Chocolate!!! and some recipes......

It's hard to believe but I'm in my very last class at Le Cordon Bleu. I've certainly packed in a lot of learning over the past year and am pretty ready to be done with school.

Anywho, we are making a lot of chocolate treats in our Chocolate & Confections class (duh, I guess). Pictured above are my dark chocolate truffles topped with a little candied ginger.

Here is a pic of something we made that is called Knackerli. It's a strange name for a simple treat - tempered chocolate topped with a dried cherry, apricot, and a pistachio.

Directly above are the other truffles I made - raspberry dark chocolate, rolled in raspberry powder (freeze-dried raspberries that have been crushed into a powder). Aren't they pretty?

And last, but not least, these cute little dollops are chocolate-dipped Carioca. Carioca is a delicious, buttery chocolate ganache.

Below is a basic recipe for the truffles. People always say this, but it is definitely true - the quality of the chocolate you use for truffles is going to determine the deliciousness of your final result. Personally, I like the Pound Plus bars from Trader Joes; use whatever you like.

You don't necessarily have to know how to temper chocolate to make these, if you are planning to roll them in cocoa powder or nuts. If you want to dip them (as mine are) then you do need to learn how to temper chocolate AND you'll need a pretty accurate thermometer. Also, if you don't have a scale, take note of the ratios of chocolate to cream to butter and should still be able to make these just fine.

Chocolate Truffles

• 7 oz heavy cream
• 16 oz Dark chocolate, chopped
• 2 oz Unsalted butter
• Extract (vanilla or whatever you'd like!), To Taste
• Salt, To Taste
• Cocoa Powder, for coating (optional)

Instructions

1. Heat cream to a simmer over low heat.

2. Pour cream over chocolate and stir until chocolate is completely melted.

3. Stir in butter until melted.

4. Stir in extract and salt.

5. Let mixture stand in bowl until it starts to thicken a little.

6. At that point, you can transfer to a piping bag or keep it in the bowl while working with it. You shouldn't need to chill in the fridge unless your kitchen is pretty warm.

7. If you decide to pipe out your ganache, pipe small (2 tsp-ish) mounds onto a sheet of parchment or onto a sheet pan. If you want to scoop from the bowl, use a small spoon and do the same.

8. Once ganache sets pretty firm (doesn't stick to your hands and you can pick it up off your sheet tray, basically), roll each one into a smooth ball between your palms. Wearing plastic gloves is expecially helpful if you have warm hands like I do!

9. Once they are rounded to your satisfaction, coat with cocoa powder by dropping into a bowl of cocoa powder and shaking off excess. Or you can roll them in chopped nuts or whatever you'd like. They keep fine at room temperature, but you can refrigerate them, as well.

The Salty Tart and a milestone

I know, I know - I promised the cherry pie recipe for today. But, it's like this, I'm tired, it's past 10:30pm and I got a little too much sun today. Tomorrow - for reals.

Instead, a quick post with a mini-review. Guess where I FINALLY went today? Oh, right, you already know because you read the post header. Yes - the Salty Tart! I was supposed to meet someone at the Midtown Global Market today for a work thing. It didn't work out (not-really-hypothetical question: if you were calling someone to reschedule a same-day meeting, wouldn't you leave a message, even if you were heading into a building with no cell reception? Or would you wait until the person showed up, having driven across town in a car with no a.c. and found a spot in the pay parking ramp?Hmmph!) but there was a silver lining, as usual.

I have to do a little write-up about a bakery for my baking class, and it's due on Tuesday. So, I did a short interview with one of the kind folks at the Salty Tart, and it even turns out he is a graduate of Le Cordon Bleu!

I didn't want to leave empty-handed but all I had was a dollar and I needed it for parking. Bummer! But wait.....if I bought something, they would validate my parking! The only thing I could get with my measly dough was a chocolate meringue (priced at buck plus tax). You know I'm not a big fan of meringues, but it was chocolate and I wanted to try SOMETHING. Plus, what kind of dummy pays for parking when they could get a meringue instead? Not this kind.

So, how was it, you're wondering? Seriously delicious! Crispy on the outside, gooey inside a little like a toasted marshmallow, deeply chocolatey, and with surprise crunch from bits of cocoa nibs inside. Score! I ate it all while still in the car.

I'm hoping to be back at the Salty Tart at some point with a bigger budget.

Anywho, guess what my milestone is? This is my 300th blog post!

Chocolate Cake You Make When ....

.....your fridge is ALMOST bare. Seriously, this cake has NO eggs, NO butter, and NO milk. I haven't been doing a lot of baking at home so we haven't been buying things like butter, milk, or extra eggs (they just end up going bad, sadly). I wanted to make a little snack, though, since we didn't really bake anything today in class (we made puff pastry dough for later use.) Anyway, the leavening in the cake is provided from the chemical reaction between the acid in the vinegar and the alkali in the baking soda.

