Lime and Dark Chocolate Truffles

These Ts were inspired by our dinner Zingy Chicken Stirfry. Now when I say ‘inspired’ I really mean ‘made from the leftovers’ i.e. leftover limes.

• Place 200mls of cream with the zest of two limes into a pot.
• Make dinner, then tidy up.
• Do jigsaws.
• Play jumping on the bed.
• Read The Tiger who came to Tea, Bedtime for Spot and Lullabyhullabaloo books.
• Put a sleepyhead to bed.
• Bring the cream to the boil and strain over 200g dark chocolate (Belcolade 72% dark).
• Leave until the next evening before forming truffles, dipping and decorating (nuts, coconut).

Benoit Lorge’s Demo

I was wowed by this demo and now I know the sign of a real chocolatier: they can talk to a room full of chocoholics and temper at the same time! And kudos to the Temple Bar Cultural Trust for such a professional ticket design … I am keeping my ticket stub!

Benoit Lorge, originally from France now firmly installed in Kerry, had a bain marie on the go, huge marble slab, several 2.5kg bags of Valrhona chocolate, molds of all shapes and sizes and most importantly, a tilted mirror over the work area so everyone could see what was going on. Hmmm let me illustrate …

The demo was packed with loads of information presented in a easy-to-remember format. He ran thru cocoa bean types, the importance of tempering, cocoa origins all the while keeping bowls of chocolate stirred. He piped the molded sweets with a honey ganache and here’s the recipe. It will do approx 450 sweets ;-)

500ml cream

450g honey

500g Valrhona Jivara

500g Valrhona Carribe

Bring cream to the boil, stir in the honey, then pour over the chocolate.

Just like that :-) It tasted fabulous not least because of the excellent ingredients. Sur’ there was even a Valrhona sales rep present in case anyone need a few kgs.

The worktop after a very busy demo … I lost count of how many discs, truffles and bars he made. He made it look so easy and I know from messy experience that it isn’t. And there was no pretend tempering here … the finished truffles were shiny and crisp.

I thoroughly enjoyed this demo so much so that we went back today to watch again. HoneyB (after a good cry which was silenced by the chocolatier and some Valrhona!) sat watching too. She especially liked pouring all the chocolate onto the slab – I think it was the mess she liked.  She was probably thinking to herself ‘look, this guy making a mess and Mommie is not cross’ !

Crunchie Truffles

So I took some of the honeycomb bits and pieces, stirred them into a milk chocolate ganache and what happened? (she says in her best HoneyB voice). The honeycomb dissolved very gradually leaving a very soft sticky mixture :-( I had somehow hoped (now I know Himself was right) that I could preserve the crunchie texture in the truffle. Anyway, we live and learn. However the flavor was good and the ‘toffee’ flavor was subtle.

I suppose the right thing to do would be to chocolate coat the crunchie … then mix in. Anyway, I cut them into squares, tossed in cocoa and served with a warning: very soft truffles.

Honeycomb and the Three Bears

I’ve been telling HoneyB the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears at breakfast for the past few weeks and she is quite taken by it. She suggests that Mommie Bear make Baby Bear some more porridge straight away :-)

Anyway, inspired by Gordon Ramsay’s dessert topping (and that is not something that happens often), I made some honeycomb. But how could something so simple to make be so difficult to clean up after. I had to boil my utensils in the pot to clean them. Ah but it was worth it. Now I have my own crunchie stuff to mix with milk chocolate ganache and create a Crunchie truffle :-)

• 1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup glucose syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 tbsp baking soda (bicarb)

1. Oil and then line a baking tin with parchment paper, then oil the parchment paper. I used veg oil.

2. Put everything except the baking soda in a deep pot and bring to the boil but do not bother to stir it. The ingredients will combine as they boil.

3. Keep the sides of the pot clean using a pastry brush dipped in water.

4. Allow the sugar mixture to come to 149C. And now the fun part: whisk in the baking soda which will cause a volcanic thickening golden brown bubbling liquid.

