Creamy Cold Chocolate: Frozen Chocolate Mousse Truffles

I decided to make several frozen items for our holiday party this year, mostly so I could cut down on the amount of baking work I would have to do. One of the items on the frozen menu was a frozen chocolate mousse truffle, a recipe I chose because it could be made up to a month in advance.

The centers of these truffles are essentially a frozen custard. You whisk hot cream into a mixture of sugar and egg yolks, heat the mixture until it's thickened, and then incorporate chocolate and amaretto. You freeze the mixture for several hours, until it is firm enough to shape. When it's firm, you shape the truffle centers (I used a #60 scoop) and roll them in chopped toasted almonds.

I was delighted at how well these kept in the freezer. The centers have the dense but creamy texture of a good chocolate gelato, and they were not too hard to eat, even straight out of the freezer. They also maintained their shape well, and could be kept at room temperature for a decent amount of time without melting. The flavor of the center was a lusciously rich chocolate, with a touch of amaretto. The toasted almonds on the outside added the perfect bit of crunch.

These truffles are quite easy to make, and it's amazing to me that the centers have such a wonderfully creamy texture without the need to turn the custard in an ice cream maker. To me, these truffles are better than a comparable non-frozen chocolate truffle, because of the beautiful texture of the centers. Plus, you can't beat a recipe that can be made well in advance and stored in the freezer, so that you can just pull out some truffles whenever company stops by... or whenever you're in the mood for a cold creamy treat!

Recipe: "Frozen Chocolate Mousse Truffles," from epicurious.com.

More Bacon Makes Everything Better: Bacon and Cashew Caramel Corn

As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I tried out quite a few caramel popcorn recipes to decide which variety I would serve at our holiday party. In the end, the choice was easy -- Colt & Gray's recipe for Bacon and Cashew Caramel Corn earned rave reviews, and I love the fact that it offers something different from a standard caramel corn recipe.

To make this caramel corn, you cook some chopped bacon, drain and cool it, and toss the bacon along with the popcorn, cashews, salt, and cayenne pepper. You then pour on some caramel that is made from sugar, water, corn syrup, cream, and oolong tea (you basically steep an oolong tea bag in the cream before adding the cream to the caramel). After a little time in the oven and some stirring to make sure that all of the popcorn is nicely coated, you cool the caramel corn and break it up into chunks.

I've made this caramel corn a few times, with several minor adjustments to the recipe. First, based on comments in several of the recipe reviews, I doubled the amounts of both the bacon and the cashews, and I also used toasted cashews instead of raw nuts. The first time I made the caramel corn, I decided that there wasn't enough caramel to coat all of the popcorn, and for subsequent batches I made 150% of the caramel recipe. Finally, through all of my caramel corn making experiences, I have discovered that no matter which recipe I'm working with, it's much easier to put the popcorn (and whatever other ingredients are required) directly into my large nonstick turkey roasting pan, and to pour the caramel over the popcorn in the pan. The high sides of the roasting pan make it easy to deal with a lot of popcorn (I can make double batches of this recipe, for instance), and the nonstick surface makes it unnecessary to line the pan with parchment or foil.

This caramel corn is awesome. The cayenne gives it a strong spicy kick, and the bacon and cashews contribute loads of flavor and texture. In particular, when the bacon is coated with the caramel, it is a crunchy bit of candied salty-sweet heaven. I seriously considered skipping the popcorn and just serving candied bacon at our party, because it is so tasty. Founding Farmers restaurant in D.C. offers cinnamon-brown sugar glazed "bacon lollies" as an appetizer; I think the caramel-covered bacon in this popcorn is even better.

This caramel corn definitely has a more adult flavor profile than the run-of-the-mill variety, especially because of the spice from the cayenne. I know some people feel that bacon is becoming overly trendy these days, but its contribution to this caramel corn is nothing short of inspired.

Recipe: "Bacon and Cashew Caramel Corn," from Colt & Gray, available on epicurious.com.

Previous Post: "Break Out the Holiday Tins: Caramel Popcorn with Peanuts and Chocolate," December 10, 2011.

Ipso Fatto Instant Photos and Update: Springerle

After my first attempt at making springerle last month turned out to be a success, I made another batch with some smaller (and more practical) molds I bought from House on the Hill, an "Oval Lilly of the Valley" mold (I also bought a custom oval cutter so that I wouldn't have to cut out ovals freehand!), and a rectangular elephant mold. I painted the elephants with some gold luster dust, and was quite pleased with the way that both turned out.