This cake is nice and moist and tastes great - not too sweet. I also made an icing from sweetened condensed milk, powdered sugar, and dutch-processed cocoa powder. I didn't measure but just keep adding a little of each until I got a pourable consistency. It will set up pretty quickly once it's poured onto the slightly warm cake.

Here is the recipe I used: http://www.allrecipes.com/Recipe/Crazy-Cake/Detail.aspx

Making Meringue

I have to make a meringue product for one of my upcoming school projects. Chef did a demo for us on Italian, Swiss, and French (or common) meringues. I made two batches of Italian in class (one with melted chocolate incorporated and one using cocoa). Neither really came out the way I wanted. My oven was too hot during the first batch and cracked rather than drying out. The second is drying over night, so we'll see tomorrow.

The pic above is the third attempt, this one made at home. I used dutch-processed cocoa in this one. I know it is a terrible pic (and probably impossible to tell) but I am working on a hat shape and am planning to fill the middle with ganache or a fruit curd. I think they'll look more hat-like once I add a chocolate "ribbon" and "bow" to them.

Stay tuned - I'll show you tomorrow how I use up all these practice meringues.

a cake and a cast

Here is a photo of the chocolate orange cake I made for my sister's birthday.It was very tasty but slightly rustic looking because my frosting gun broke. The bottom layer is covered in ganache that I bought at the farmer's market over the summer. Tthe top layer is frosted with an orange-infused chocolate buttercream.

In other news, I am hunting and pecking to type this post because I broke my left arm. I would love to say that I did it while I was saving a puppy, but truth is I slipped on an icy sidewalk. A common tale this winter. I can still surf the net but won't be doing too much crafting.

Two Cakes and a Frosting Recipe

I made two chocolate cakes over the past week. One was for my brother-in-law and one was for my older sister. Happy Birthday, Kids! My BIL requested a chocolate cake and my sister didn't care about the cake part - only the frosting! It had to be chocolate buttercream.

My Chocolate Buttercream (makes enough for one two layer cake)

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 12 oz. bag semisweet chocolate chips

1 Tbsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup milk

3 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup cocoa powder

Directions:

Soften butter in microwave on defrost (about 20 seconds, add time in 10 second increments). Dump in large bowl and beat until fluffy. Meanwhile, melt chocolate chips. I like to use the microwave, again, but you could do it on the stove top. In microwave, heat on defrost for 15 second increments, stir between heating. Stop heating when most of the chips are melted. You can melt the rest by just continuing to stir them in with the melted chips. This will prevent you from burning the chocolate. When melted, mix chocolate in with the butter, adding vanilla extract. Add sugar, cocoa powder and milk, alternating between them and mixing on medium speed. That's it. Feel free to change amounts of milk and sugar to get the consistency that you want. You can make it without the cocoa powder but the chocolate taste won't be as rich.

Chocolate Orange Birthday Cake

My sister E. recently celebrated her 28th birthday. She asked me to make a cake with either lemon/raspberry flavor combo or a chocolate/orange combo. Her color scheme was gold and blue.

I chose to do an orange and chocolate cake simply because I had the ingredients on hand. I doctored up a chocolate cake mix with lots of orange zest (probably a tablespoon?) and some espresso powder to deepen the chocolate flavor. I made a moistening syrup from The Joy of Cooking (Combine equal parts water and sugar. Heat just until the sugar dissolves. I added another 1/2 tablespoon or so of orange zest) and poured the syrup over the bottom layer of the cake.

I frosted the layers with chocolate buttercream (adding orange zest to it, too!). The decorations consist of marbled blue fondant circles dusted with gold luster dust. I probably went a little overboard with the luster dust. Around the edges I placed wedges of chocolate orange (a favorite holiday treat in our family).

Everyone had a good time at the party, I think, and the cake was a big hit. One guest had two pieces, even though he claimed that he doesn't really like cake. I think that says it all :)

Peanut Butter Balls

My sister and nephew and I made these last weekend. They are a traditional Christmas treat in my family. I would give the recipe here but I don't measure the ingredients when making these.

You will need:

Peanut Butter (I used creamy JIF but you could use a crunchy type, too)

Confectioner's/powdered sugar

Semi-sweet chocolate, melted

First mix together peanut butter and powdered sugar in a large bowl. The best way to do this is to mix with clean hands or with plastic gloves on. I've tried to use a fork or a wooden spoon but it doesn't really mix it that well. Also, you will need to pinch a piece off periodically to see if it is the right consistency. You should be able to roll it into a ball pretty easily. If it is too sticky and won't keep a ball shape, add more sugar. If it is too dry and crumbles rather than forming a ball, add more peanut butter. After all your balls are formed (make them about the size of a quarter - bite size) refrigerate for about an hour. Melt semi-sweet chocolate in a double-boiler or microwave (15 second bursts on defrost, then stir - stop heating while there are still a few lumps so as to avoid burning the chocolate). We coated our peanut butter balls using two spoons but you could use tongs for dipping or pour the chocolate over. Once covered in chocolate, place balls on wax paper and put in fridge. These actually have no dairy in them, except the chocolate, so could be left at room temperature.