5. Once it starts to thicken and take on that honeycomb color, pour it into the tin.

6. Allow to cool before cutting/breaking/smashing it up. Then store in an airtight container.

There was no way I could find to cut this into nice neat slices. I got chunks, crumbs, shards and one or two good bars. Maybe it needs to be scored while warm …

Dark Chocolate Ginger Truffles

Hmmm is there such a thing as too much ginger? Here is a recipe for Triple Ginger Truffles … there is nothing subtle about the ginger here:

First off the ganache (makes 50):

• 200g dark chocolate (Belcolade Costa Rica 64%)
• 215ml single cream
• 3 tbsp cocoa
• 2″ root ginger, grated *
• 50g crystalised ginger, finely chopped *
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger *

* optional, vary up or down depending on your ginger tooth

1. Bring the cream and grated root ginger to just below boiling, remove from the heat and allow it to sit for 10 mins.
2. Put the chocolate in whatever bowl/container you are going to store the truffle mixture in. Then bring the cream back to simmer.
3. Strain the cream over the chocolate making sure no root ginger gets into the ganache.
4. Let the cream melt the chocolate, then gently stir until smooth. If the chocolate does not melt completely, heat if for 10sec bursts in the microwave on Medium until completely smooth.
5. Now stir in the crystalised ginger. Leave to rest at room temp overnight, or for a 4 hours in the fridge.
6. Combine the cocoa powder and ground ginger into a shallow bowl.
7. Scoop the truffles and roll them the cocoa.
8. These need to be stored in the fridge, taking them out around 20 mins before serving to allow them come to room temp. They can also be frozen; but once defrosted they will need to be spruced up so just roll them in some cocoa powder.

The result … triple ginger truffle. For me the ground ginger was just too much. It added to much heat and spice to the truffle and masked the lovely dark chocolate. But the root and crystalised ginger is a good combination … 2 outta 3 ain’t bad :-) Actually the crystalised ginger gives a nice zingy bite and texture too.

Oh I miss being able to take photos. The light is just not good in the morning and evening these days … I must try to master the light box.

White Chocolate Lemon Truffles

Yes, yes another white chocolate and lemon truffle recipe but for this one I used creme fraiche and a milky bar!

• 200g white chocolate (Milky bar), finely chopped
• 100ml creme fraiche
• 2 tsp grated lemon zest (nearly 2 lemons)
• 1tbsp cocoa powder

1. Bring the creme fraiche and zest to the boil and then let it sit for 10 mins, then bring the creme back to simmer.
2. Put the chopped chocolate in to bowl and strain the creme over it.
3. Allow the creme to melt the chocolate for 1-2 mins, then stir. If the chocolate is not fully melted then pop the mixture in the microwave for 10sec bursts at MED, stirring in between.
4. Once cool, cover the ganache and either leave to rest overnight at room temp or for 4 hours in the fridge.
5. Then form the truffles, roll in cocoa and do what you must ;-)

The result … a lovely light truffle, you can still taste the white chocolate but that very sweet Milky Bar taste is toned down by the creme fraiche. They taste like the topping to a lemon cheesecake which in my house is not a bad think at all. The only teeny tiny down side it that it is easier to work with cream as the creme fraiche has a thicker consistency.

Celebrating Guinness

Happy Authur’s Day … yes indeed I am talking about Guinness. Major celebrations are underway to mark 250 years of brewing the finest black stuff. And what better way to enjoy a Guinness than with a nibble on some dark chocolate. If you fancy something more then maybe Chocolate Guinness Cake or CheapEat’s Guinness Mousse. Enjoy!

Chocolate Guinness Cake

On recommendation from Celia at the delightful foodie blog Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, I rather reluctantly make Stout Cake from Green & Black’s Unwrapped recipe book. I know, I know, stout and dark chocolate go well together, but I am not a fan of mixing my chocolate with alcohol.

So having looked at the ingredients I forged ahead and half way thru decided to rename this: the monster cake. This is not one for a small household; it’s one for a small army. The resulting cake rose to fill a 10″ cake tin! Huge … wasn’t I lucky it tasted nice!

There is not a huge amount of chocolate considering the size of the resulting cake  (100g cocoa, 150 dark chocolate) so the Guinness does play a very important role. It adds a ‘depth of flavour’ (as them on the MasterChef would say) giving a rich (a finger slice will do) indulgent cake, with a beautiful taste of chocolate (bittersweet rather than sugary). Just a few notes:

• Use the best cocoa available
• Chop the chocolate in chunks so you can come across them later in the cake
• Do not try and slice this cake horizontally to add layers of buttercream etc. It is a fragile beast. Best to ice the top and leave it at that.
• Any decently chocolatey icing will do here but it does need icing or a sprinkling of cocoa/icing sugar to hide the surface.
• Anyone who has tried to mix cocoa with cold liquid will know that it is not an easy task … so to mix 100g with Guinness is a step that put me off. But, Celia to the rescue … just add the sieved cocoa with the flour. Phew, messy cocoa mixing avoided ;-)

This photo is not the greatest … I should have taken a picture when the cake was bursting out of the tin … the monster.