Tom and I also just tried the lemon springerle I baked over six weeks ago and had stashed away so I could see how they would taste after they aged a bit. Springerle are supposed to improve with age, and in fact, many recipes specify that an aging period is required before the springerle are edible. Right after baking, I thought that the springerle were delicious -- firm, but not overly dry, and I loved the strong lemon flavor. After six weeks, I didn't like the cookies at all. They were much, much drier (it took considerable effort to break off a piece of cookie to taste, which was not a problem I had when they were freshly baked), and the bright lemon flavor had faded considerably. Tom, on the other hand, said that he really liked the aged cookies and preferred their drier texture. 

I'm just going to have to disagree with Tom on this one. I think I will stick to serving these springerle freshly made, or at least within a week or two of baking.  

Recipe: "Nini's Perfection Springerle Cookies" from House on the Hill.

Previous Post: "The Wait Is Just Beginning: Springerle," November 13, 2011.

This Dessert is a Ball: Pistachio Marzipan Truffles

I'm happy to report that the menu Tom and I came up with for our holiday party last weekend worked out wonderfully! I took the easy route with baked goods, limiting the baking mostly to familiar recipes that I have made many times before -- snickerdoodles, salted chocolate chip cookies, salted caramel brownies, ginger chip cookies, and faux-reos. (I did make one new cake recipe, but I'll post about that later!) Keeping the baking responsibilities simple gave me enough time to try out a bunch of new recipes for the party, including some hot hors d'oeuvres (bacon bites and sausage and feta phyllo triangles for the meat eaters; Dorie Greenspan's easy mustard batons for the vegetarians), a selection of frozen sweets (frozen chocolate mousse truffles, frozen pumpkin mousse with walnut-toffee crunch, and frozen mocha rum parfaits), and a recipe I picked out from Nick Maglieri's Chocolate cookbook: pistachio marzipan truffles.

I chose this recipe not only because the truffles can be made up to a week in advance and stored at room temperature (refrigerator and freezer space are valuable commodities in the days leading up to and during the party), but also because the headnote describes the truffles as a "pared-down version of a rich Viennese confection called a Mozartkugel." I love Mozartkugel. Eleven years ago when I first started working as a lawyer in D.C., my co-workers introduced me to Cafe Mozart, located just a block away from our office. The deli associated with the restaurant stocks an excellent selection of German chocolate, including Mozartkugel ("Mozart ball") by Reber.

The Reber Mozartkugel I am accustomed to (there are other companies that manufacture Mozartkugel, with varying recipes) is described on the company's website as a confection "filled with pistachio marzipan made out of fresh green pistachios, almonds and hazelnut nougat enrobed with delicious milk chocolate and plain chocolate." The Nick Maglieri stripped-down version is a chocolate ganache center, surrounded by pistachio marzipan, coated in chocolate, rolled in chopped pistachios.

The chocolate ganache center is made by bringing whipping cream to a boil, whisking it into chopped chocolate, and then adding almond extract, butter, and corn syrup. You cool the mixture to 80 degrees, or until thickened. For the pistachio marzipan, you grind pistachios in the food processor until reduced to a paste, and then add in almond paste, powdered sugar, and corn syrup; you knead the resulting dough until smooth. You divide the marzipan into several pieces, form each piece into a long rope that you flatten to about 2 inches wide, pipe a strip of chocolate ganache along the length of the marzipan, and then bring the edges of the marzipan up around the chocolate and pinch it closed so that you end up with a long tube of marzipan with ganache in the center. You cut the tube into pieces, roll each piece into a ball, and then dip the truffle centers into chocolate and roll them in chopped pistachios.

I had significant difficulty working with the marzipan -- it was dry and quite crumbly, so it required a lot of brute force to enclose the ganache in the middle. The centers of these truffles ended up being more of a mottled mixture of ganache and marzipan, instead of a chocolate center neatly surrounded by marzipan. But no matter, once I dipped the truffles in chocolate and coated them in pistachios, all imperfections were hidden from view. These truffles kept beautifully at room temperature.

I loved these. If you're a fan of pistachios and almonds and chocolate, there's nothing not to like. The truffles are rich, flavorful, and have a wonderful mix of textures - smooth ganache, chewy marzipan, firm chocolate coating, and crunchy pistachios. They did end up being much more work than I had anticipated, due to the difficulty of working with the marzipan. But it was worth it!

Recipe: "Pistachio Marzipan Truffles," from Chocolate: From Simple Cookies to Extravagant Showstoppers, by Nick Maglieri.

Previous Post: "The Best Things Come in Small Packages: Chocolate-Pistachio Marzipan Spirals," November 1, 2010.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Buckeyes

This week's assignment for Baked Sunday Mornings is a recipe that I made a few months ago and didn't have time to make again -- buckeyes.  You can read my prior post about them here.  The bottom line is that I thought they were pretty terrific.

Recipe: "Buckeyes," from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.

Previous Post: "Long Live Peanut Butter and Chocolate!: My Own Buckeye Battle Cry," May 19, 2011.

