Entries tagged with “chocolate” from Sketchy's Kitchen
The Little Chef helped
me make these cookies, first he wanted to roll them in some smoked
paprika, but I managed to steer him to the colored sanding sugar. After
a little discussion about how much of the confetti sugar he could eat,
we got to business rolling the logs in the sugar.After a stint in the freezer, we cut the cookies and baked them up. He was 'taking a nap' when these baked, and devoured a few warm ones when he woke up. When we were playing at the neighbors house, every time he went inside the house, there were more cookie crumbs on his mouth. I think he ate 4 or 5 cookies that afternoon. He also loves the sugar sprinkles, I think I could put them on anything and he would eat them :D Anyways, if a four year old likes these cookies, anyone will. At work, they were a big hint. Many people asked what the flavor was because it is a little hard to place.
I thought about this for a while and asked some friends what type of cheesecake they would like. I offered up two options. Chocolate passion fruit or honey lemon lavender.
I checked Whole Foods and they actually had passion fruit. It was the first time in two years I have found actual passion fruit in Richmond. Usually you can only find a juice blend. The actual fruit is much tarter then the juice - which is cut with apple juice. This worked very nicely with the bittersweet chocolate. To alter the texture of the cheesecake, I used half cream cheese and half marscarpone cheese. The cheesecake was quite dense and solid. It cut very well, and held its shape. The crust stayed dry and had a really good texture. Three quarters of the cheesecake was distributed to neighbors. I Think I gave too much away.
Since the cheesecake came together so easily, I decided to make a second one. This time I made a honey lavender lemon cheesecake. I decided to experiment with this one. I made a lemon shortbread crust. This was one of the easiest crusts I have ever made. I made a little on the thick side, and I think that was a good idea. Once cooked, the crust had a wonderful lemon taste, with the dry crumb of a shortbread cookie. I used some lemon curd I had sitting in the ice box, mixed it with a small amount of the cheesecake mixture to prevent a bad memory from reoccurring. I once made a cheesecake with a lemon curd swirl - when I unmolded it, all the swirls separated and it fell apart. Cooked cheesecake and liquid lemon curd. Adding some of the batter lets the lemon curd fully incorporate/cook with the rest of the cheesecake, while still keeping the swirl look.
This cheesecake held its shape quite well, but was 100% creamier then the chocolate one. It even won over the neighbor who said that lavender would taste like cleaner. She loved it. I think it is the best cheesecake I have ever made. My wife even liked it, and she usually doesn't like cheesecake.Unfortunately, I forgot take any pictures of the finished product
Truffles!
These were so stupidly simple to make. A bit messy, but gloves and equipment make it a little better.
I made three batches of truffles - about 36 per pound of chocolate. These were really easy to make. Melt the chocolate, mix in the cream, chill, scoop out, roll, chill, dip, coat. Done. And that's the complicated recipe!
I purchased two pounds of nice bittersweet chocolate, each recipe calls for about 9 ounces, so I had a lot to work with. I wanted to make some festive truffles with fall flavors. I think - cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, orange, ginger, etc. So I steeped some spices in the cream, strained it, then added it to the chocolate. This added a nice spicy flavor to the chocolate, and I infused some cocoa with cloves.
The second attempt was in response to the general question "Where's the crunchy shell"
--Same recipe, but I rolled the ganache centers in a spiced cinnamon/cayenne chocolate, then I rolled them in cocoa powder.
The Third set of truffles was the best. I took some liberties with all the recipes I could find online. First, I made some creamy peanut butter with a little added cinnamon. , I mixed that in with the hot cream, then poured it over the chopped chocolate. Once mixed in, I placed the batch in the refrigerator until the mixture solidified and the oil from the peanuts separated and floated tot eh top and hardened. I removed all the oil and started to roll out another set of truffles. Once cooled, the centers were rolled in semisweet chocolate and rolled in Oreo crumbs (just the cookies, no centers)
The trick with making truffles, freeze the centers if you plan to roll them in chocolate. The shells freeze very quickly, so there is little mess. Wear powder free plastic/latex gloves - you want the tight fitting kind, and switch out between stages. You do not need to temper the chocolate for coating, and you can coat multiple times if you want a thicker shell.
To coat: take a spoonful of melted chocolate and smear it on the palm of your non-dominant hand (left for me). Roll until coated and roll in any dry coating you want to use (except for cocoa - this goes on well when the chocolate is dry). Then with tongs, life the truffle onto a cooled cookie sheet.
