Friday, September 2, 2011

The Daring Kitchen, Challenge #1

Hey guys! So earlier this August N&A decided to join this super duper website called The Daring Kitchen, which is basically a site for super enthusiastic bakers and cooks to join up and do a "challenge" in their perspective field of expertise, you know, cooking or baking. Being the baker, N decided to join these fancy escapades and do their fancy challenges!! She wanted to find new and exciting recipes and different types of desserts to make :) The first challenge, and so far only challenge, N&A got to attempt together! and it was........
Making Your Own Candy!!!!
Now neither N nor A had made candy before, minus the occasional fudge (which even then was a little bit iffy). So this challenge was going to be a bit hard for us. We first started out by coming up with what kind of candy, because one had to be a chocolate candy, and the second could be whatever kind of candy you wanted. So we decided to make chocolate truffles!! A little bit of a stretch for the non-candy makers, but we tried anyways. 
Flavor wise we went with dark chocolate-mint truffles, white chocolate with Grand Marnie, and dark chocolate with Kahlua and pecans. Sooo delicious in the flavor combinations!! So to do these truffles we made a chocolate ganache, flavored it with however much flavor we deemed the right amount (probably too much haha), let it sit out and set up (which it didn't really set up so they were very goopy), and then roll into balls and dip in chocolate coating! It sounds so simple! But really, we had some issues!! But they still tasted delicious, even if they weren't super pretty!!



Ingredients for Ganache:
1 ¾ cup (9 oz/250 gm) Dark/Bittersweet Chocolate, finely chopped
2/3 cup (5 oz / 160 ml) Double/Heavy Cream (36% - 48% butterfat)
OR
1 ¾ cup (9 oz/250 gm) Milk Chocolate, finely chopped
1/2 cup (4 oz / 120 ml) Double/Heavy Cream (36% - 48% butterfat)
OR
1 ¾ cup (9 oz/250 gm) White Chocolate, finely chopped
¼ cup (2 oz / 60 ml) Double/Heavy Cream (36% - 48% butterfat)
For flavoring, add about 2-4 TBS. of your choice!

Instructions:
1. Finely chop or grate the chocolate
2. Place in a heatproof bowl
3. In a saucepan, heat cream until just about to boil (it will start bubbling around the edges of the pot)
4. Pour the cream over the chocolate
5. Gently stir the mixture until all the chocolate has melted and it is smooth
Tip: If you end up with pieces of chocolate that won’t melt, put the bowl over simmering water (but not touching the water) and stir gently until it’s all melted
Tip: Be careful if you do need to heat it over simmering water, if the mixture gets too hot it will split and you’ll end up with gooey chocolate swimming in oil, so don’t overheat the ganache, steam from a gentle simmer is all you need.
6. Stir in your desired flavorings
Mixing the chocolate and the hot cream!
Kahlua dark chocolate pecan mixture!

dark chocolate mint!

white chocolate grand marnier mix!
All 3 delicious creations!!



Truffle Instructions:
1. Allow the ganache to firm up in a container of choice, preferably deep rather than shallow
2. Using a teaspoon or melon baller, scoop up room temperature ganache
3. With gloved hands, roll the balls between your palms to round them off
4. Dip in tempered chocolate or roll in various ingredients like cocoa or chopped nuts as desired
Tip: If dipping in chocolate, it’s best to refrigerate the ganache balls before dipping so that they’re firm and don’t melt from the warm chocolate
Tip: For a thicker chocolate shell, dip once in tempered chocolate and allow to set. Then do a second dipping or smear a small amount of chocolate over the truffle and roll in desired ingredients
5. Place on parchment paper until set

Dark-Chocolate Mint Truffles
Dark Chocolate Pecan and Kahlua Tuffles


 Now for our second candy we went ahead and made more chocolate, since we're both chocolate fanatics :) We decided to make chocolate 'bowls' and fill them with various flavored mousse's. We made 3 bowls, one chocolate, one white chocolate, and one marbled. We then made 2 types of mousse's, cinnamon and nutmeg mousse and a peanut butter mousse. We topped the cinnamon mousse bowls with fresh fruit and a chocolate design, then the peanut butter mousse with just a chocolate design! Now to make these we just used a template from Micheal's and heavy cream to make the mousse, so we don't have a recipe! But it's super easy! And super delicious!!! Enjoy! =D
All 3 bowls, peanut butter in the middle :)
Cinnamon Mousse Chocolate Bowls

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