Break Out the Holiday Tins: Caramel Popcorn with Peanuts and Chocolate

A few weeks ago, I got the idea to serve caramel popcorn at our upcoming holiday party; it seemed like it would be festive addition to the menu. I'm not sure when or why caramel popcorn became such a popular holiday gift, but when I was growing up, I used to love the ubiquitous holiday tins of popcorn -- usually divided into thirds, with buttered, cheese, and caramel popcorn -- that materialized at our house each Christmas. I've never made caramel popcorn before, so I bought a hot air popper and some popcorn, and lined up a few recipes to try.

I've tried five caramel corn recipes in the last week (and unfortunately I have the caramel burns to prove it). Three were relatively straightforward, and while they all produced tasty caramel corn, I wouldn't say that they were anything to write home about: this recipe from the 1991 Los Angeles Times (which the newspaper declared one of its top ten recipes for 1991); a Gourmet recipe for caramel corn clusters; and a Gourmet recipe for maple caramel corn (as this recipe requires 12 oz. of maple syrup for every eight cups of popcorn, making the quantities of popcorn I would require for our party would be insanely expensive). However, two other caramel corn recipes were particularly noteworthy, one of which was the recipe for "Caramel Popcorn with Peanuts and Chocolate" from Baked Explorations.

This recipe is scaled to produce a lot of popcorn -- 24 cups! -- but I happen to think that's fantastic. To make the caramel, you heat butter, dark brown sugar, corn syrup, and molasses on the stove until it reaches 240 degrees. Then you take it off the heat, stir in salt, baking soda, and vanilla, and pour the hot syrup over the popcorn in a large roasting pan (I've found my large nonstick turkey roasting pan to be hugely helpful in caramel popcorn production), add in some peanuts, and stir to coat the popcorn and peanuts with the caramel. You bake the popcorn at 250 degrees for 15 minutes, stir it to make sure it's evenly coated, bake it for another 20 minutes, and then take it out and spread the popcorn on lined sheet pans to cool for a bit. Then you drizzle over tempered chocolate (you are supposed to use both milk chocolate and dark chocolate, but I went for dark only), and once the chocolate sets, you can break up the popcorn into chunks.

This popcorn is beautiful and very tasty -- sweet, nutty, chocolately, crunchy -- and the chocolate makes it positively decadent. Also, I tasted the popcorn before I drizzled on the chocolate, and the caramel in this recipe is outstanding. It was deeply flavorful, and it definitely stood out from the caramel in the other popcorn recipes I mentioned above.

However, having to temper the chocolate is a huge, time-consuming pain. Plus, the chocolate melts onto your fingers while you eat it, making it a bit messy (I couldn't help having visions of little kids wiping their chocolate-stained fingers all over my living room furniture). So, while this popcorn would make a fantastic holiday gift and I would happily make it again, I don't think it's the right recipe for our holiday party. And as I alluded to above, I found another caramel corn recipe that is quite special... stay tuned, I hope to post about it next week!

Recipe: "Caramel Popcorn with Peanuts and Chocolate," from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito.

Baked Sunday Mornings: Baked French Toast

A few weeks ago when we were in Shenandoah, it was the perfect opportunity to make the baked French toast from Baked Explorations -- since folks tend to sleep late when we're at the cabin, it's great that you can make this recipe the night before and just pop it in the oven in the morning. I doubled the recipe and made it in a 9-inch by 13-inch pan, using challah. You arrange slices of bread in a buttered pan, and then pour over a mixture of eggs, half-and-half, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon, letting the mixture soak overnight. The recipe says that in the morning, you should turn over each slice of bread to make sure that it's fully coated in the liquid. But my soaked challah was so soft that it was too fragile to turn. So, I just put the pan in the oven (skipping the step of adding sliced almonds because of a nut allergy), and baked it for 35 minutes.

While the French toast was in the oven, I made the raspberry sauce, which is simply raspberries cooked with sugar until they break down, strained, with a little bit of fresh lemon juice added in. I drizzled all of the sauce and some fresh raspberries over the pan of French toast before serving. 

My slices of challah were all stuck together after baking, so instead of trying to separate out the individual slices for serving, I just cut the pan into rectangular slices, like it was a cake. The slices came out of the pan cleanly, with no sticking. I thought that this French toast was delicious. It was ultra creamy and had a lovely soft, custardy texture. Also, the raspberry sauce was outstanding, beautifully tart-sweet and brightly flavorful. No need for maple syrup here!

Best of all, this baked French toast was much easier to make than the pan-fried variety, and being able to assemble it the night before was a huge benefit. I would happily make this again, anytime!  

Recipe: "Baked French Toast," from Baked Explorations: Classic American Desserts Reinvented, by Matt Lewis and Renato Poliafito, recipe available here at Baked Sunday Mornings.