Hazelnut Praline Truffles

Hi everybody! How are things in your neck of the woods? We had a good day here. Lots of rain on and off, but Ben and I went out and cut up/hauled brush and firewood today. I played with fondant a little bit, and read more of Kitchen Confidential. Tomorrow is my bike ride/and walk to work day, so I hope it's not raining then! 

I'm also super excited because the plans are final for my mom and sister to visit between Christmas and New Years! I haven't seen them in a really long time, as they live in California, so it will be so enjoyable! I think we'll be going to the Butchart Gardens to see all of the lights. We also might go to the Empress Hotel to see all of their Christmas trees! I can't wait! Anyway, back to the food!

Are you ready for more candy? I thought you might be! This is one tasty recipe! You can just make the praline and eat it as-is. It makes a great hard candy. You can also cover the whole praline in tempered chocolate, then break it up into shards. Very pretty and tasty! Or, you can grind it up and put it into truffle filling, which is what we're doing today. This stuff is delicious beyond words!

Use a large sauce pan, as the sugar likes to bubble up quite a bit. This will also take a bit of time, so don't become too impatient! Sugar takes it's time, but it will burn quickly if you aren't paying attention!

Hazelnut Praline by Cathy Burgett
2 1/2 cups skinned hazelnuts (16oz)
1 1/2 cups sugar (10 1/2 oz.)
water to cover (use as little as possible, while still covering the sugar, as you will then have to wait for all of it to cook off again)

Bring the sugar and water to a boil, and cook over high heat until light caramel in color.

Add the hazelnuts and continue cooking until all the nuts are well separated into the caramel and it is light brown.

Pour the mixture onto a well-oiled baking sheet, or silpat, spread nuts to one layer, and leave it to harden.

At this point you can do any of the things listed above! I used mine in truffles, so if you want to do that too, continue on! Make a half batch of this basic truffle filling and let it cool in the fridge. Break up the praline a bit and put it into your food processor.

 Grind it until it becomes very fine granules.

Put the truffle filling into your mixer, and beat it on medium until light. Add the ground praline and beat until well incorporated.

 Now you can scoop it into little balls, roll it between your hands, or pipe it into tempered chocolate molds.

 If you want rustic looking truffles you can roll them in finely chopped toasted hazelnuts, or quickly dip the refrigerated balls of filling into tempered chocolate.

I sold these at our local craft fair, and they were a hit! I think we ate a good amount of them ourselves, too! These would make wonderful hostess/workplace/friend gifts for the holidays. Incorporate a few onto a cookie plate for a pot luck! Have them around for you own holiday guests to enjoy, or just eat them all yourself! It's ok, I won't tell! 

Basic Truffles

Hi there bloggy friends! Before we get to the chocolate, I wanted to let you know that I will soon have the opportunity to review an item from one of the CSN family of online stores! I will probably choose a food related item, but they also have things like tv tables, baby items and games in their selection of over 200 stores! I'm not exactly sure what I'll be getting yet, but I'll show you as soon as it gets here!

 I thought you might like another installment in the candy series! Here is another staple recipe for you. Truffles! Everyone loves them, and they are disgustingly simple! You can, of course, make them as complicated as you like, but they don't have to be hard!

This is another recipe from school. I have used it countless times! I'm sure you will too!

Chocolate Truffles
1 lb. semisweet chocolate
1 cup cream
6 Tbs. butter (3 oz.)

Bring the cream to a boil in a small sauce pan. Remove from the heat and stir into the chocolate and butter.

Stir until smooth.

Refrigerate until firm. Beat the mixture with the paddle attachment on the mixer on medium speed until light. Add liqueur if desired.

Form into balls with your hands or a scoop,

 or pipe into small rounds onto parchment-lined sheets. Freeze until firm before coating, rolling in nuts, or rolling in cocoa powder.

Variations
Liqueur: Before chilling the mixture, add 2 Tbs. grand marnier, brandy, kahlua, or other desired liqueur.

Nuts: Before chilling mixture, add 3/4 cup ground nuts such as hazelnuts, walnuts, or almonds.

Coatings: Cocoa powder, melted, tempered dark or white chocolate, finely chopped nuts.

You can also pipe this filling into tempered chocolate coated molds to make snazzy truffles!

This filling melts easily and quickly, so don't handle too much, and store somewhere dark and cool. The options are endless here! Use any liqueur, Stir in all kinds of nuts, candy cane bits, praline or whatever! Just try not to eat all of it out of the bowl! Don't worry, you can lick that when you're done! ;)

Movie Monday and Some Chocolate!

Heeey, look! It's actually Monday! I remembered! I think it's a miracle. Anyway. We've been having lots of crazy weather here. Temperatures below freezing, snow flurries, and some really strong winds! Everything is pretty cozy though, and we're actually enjoying the excitement!

 The power is amazingly still on, despite a few brown-outs and flickering. The fire is roaring and there are lots of fuzzy little bodies napping in front of it.

I have hot tea, slippers, and a good book. Plus a little chocolate! I am enjoying some of the chocolate that was sent to me from Alter Eco Fair Trade, and it is delicious! There is a plain 85% dark chocolate, and some dark chocolate with crystallized orange peel.

Both have a nice snap when you bite into them, and a very creamy and silky texture. I am totally a fan of dark chocolate in general, but the flavor of this, especially the 85%, is really intense while not at all bitter. The dark chocolate with orange is the perfect mix. The fresh flavor of orange is strong but not overpowering, and the little nuggets of crystallized orange peel create an interesting texture with a flavor burst.

 Just a little bit goes a long way, so it's perfect for my "behaving myself" dessert nights. I love finding new chocolate, especially when it's really good. You guys should try this. You won't be sorry! Check out their website to order some of your own!

