Chocolate-Encased Mint Truffles

I made a batch of mint truffles at home to give to some family friends, and also to share with my family. My 5-year-old niece got involved, helping me break apart chocolate, and mixing in the cream.

For the family friends, I did not have time to coat them. In fact, I only barely managed to roll them in cocoa powder, they were so soft. My niece didn't like them coated, as the cocoa powder is pretty bitter, so she just ate the filling.

With the 2nd half of the batch, I tried to make them last a little longer, so I tried to temper chocolate for the first time. By the time my chocolate was tempered, the filling was no longer holding shape. By then, I was too tired to start over, so I just scooped portions of filling and dropped it into the chocolate. The whole thing was then laid on a sheet of baking paper. When all the filling was covered, I rolled them in cocoa powder.

Mint Chocolate Truffles

I like watching cooking videos on Youtube, and I once went on a Gordon Ramsay spree. In a two-part video, he made mint chocolate truffles with his children. Those are what I tried to make for my friends and to give to the staff of a tea house where my friend works.

The video doesn't give the proportions of ingredients, so I got them off Good to Know. I did change a few proportions myself, but more on that in the recipe below. For a few ingredients (butter, sweeteners), I simply eyeballed the amount. I also used as much chocolate as I had, and scaled down the rest of the ingredients based on that.

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RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 500 g dark chocolate, chopped
• 500 mL heavy cream
• 1 small bunch fresh mint
• 100 g butter, softened
• honey/brown sugar, to taste
• unsweetened cocoa powder

  Procedure

1. Lightly bruise the bunch of mint to release its fragrance. Put it in a pot with the cream.
2. Heat over medium-low heat until bubbling.
3. In a heat-proof bowl, put chocolate and butter.
4. When the cream bubbles, mix in sweetener.
5. Strain hot cream into the chocolate. Mix until chocolate is melted and smooth.
6. Pour in a wide, dish. Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate at least 1 hour.
7. When cold, take teaspoonfuls out, roll into balls, and drop in a plate of cocoa powder. Roll around to coat.
8. Eat within 3-4 days.

Christmas 2014 Gifts

Whew! Now that I am done posting all the stuff I baked during the semester, when I was too busy to post, it's time to post recent baking!

Like for a couple of the past years (2011 and 2013), I made little pack of baked goods to give out as gifts for Christmas. As usual, procrastination prevailed and I started on the evening of the 23rd of December.

I started out by making the dough for cookies. I had made these cookies a couple of weeks ago, and they're easy enough to make, and since Christmas baking means making a lot of cookies, I opted for these cookies.

A lot of rolling out, cutting with an emptied can of tomato concentrate, and baking later, I ended up with some 195 cookies. These were the first things in the little bags of goods.

I then made some chocolate cakes (white and dark) for another cake that I will post later. With the leftover scraps, I made little cake truffles, mixing cake crumbs with chocolate ganache. I rolled them in some desiccated coconut (and the white cake ones have coconut mixed inside as well).

I wrapped these in some cellophane film to keep them from moistening the cookies when in the little package. The dark choc ones were made after Christmas, so they only got added to the later packets.

Cake Pops and Apple Tart

September 16, 2013
For a family get-together, I made cake pops (using crumbs made from the leftover cupcakes from the friends' visit, cream cheese, chocolate, and crushed almonds), and an apple tart.

The cake pops were a great success! The last time I made cake truffles, I found them way too sweet, what with the cake crumbs, the frosting, and the chocolate. This time, in anticipation, I lowered the amount of sugar in the cake recipe, and using cream cheese also brought down the level of sweetness. Using toasted sliced almonds that I crushed to smaller pieces helped to even out the flavor.

Birthday Cupcakes and Truffles

June 9, 2013

June 8th was the birthday of someone who is very important to me. I wanted to give her something special, but had no chance to make anything intricate. So I settled for cupcakes. The recipe for the cake is this basic vegan cake recipe (it's almost my go-to recipe for cakes nowadays), except without the matcha. I made some large cupcakes as well as some mini ones.

The frosting is the same as well, except that I tried to give it a slight strawberry flavor by mixing in some strawberry jam. The difference in moisture content (as well as a lack of time resulting in insufficient cooling of the mixture) led to it having a weird, almost unmixed aspect >.<

Some of the mini cupcakes fell apart when I tried to take them out of the silicone mold, so I thought I would try to make some impromptu cake truffles that I've read about on so many blogs. I put the broken cupcakes in a blender to turn it into cake crumbs, and mixed in leftover frosting to make it stick together. I formed little balls, stuck toothpicks in them, then dipped them in melted chocolate.

I had a few issues with the cake balls not staying on the toothpick while dipping in the chocolate. After looking it up, it would seem that it's best to refrigerate the uncoated truffles before dipping them. It will be worth trying another time (with maybe less sugar in the cake/frosting mix).

For the end result, I packed a couple of large cupcakes with a few of the mini ones, and a bunch of truffles, into an aluminum pan (kind of like those that pre-cooked lasagna comes in at the store, because that's all I had), decorated it all, and gave it as a present, with a card.