Everything will get covered in chocolate. Your hands are in gloves for a reason. The spoon will have chocolate on it, the bowl will be edged in chocolate, the tongs will be coated in chocolate. You just have to accept this and keep going. Have a resting place for any utensils you will use, this will keep the mess off the counter.
All said and done, I wish I got better pictures of the finished product.
Recipe
Basic Chocolate Truffle
1 pound chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
chop the chocolate fine, bring the cream to a boil, pour over the chocolate and stir until combined. Place the chocolate in the refrigerator until solid. Scoop out and roll between hands.
If you want to coat them in chocolate, melt the chocolate and roll the chilled truffle centers between your chocolate coated hands. dust with cocoa or crumbs
from The Essence of Chocolate
makes about 3 dozen sandwich cookies
Cookie:
- 1 1/2 cups plus 3 Tbsp all purpose flour
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder (dutch process if you have it)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 15 Tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 3/4" cubes, at room temperature
Filling:
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 8 oz. white chocolate, chopped
1. For the Filling: In a small pan, bring the cream to a boil. Remove from heat and add the chocolate. Let stand for 1 minute, then whisk to melt the chocolate until smooth. Transfer to a small bowl, and let stand for 6 hours to thicken up.
2. For the Cookies: In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, baking soda, and salt, and mix on low speed. With the mixer running, add the butter, a piece at a time. The mixture will be dry and sandy at first, but over 2 minutes, will form pebble-sie pieces that start to cling together. Stop the mixer and transfer the dough to your board.
3. Preheat oven to 350F. Seperate dough into 2 pieces. Roll each piece of dough between 2 pieces of plastic wrap or parchment paper to 1/8" inch thick. Using a fluted cutter, cut into rounds. Scraps can be pieced together and rolled out again. Place 1/2" apart on baking sheets lined with Silpat liners or parchment paper.4. Bake for 12-15 minutes, rotating halfway through baking. Remove and cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to a cooling rack. Cool completely.
5. To Assemble: Lightly whip the white chocolate cream to aerate and fluff up. Transfer filling to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4" plain tip. Pipe about 1 1/2 tsp in the center of half the cookies. Top with another cookie to sandwich. Gently press down until the cream comes to the edges.
6. Cookies can be stored in a container for up to 3 days. Loosely cover
These cookies are pretty easy to make, but it is a little messy. I made these for the cookie exchange at work. I've looked at many recipes, made a few changes, and came up with something I like. Some of the recipes lack vanilla; I think vanilla helps bring out the chocolate flavor. I prefer vanilla beans for flavor, but paste or extract will also work. I added some orange to the recipe for additional flavor.The cookies are almost brownie like in their texture. The addition of rolling the cookies in powdered sugar gives them a fantastic look. When the cookies are baking, they fall and the sugar cracks on the surface. I made my first batch with a hand mixer - I advise against this. the final batter is incredibly thick. I almost burnt out the motor in my hand mixer - so I recommend a stand mixer for this recipe.
Having a square or rectangle baking dish may speed up the formation of the cookies. I thought of this on my second batch. I lined the dish with plastic wrap, then spooned the dough into the dish. I folded over the plastic wrap and pressed the cookie dough flat. This makes it much easier to cut and shape even cookies. I laid out a 1x1 grid across the top and used a bench scraper to cut the dough. I cook them on silpat, if you don't have that, use parchment paper.The first batch I made cooked for 20 minutes. They taste good, but they are a little soft in the middle for my taste. My wife loved the moist texture when they were warm, but it was a little unappealing once they cooled. The addition of two minutes took care of this - they have a consistent cooked texture throughout, while staying moist.
Here's the recipe:- 4 oz unsweetened chocolate
- 4 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 Cups Sugar
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp orange extract
- 1/2 vanilla pod or 2 tsp vanilla extract/paste
- Confectioners sugar for rolling.
Add half the flour in small portions. Scrape down the sides, and then add the baking powder and mix to combine. Slowly, add the rest of the flour. When all the flour is added, mix for 1 minute. Transfer the dough to a plastic wrapped baking dish, cover and press flat. Cool in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, they can sit overnight.
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees.
Grid out the cookies and cut the dough into 1X1 squares. The dough is sticky! Coat your hands in powdered sugar and take the squares and form into balls. Roll the dough in the powdered sugar and place on the prepared cookie sheet (silpat or parchment). Place the cookies two inches apart, as they cook, they will fall and spread out.
Cook for 22 minutes. Rotate the pans halfway for even cooking.
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