Scrumptious Holiday Truffles

Every year at work we do a cookie swap along with a white elephant gift exchange. This year I decided to make dark chocoloate truffles instead of cookies and OH MY GOD, I think I will make these EVERY year for the holdays.

I found the recipe for the ganache on Ghirardelli's website and then created my own variations:

Dark Chocolate Truffles
Yield: 30 Truffles

    * 1 3/4 cup(s) 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips (I mixed bittersweet chocolate chips with semisweet chips...about a 2 to 1 ratio...and I of course bought Ghirardelli chocolate)
    * 1/3 cup(s) Unsweetened Cocoa
    * 1/3 cup(s) heavy whipping cream
    * 6 tablespoon(s) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Directions
In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a simmer. Add the butter and stir until melted.

Gradually add in the chocolate chips.

 

Stir until completely melted and smooth.

 Remove from the heat and pour into a shallow bowl (9 x 13 pyrex dish works--I tripled the recipe so I used the largest pyrex dish I had).

Cool, cover, and refrigerate the mixture until firm, at least 2 hours.

Using a melon baller or small spoon, roll the mixture into 1-inch balls. I promise you that your hands will be covered in chocolate by the end of this and there is absolutely nothing wrong with licking your fingers.

Roll each ball in the cocoa. Enjoy immediately (trust me you will) or refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Variations

Pecan Truffles
I bought a small bag of pecans, crushed them and laid them flat in a pan and toasted them at 375 degrees until fragrant. Then I rolled some of the truffles in the pecans.

Smore Truffles
Break marshmallows up into small chunks (about the size of the tip of your pinky) and crush the graham crackers into a dust. It was difficult to wrap the ganache around the marshmallow, but just keep forming the ball around the marshmallow, you will get it eventually. Then roll the ball into the bowl of graham cracker dust and voila! You have smore balls!

To make them extra special, I bought some silver candy cups from AC Moore (about $3 for 100) and cookie tins from the dollar store (they have some great ones with holiday prints).  Slap on a bow and you have a simple Christmas gift to hand out to your friends and family.

'Tis the season for baking!

First attempt at making a cake from scratch = Epic Fail?

I know, I know, it has been forever since I have written on this blog, but what better time to start again than the holidays. I have baking A LOT the past few weeks and part of it is because I decided to take a baking class at Charleston Cooks downtown. Totally worth the 60 bucks by the way! What better way to spend a an evening—baking delicious desserts and breads, drinking wine, and then ingesting the goodies you created while the instructors clean everything up for you! It was magical.

One of the recipes we made was a Classic Chocolate cake with Buttercream Frosting. Since we only had a few hours in the class, we didn't get to participate in baking all of the items, so I decided to take on baking the cake from the comfort of my own home. 

Little did I know all of the idiosyncrasies of making a cake. Let’s just say when your husband comes home and eats a piece of your hard work, “Chocolate Slim Jim” are not the words you want to come out of his mouth.

Let me explain. The flavor of the cake was not like a Slim Jim, it was actually quite tasty. But the texture was like a dense brownie that someone smashed to make even more dense. When the cake came out of the oven and I pressed gently on the center, there was no give, no tender push back to say “Hello, I am fluffy”, it was solid…like a Slim Jim.

The sample I gave to Mike was strip of cake from the edges I trimmed off. I hope this helps to explain his comment:

 

Items I learned for next time:

1. Cold ingredients are the enemies when making a cake. Make sure all of your ingredients are at room temperature.
2. Be sure to beat the butter until fluffy BEFORE adding the sugar. I added them together and THEN tried to beat them to be fluffy.

Cold butter + sugar = butter balls      Nobody wants balls in their cake batter.

3. Do not over mix the batter after the flour is added. Part of this was because there were still lumps from the butter, so I definitely over mixed to compensate. You only need to mix until the flour is barely incorporated.
4. No air in the cake batter means your cake is not going to rise. So the fact I could find hardly any air holes in the cake was not a good sign.
5. I think this would make a good base for an ice cream cake
6. OR this would be really good with a raspberry glaze in the center and maybe cream cheese frosting

Added some chocolate shavings to make it pretty. I figured if the presentation is there, maybe people won't notice how dense it is :)

Turns out the fail was actually a success. I brought the cake to work for my friend’s birthday, and it was devoured by the end of the day. Some people said they liked that it wasn’t fluffy like a normal cake and it was very moist. 

 

If you want the recipe, just comment on this blog and I will scan a copy for you.

I am still determined to make a fluffy cake dammit.