Monday, December 22, 2008

Turned on by Chocolate. . .

Ooooh, I have been waiting to blog about this for the week and I just can't take it any longer!!! I have been a baking machine over here. I guess you would call that an oven.

Check out these truffles, ya'll!!!! It's a very basic recipe, and I searched the internet and found several recipes. You MUST make it with good chocolate. What is good chocolate? Well, it's the best kind you can get your hands on. I used some Ghiradelli, Cadbury, and also some Bakers Chocolate, cuz that's what our Food Lion and Martin's down the road has. So what I'm sayin' is that you just shouldn't use crap. Although some people might call the aforementioned shitty chocolates.

Ya melt the chopped up chocolate using hot heavy cream. Now ya know how to make a ganache! Stir n stir until it is shiny and glorious looking then let it chill. I did mine overnight with the first batch, but discovered it was quite firm, and didn't scoop out beautifully like it did for Ina Garten. I ended up pushing the chocolate in the melon baller with some force. The first batch ended up looking like real truffles--the ones that look like little turds.

The second batch was where I got a little bit better. I let the ganache cool in the frig for about 2-3 hours, poking it now and again to see the viscosity. I tried to temper the chocolate. I say tried because I still don't know if I did it right. It didn't quite "snap" like they say tempered chocolate will do. All I can say is that they are freaking delicious. And that's really all that matters.

I topped mine with Celtic Sea Salt, chopped pistachios and walnuts, cocoa, and some white chocolate.

I have to share with you the sensuous feeling of feeling chocolate dripping off your hands. Oh my goodness! Silky, warm, sweet chocolate, oozing down my wrists, warmed by my own body heat. . . I didn't realize that the correct temperature for tempered chocolate is actually a bit on the cooler side. I spooned some melted chocolate in my hand, then rolled the ganache balls into them. So it's not like you melt in the microwave and dip away. No no no. To get REAL looking truffles, ya gotta put some love into it.

It was also a lot of fun letting hubby clean my fingers of the melted chocolate. . ..

Chocolate was all over the place. Slung onto the countertops and floor by my rolling motions. . . :)

There were other treats made, too, but Santa only comes once a year. You'll hear about these soon.

UPDATE: I am freaking out! The picture of my truffles is featured on Foodgawker! Yay!!!

Update 12/2011:
You can order these AWESOME fair trade, organic chocolates from Sweet Earth Organics and they will ship as quick as you'd like! Pin It

2 comments:

Heather {naturally crafted mama} said...

mmmmmm these look soooooooo freakin good!!!!!!!!!!!

Court said...

What beautiful little treats!

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...