Chocolate Caramel Truffles

The first step to identifying your problem is admitting that you have one.  Friends, I have a serious addiction to chocolate. I can’t help it. Chocolate is the key to our hearts and the root to our souls. I think it provides the chemical we feel when we’re in love after we take that first bite which explains why chocolate comes around on Valentines Day (Singles Day) I got a little sad around Valentine’s Day, so I made these truffles for my Single friends.  After all, chocolate makes us feel 1000 times better.

So friends, I hope u enjoyed them because they were time consuming but were the best thing I’ve made from Gourmet so far. Mom helped me with the mixture.  It wasn’t too complicated- it was just time consuming.

30 Truffles (we doubled it)

• 1 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• 9 ounces fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (not unsweetened), chopped– (we used chips)
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

For coating

• 1/4 to 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder, sifted, and/or 1/2 to 1 cup pecans, ground fine

“In a dry heavy saucepan (about 3 1/2 quarts) cook sugar over moderate heat, stirring with a fork until melted… ” (It was so cool to watch the sugar melt into caramel- I’ve never made caramel before-)

…”swirl pan until sugar is a golden caramel.  Remove pan from heat (we turned heat off) and add cream carefully (mixture will bubble up)…”  it bubbled up A Lot.  I thought I was doing something wrong, so Mom took over (my natural instinct).  I learned that when heat is over boiling temperature adding cold heavy cream will make the caramel bubble a lot.  Learning a little science as I cook is always fun.    “Return pan to heat and simmer, stirring, until caramel is dissolved.”

Remove pan from heat and add chocolate, salt, and vanilla. Let mixture stand 5 minutes (we didn’t do this we kept stirring until chocolate melted. Transfer mixture to a bowl and cool, uncovered. Chill mixture, covered, 2 hours, or until firm.

Coat truffles:
Scoop out truffle mixture with a spoon and form into 1-inch balls. Roll truffles in 1/2 cup cocoa powder or coat with 1 cup pecans, pressing nuts slightly to adhere. (Alternatively, roll half of truffles in 1/4 cup cocoa powder and coat remaining truffles with 1/2 cup pecans.) Chill truffles on a tray lined with wax paper until firm, about 1 hour. Truffles keep in an airtight container, chilled, 2 weeks.

Mom got sleepy. My accountant friend Andrew is in the middle of busy season and had to work a full twelve hour day on Saturday.  He came over starving around 8ish.  By the time he came over, I was ready to put him to work.   He helped me form the mixture into chocolaty truffles covered in coco power.  As Forest Gump said, “Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what your gonna get.” That was precisely what we tried to do. Some truffles had nuts on the outside or on the inside.  Even the ones covered in coco powder had nuts.  So, you really never knew which one you were getting.

I woke Mom up to try one- and she gave it a 5+ and Dad kept wanting seconds and thirds.

Ratings:

Taste: 5+

Do-Ability: 2- Very time consuming… Chocolate melts very easily so we kept putting the mixture back in the fridge to solidify since it kept melting in my hands.

Overall, a complete success!!

A New Take on the Oatmeal Raisin Cookie

I’m not a baker.  Sadly, I grew up with boxed brownie, cookie and cake mixes.  Everything I made was always consistently moist, so I never made anything from scratch because it was too complicated.  With cookies from scratch (or what I call “scratch cookies”), I’d put in so much time and effort into baking.  And, for what? A dry cookie.

Have you ever had a spicy cookie? Six-Spice Oatmeal Raisin Cookies are not your typical gooey, sweet cookie.  These spices… kick in at the end of your bite.   Who’s ever heard of cayenne pepper in a cookie recipe? I admit that I didn’t use all the spices because a small jar of ground cloves in NY was $9.99 and the recipe called for a pinch of ground cloves.   I was not spending $9.99 so I could use a pinch of ground cloves, once.  Let’s face it; I would only use it, once.  What else didn’t I use? Cumin and nutmeg, which would explain why the ginger was so potent.   I think we (my roomies are guinea pigs almost every time) all agreed that the ginger was a bit strong.

My other guinea pig, Yanina, was so excited when I told her I was making oatmeal raisin cookies.  She’s the kind of person who will tell it to you like it is- no BS, just straight off the bat to your face this is how I feel kind of deal.  I knew that if it was a bad/good/dry/moist cookie, I could count on her to tell it to me straight up.   Everyone needs a friend like that- someone who will give you a good kick in the a$$ when you need it most.  That’s why we’re friends.

