middle and a lusciousness as it melted on my tongue. 

   I researched online and in my many cookbooks to find just the right recipe to try. I don't want to spend all day on it or bother with tempering the chocolate. It's my first time making truffles so I thought I would find recipes that are easy to do but delicious. That's the way to gain confidence to harder recipes. The first recipe I tried is a vegan one because I had to mail out a package for a vegan giftee. I have a tendency to come up with lovely ideas for gifts for the Holidays but get sidetracked by work or life in general. Then there's the gift wrapping, boxing and actually mailing it part. This year, I am determined to send my packages on time before I get overwhelmed and give up. That is, I'd end up going on Amazon to get a deal or give the gift certificate.  Now, I am not against giving gift certificates if you know for sure that the recipient can use it. I find that many people give gift certificates without thought of whether the recipient can use it. For example, giving someone a restaurant gift card for a restaurant nowhere near where recipient lives!  But I digress. While I still had the enthusiasm for making Holiday gifts, I went right into it this weekend.

   There were not too many vegan truffle recipes that I could find and did not involve too many ingredients. I did, however, get this month's Whole Living magazine and was happy to find a vegan dark chocolate recipe there. In fact, I was thrilled because it involved all ingredients I already have at home. Here is their full recipe:  Dark Chocolate Truffles

  I used Trader Joe's semi-sweet (65% cocoa) chocolate callets. Unfortunately, my local Trader Joe's no longer stock these.  They are great for these project - no chopping chocolate chunks. For the cream portion, this recipe cleverly used coconut oil. I used what I had on hand, which was the Nutiva coconut oil. I was a bit afraid at first of the coconut scent overwhelming my little nuggets of chocolate goodness. But no worries, they just had a hint of coconut flavor.  I started the process in the night and ended up putting the bowl into the refrigerator. Next time, I won't do that. It really hardened the chocolate. Although the chocolate came back to room temperature after sitting on the counter for some time, it ended up with a hard top shell. That kind of ruined my lovely creamy truffle but I tried to minimize rolling that top shell in.

   I rolled some of them in unsweetened, medium shredded coconut flakes but some just refused to stick on so I thought it would look prettier if I sprinkled on powdered sugar. Ta-da! A little snow on the dark chocolate truffles. I rolled the other half in Valhrona cocoa powder. Why not go for the best when you are making truffles, right? These had a dark chocolate flavor and creamy middle. 

Holiday Gifts: Chocolate Blocks with peppermint

     One of the joys of being an aunt is creating new traditions with the little ones. As an aunt, I've found that cooking and baking with my nieces is our bonding time. My little nieces generally love to help me with making Thanksgiving dinner. I usually cook the potatoes then let them take turns mash the potatoes. They love it. This year, I thought I'll do something extra special. I read about chocolate stirrers on the webs somewhere and then found the King Arthur Flour's blog about Cocoa Blocks.  I thought it sounded easy enough to do and we all love chocolate. It's such a beautiful idea - make fudgy chocolate blocks then stir the chocolate into hot chocolate milk! Perfect to do together and these make great gifts.

     If you follow the recipe, it would come out looking like this. But be sure to set it aside overnight Or for several hours to firm up. I let it cool at room temperature. The little ones will keep asking, "When can we continue? Is it ready yet?" every hour but resist. It will cut much better once you give it enough hours to firm up. It really does work to dip knife in hot water, then wipe knife and cut into blocks. 

     As additional fun, I had the little ones break up some candy canes from their Halloween stash. It was oh-so-much fun for them, using a little wooden mallet to break up the candy canes. I wrapped candy in foil or paper towel first so as not to have the pieces fly everywhere.  Or you can simply purchase Peppermint Crunch or the Peppermint Snow. It won't be as much fun and you won't be able to take out frustration the same way, but sometimes the easier way is just as good. 

     This is the Chocolate Blocks with the peppermint.  Most of the peppermint is on the bottom. I thought it would look nice and help the truffle-like bottom to be a tad less sticky. Overall, the little ones loved stirred it into hot milk for hot chocolate and they also ate it like fudge. The peppermint added a light minty flavor. It's creamy and definitely a comfort against the cold wintry weather. 

From King Arthur Flour Company's recipes:

(Their website is wonderful. You can click and use either volume or ounces or grams measure.)

• ½ cup heavy cream
• 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk (1 1/4 cups)
• 3 cups semisweet or bittersweet chocolate (chopped chocolate bars or chips)
• 3/4 cup unsweetened baking chocolate
• wooden sticks

Directions

1) Line an 8" x 8" pan with parchment paper or aluminum foil.

2) Heat the cream and condensed milk over low heat until steaming. Remove from the heat and add the chocolate; allow it to gently melt.

3) After about 10 minutes, return the chocolate mixture to low heat to completely melt the chocolate. Whisk vigorously until the mixture is thick and shiny. Add a few drops of flavoring oil if you like; hazelnut, coffee, or vanilla are popular flavors.

4) Pour the chocolate mixture into the pan; shake the pan gently to level. Sprinkle with cocoa, if desired. Set aside overnight to slowly set up.

5) Run a knife around the edge of the pan and turn out onto a clean cutting surface.

6) Slice into 1 ¼" cubes. Heat a knife in hot water and wipe dry before each cut, for smoothest cuts.

7) Stick a wooden stick into the center of each block.

8) Roll in cocoa or crushed peppermint candy, if desired.

9) Wrap in waxed paper, parchment, or plastic wrap to store.

Yield: about 3 dozen blocks.