• 225g/8oz unsalted butter, softened
• 350g/12 oz soft dark brown sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 225g/8oz plan flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 400ml Guinness – yes there will be a little left in the can for the cook :-0
• 100g/3 1/2 oz cocoa powder
• 150g/5oz dark chocolate, chopped

1. Preheat the oven 180C, butter & line a 9″ or 10″ deep springform tin.
2. Cream the butter & sugar.
3. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
4. Sift the flour, baking powder, cocoa and bicarb into a separate bowl.
5. Add the flour and Guinness alternately to the egg mixture, stirring between each addition, until combined. The cake batter will be quite soft.
6. Stir in the chocolate.
7. Pour into the tin. Bake for 1-1 1/4 hours until skewer comes out clean. Cover with tinfoil toward the end to stop it from burning.
8. Leave to stand for 10 mins before turning out.
9. Cover with any icing you wish. I used Jamie Oliver’s recipe (below) recommended by Fig Jam and Lime Cordial (thank you!); worked well but I think to make this a ‘death by chocolate’ experience, a ganache topping is called for.

• 100g dark chocolate
• 100g butter
• 100 g icing sugar, sieved
• 3 tbsp milk

1. Add everything into a microwave bowl. Heat on medium in 30 sec bursts, stirring in between, until smooth. Spread over the cake, allow to set for say 30 mins. Enjoy!

Candied Ginger

Maybe I should rename this post to ‘how not to make candied ginger’ or even ‘the pitfalls of candying ginger’! Using a recipe from David Lebovitz, I made some candied ginger with mixed results.

Some some tips are:

- try to find what the recipe calls ‘baby ginger’. Some of my big hunk of root was tough and stringy which meant some pieces were like chewing tobacco including the spitting part :-0. Mind you, if all that’s on offer is the usual ginger, use the softer smaller pieces only.

- leaving the tougher ginger to simmer a little longer in the syrup does not help. It resulted in the syrup becoming too thick and when it dried was coated in sugar (like snow … but not the ‘look’ I was going for).

• 250g ginger, thinly sliced
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups sugar

1. Boil the ginger in water for 10 mins, drain, rinse and repeat.
2. Combine the water and sugar over medium heat stirring until the sugar is dissolved.
3. Add the ginger and allow to barely simmer for 1 hour bringing temp slowing up to 106c.
4. Remove the ginger slices carefully (but quickly) and dry on a wire rack.
5. Once dry, toss them in granulated sugar and store in an airtight container.

I will try this again and update with any more ‘tips’ because €1.78 worth of root ginger yields a lot of candied ginger.

Caramelised White Chocolate

After reading an encouraging and inspiring post from Fig Jam and Lime Cordial, I decided it was time to experiment with the recipe David Lebovitz posted on Caramelised White Chocolate. He came upon the recipe/technique when studying at the Valrhona school. I say recipe/technique because can this really be a recipe if there is only one (yes ONE) ingredient, that is White Chocolate ?

I wouldn’t be the world’s greatest white chocolate fan but this caramelisation process intrigued me. With a ‘Nothing ventured, nothing gained’ approach I followed his steps and the end result was amazing. The interim results were frightful, ugly, dried out, mottled, yuck … but I remained patient determined that this white chocolate would transform into something resembling runny smooth peanut butter.

My patience paid off. Finally a really really good reason for buying white chocolate! I would not put this before a bittersweet chocolate sauce but it is rather good (as Daddy Pig would say) drizzled over pancakes. It’s like a very good runny vanilla fudge.

My notes for the future:

- preheat to 120C

- spready 12oz white chocolate (Belcolade Blanc 29.5%) on a baking tray

- stir every 10mins until it looks like peanut butter in color

- err on the side of caution and bake for longer rather than higher temp. My batch took 1hr 20 mins to reach that golden brown color. It may take under an hour depending on the oven, chocolate etc.

- even if the mixture dries out in the oven, stirring in the tray will bring it back to a runny consistency

- it will solidify once stored and look awful but the magic microwave will return it to golden runny sauce