Luckily, my oatmeal raisin cookies met her high expectations.  She’s a spicy gal and these ones matched her palate.

Rating: 1-5  (5=Excellent, 1=worst cookie of my life)

Taste: 3.5, I’m a gooey gal.  The cookie was stiff.  I like sweet cookies.

Recipe: 4.5- I didn’t use all the spices; extra points for a unique recipe

Do-Ability: 3.5- Baking is hard.  You have to be precise- I get flustered too easily and there are always too many directions that I end up doing backwards.   Although I separated the dry ingredients from the wet ones, I put the flour and spices in a big bowl and the butter, sugar and eggs into a smaller bowl.  If I read the directions correctly, I would have noticed that the dry ingredients are supposed to go into the wet ingredients and not vice versa.  I mixed the batter in a small bowl instead of a big bowl and then transferred the dough into the big bowl later.

When baking, does the order really matter? Aren’t they all going in the same place?

Week 2- Sunday-Funday with the Roommates, Total Recipes: 3

I live with four people (with +1’s it’s really like I live with eight others.)  There’s always something going on and someone to hang out with whether just watching TV or going to the gym.  The more the merrier.  My roommate Lara is an excellent cook who’s known for her Mexican food specifically her chicken enchiladas topped with cheddar cheese and black beans. YUM.  She also makes really really good guacamole and salads.  She told me a great tip about salads.  She said, “I like to use ingredients that are in season and put them in my salads” which makes sense because produce is the best when in season and you can save some money.  Food costs in New York can get so high sometimes.

We joked once that she and I love to take control over the kitchen so every time we cook together, we’d always establish what we were in charge of.   This week, I was in charge of the Peach Lacquered Chicken Wings (June 2009) and she was responsible for the Salt and Vinegar Potato Salad (June 2006).  My other roommate Angela made a Spinach and Onion Dip (January 2003).  (OK folks.  rule number four was broken.  Ange added some bacon-shhh. ) Ange is our Mom who is very organized and keeps everyone in check.  Sadly, these two are leaving the nest this week and moving on to another location.  It’s not far away at all, but I am used to seeing them every day and now it’ll be a little different.  Let’s face it.  I’m just not that good with change.  My mom had to point that out to me when I contemplated leaving.  Sometimes, you just need someone to just tell you how it is and that’s what my mom is for.

Jarell and Wade are my two other roommates who are two of the nicest guys I know.  Jarell is our tech guy who set up this unbelievable surround sound system in our living room and also knows some interesting detailed facts about shoes and clothing and just about anything.  He’s a wealth of knowledge.  Wade is our chicken-wing master.  I’ve never met anyone who loves chicken wings as much as Wade.  He’d come home at 3:00 in the morning on a Saturday, crave chicken wings and make them right then and there with home made BBQ sauce that will sit in our fridge for the month. I think he and I got into an argument once about how long you can keep BBQ sauce in the fridge.  He won.  You can keep BBQ sauce in the fridge for a month because the cider vinegar will keep bacteria from growing.

These two had birthdays this past weekend hence the choice to make chicken wings in their honor as well as  Sunday-Funday and the Yankee game.   We had some nice appetizers to start with while the chicken wings were in the oven.  (Yes, I broiled them.)  Ange’s bacon addition to the spinach dip added a nice savory flavor to it.  It was just the right amount of bacon to bring saltiness to the spinach and onions.  Our friend Emmy made this fabulous seven layer Mexican dip (not from Gourmet- it’s fun to break rules sometimes) it was filled with  sour cream, guacamole, black beans, salsa  and cheddar cheese.  Finally the wings were done, and smelled peachy.  I know the recipe called for peach or apricot preserves, but I used both.  The chicken was shiny and was very sticky.  I was expecting them to be a little more gooey in taste and less on my fingers but they were still very sweet and complimented the salt and vinegar potato salad very well.   The potato salad was good on its own, but it was that much better when paired with the chicken wings.

For dessert, Amelia (Wade’s +1) made a pumpkin bread  (from our rival magazine…shh).  Her pumpkin bread was so fresh and so moist.  I love bread when it’s moist.  A dried out bread is the worst thing that can happen to any mouth.  What a great way to spend a Sunday with your roommates. Especially if it’s gonna be the last one.

Let’s Go Yankees!