We've all been sick/fighting the flu, plus all of the crazy weather, power outages, and the craft fair this weekend. Needless to say we haven't watched as many movies as we usually do. Nevertheless, here's the list!

Movie Monday
Ella Enchanted: This stars Anne Hathaway when she was younger. It's definitely made for young girls, but I have to say I enjoyed it anyway. Ben didn't even complain. Go figure. Ella is under a spell that causes her to always be obedient. She has funny friends, goes on a quest, and meets a handsome prince. Magic, singing and comedy fill out this cute little movie. It's a fun lightweight watch.

Mission Impossible 3: This one wasn't as good as the other two. It still had good action, an actual plot, and reasonable acting, but it didn't suck you in as much as the first one. Ethan Hunt now has a girlfriend, and doesn't go on real missions anymore. He's asked to do just one more, and of course it gets bigger and more involved than anticipated. It's a good one time watch action flick.

The Man in the Iron Mask: I just finished reading the book, by Alexandre Dumas. It was a pretty good book, although I liked the first two better. This movie is supposedly based on the book, so I waited to watch it until I was done reading the original. No need. This was nothing like the book at all. Leonardo DiCaprio plays the king of France, and the man in the iron mask. It's a pretty good movie, but not fantastic. Good period drama, nice costumes, alright plot considering it's all new. The main thing that bothered me in this was John Malkovich. He's a good actor, but he really is wrong for period pieces. Every time I heard him talk it ruined the scene. All in all, it was entertaining, especially if you haven't read the book!

The Sorcerer's Apprentice: We both really liked this one! Nicholas Cage is Balthazar, one of Merlin's three apprentices. He looks for a thousand years for a special boy, and finds him in modern times. Dave is a goofy science nerd, who now also happens to be a sorcerer's apprentice! Funny, light, with a unique twist on the original story. It also has a great throw-back to Mickey and the brooms! This is a fun one!

The Muppets' Wizard of OZ: This was probably my least favorite muppet movie ever. Don't get me wrong. I still watched it, and enjoyed it too. It just wasn't up to par with things like Muppets' Christmas Carol, or the Great Muppet Caper. Ashanti is the star of this, and I can't say that she is a great actress. She does have a great singing voice though! There is the usual muppet hilarity, great characters, and the expected songs. It's a fun one timer, but I don't think I ever need to see this one again.

That's it for tonight folks! I just finished reading The Man in the Iron Mask, and I just started reading Stardust by Neil Gaiman. It's great so far! Time to curl up in front of the fire with all of those dogs! G'night!

Tapenade and Treats

Hello friends! How are things in your neck of the woods? It's a rainy cozy Fall day here! Just the way I like it!

Earlier this week a friend invited me and Ben over for dinner! I thought it would be fun to bring over a little somethin' somethin' for the hostess, so I spent an hour in the kitchen that afternoon whipping up some treats!

First, I was inspired by this post from Chocolate Covered Katie. I had plenty of good fillings sitting around, and I always have a stash of dark chocolate, so I went for it! Nut butter cups!!!

I melted some dark chocolate in a double boiler until it was completely smooth,

 and then spooned a thin layer into some cupcake papers.

Make sure to spoon some chocolate up the sides a bit too, so your filling will be completely enclosed in chocolate! It doesn't always come out perfectly (at least for me!), but do your best. These are supposed to be fast and easy!

I put the chocolate coated cups into the freezer on a half sheet tray, and went to find my fillings. I decided to use regular old peanut butter, some Artisana almond butter, and some Artisana coconut butter. I did have to melt the coconut butter to make it useable, but then I got to lick the spoon, so it was OK.

After 10 minutes in the freezer the chocolate shells were hard, so I pulled them out and spooned in some nut butter! Be sure to keep the filling below the height of the chocolate you spooned up the sides! Freeze again.

While these were freezing again I decided to make some tapenade. We had a sad jar of green olives in the fridge, mostly used, but with not enough left for any practical use. I tossed these into my food processor with a big container of kalamata olives, a few cloves of garlic, and a small splash of my Sciabica's garlic olive oil.

Pulse until things are all chopped up looking, but not pasty. Make sure to scrape down the bowl, pulse, scrape, pulse....you get the idea. You really just want to make sure your finished product is still a bit chunky.

Are you waiting for more instructions? You're out of luck. That is the end! You're done! Just scoop it all out into a storage container (after immediately eating as much as possible out of the bowl) and put it in your fridge!

Do you see someone else who wants a bite? I do!

Ok, time to pull out the nut butter cups again! It takes a bit longer for the nut butters to harden, maybe 15 minutes. Just spoon a nice thin layer of chocolate over the top of each cup, smoothing it to the edges so it seals all of the yumminess in.

I chose to top each so I would know which filling was in each one. Almond, peanuts, and shredded coconut.

Plus, it looks pretty, so what more do you want?!

Same old song and dance...pop 'em back into the freezer!

I decided to bring our friend some tapenade, so I filled up a little jar, tied on a ribbon, and made a cute little label.

Being crafty is fun and oh-so nerdy! I love it!

Just before we left for dinner I pulled out one of each flavor of nut butter cups and placed them on a palm leaf plate from Marx Foods. You remember Marx foods, right? That's where the dried mushrooms from this post come from!

 These plates are perfect for goody giveaways!

They are rigid, attractive, biodegradable, sustainable and look really nice! They would be great for casual weddings, picnics, or BBQ's too!

Ok, all ready to bestow foodie gifts in exchange for good company and good food!

Whaaat?! I even did my hair?! I must really like this friend! ;)