Tag Archives: chocolate

Dried Cherry, Chocolate, Pistachio Nougat

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Soundtrack: Pursuit of Happiness, Kid Cudi

finished nougat

Supplies:
standing mixer
measuring cups/spoons
spatula
silpat lined baking sheet
candy thermometer

Ingredients:
1 large egg whites, room temperature
1/8 tsp kosher salt
1 and 1/3 c sugar
1/2 c honey
2 Tbs water
roasted pistachios
chocolate covered dried cherries
rice paper or wafer paper

ingredients

roasted pistachios

chocolate covered dried cherries

chop up whatever you decide to put into nougat – i had a scant half cup of pistachios and some chocolate covered dried cherries on hand i figured would be a nice combo.

cooking

combine sugar, honey and water in saucepan. mix to combine and increase heat. cook until syrup reaches 252 degrees.

mixing

in standard mixer with whisk attachment beat egg white and salt on medium high until foamy. with mixture running add in syrup and continue to beat.

whisked

whip up into a light fluffy mixture.

mix-ins

add in pistachios and chocolate covered dried cherries

mixed

stir to combine.

spreading

spread onto waver paper and top with another sheet. let cool for about two hours.

cutting

cut into pieces with serrated knife

noms

Lessons Learned:

  • it’s hard to whip up just one egg white in a standing mixer. not sure if i should have used a hand mixer to start since the final nougat mixture didn’t seem to whip up into a fluffy base, but it still worked
  • i should have spread more mixture in between the wafer paper. the ratio tasted a bit off and i would have preferred more nougat to wafer.
  • the kitchen store i went to didn’t have rice paper which i think would have worked much better than the wafer paper since the wafer paper is a bit thick.

Review: delicious. i love nougat and the chocolate covered dried cherries and pistachio were great additions. really soft consistency and gorgeous color. would love to make again with rice paper.

mammoth

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Soundtrack: Snow Patrol

noms

off to mammoth for the three day weekend. bought my first pair of snow pants and some other warm clothestuffs. anticipating a greater sledding to skiing ratio, just praying i don’t freeze to death in the meantime…

made some chocolate dipped marshmallows that were leftover from the filming batch. insta-s’mores.

Peanut Butter Cups

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Soundtrack: Sail, AWOLNATION

finished peanut butter cups

Supplies:
3qt saucepan
2qt saucepan
measuring cups/spoons
cooling rack
mini cupcake cups

Ingredients:
2 c milk chocolate chips

2 Tbs shortening
1/2 c butter
1/2 c crunchy peanut butter
1 c powdered sugar
2/3 c crushed graham crackers

ingredients

combine chocolate chips and shortening in saucepan.

melted

melt over medium low heat – turn off heat once melted.

cups

put small spoonful of melted chocolate into cups – swirl around so that it goes up sides of cup, but is still a bit thick on the bottom. place in fridge to harden up.

ingredients

in second saucepan combine peanut butter and butter until melted.

filling

remove from heat and stir in powdered sugar and crushed graham crackers.

filling

once chocolate cups are firmed up add in small amount of peanut butter mixture. flatten with your fingers to form an even layer. top with another layer of melted chocolate and refrigerate until hard.

noms

Lessons Learned:

  • be careful when filling cups with chocolate – the little cups have a tendency to smoosh a bit and loose their perfectly circular shape.
  • silicone molds do not work – aside from my sloppy filling they wouldn’t pop out from the mold even when hardened because the chocolate layer is too thin:

Review: yum yum yum. the small version of these is perfect, i may put more peanut butter mixture in the molds next time around since there was a lot of that left over when compared to chocolate. i made two larger versions of this in proper cupcake sized paper cups which i think turned out pretty good as well – except for the fact that i should have gotten aluminum cups rather than just paper so they would peel out more easily. the idea of using shortening in anything kind of grosses me out, but it really makes for a smooth creamy chocolate.

just can’t get enough.

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champagne macaron

embracing the holiday spirit i agreed to bring a batch of macarons with me to a holiday gathering. still refusing to give up on the champagne extract…and partly due to the fact that i used the remainder of my vanilla extract on the marshmallow recipe…i decided to try champagne macarons filled with dark chocolate ganache. planning on pairing them with copious amounts of champagne amongst friends and loved ones.

Honeycomb (take 2)

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Soundtrack: Charlie Brown Christmas music

finished honeycomb

Supplies:
parchment paper lined baking sheet
3qt saucepan
measuring cups/spoons
whisk

Ingredients:
1/4c honey
1/2c light corn syrup
2c sugar
1/4c water
1 Tbsp baking soda

ingredients

line baking sheet with parchment paper. combine honey, light corn syrup, sugar and water in saucepan.

cooking

bring to boil, washing down sides of pan with pastry brush dipped in water. cook until mixture reaches 300degrees – about 20min.

whisking

remove from heat and whisk in baking soda until entirely combined. this will bubble up pretty quickly so do this over the parchment paper covered baking sheet.

cooling

pour into prepared baking pan and let cool.

noms

break into pieces. dip into melted chocolate if desired.

Lessons Learned:

  • definitely combine baking soda into mixture while holding the pot over the baking sheet to catch overflow.
  • make sure the thermometer is reading accurately.
  • **make sure store in an airtight container

Review: pretty tasty. i overcooked it a little because for some reason my thermometer seemed to read at a lower temperature on the side of the pan where i’d clipped it compared to the middle of the pot. i noticed that the color was getting super dark which is how i figured that the temperature was a lot higher than i thought. still delicious, really crispy which a rich dark caramel taste. and chocolate really does just make everything better.

 

Honeycomb (take 1)

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Screening: Misery

finished honeycomb

 
Supplies:
parchment paper lined baking pan
3qt saucepan
measuring cups/spoons
whisk

Ingredients:
1/2 c sugar
4 Tbs dark corn syrup
1 and 1/2 tsp baking soda

ingredients

line baking sheet with parchment paper. pour sugar and syrup into saucepan.

ingredients

stir to combine – off heat.

cooking

cook – not stirring – over medium heat for about 5 min until sugar mixture boils and bubbles and turns the color of maple syrup. remove from heat and whisk in baking soda until entirely combined.

finishing

pour into prepared baking pan and let cool.

noms

break into pieces. dip into melted chocolate if desired.

Lessons Learned:

  • pour finished mixture into pan quickly, and don’t try to even it out with the whisk because the quickly hardening confection with glom onto everything.

Review: did not like this recipe. the finished product has a weird after taste of baking soda, and after the initial first few light and airy bites the honeycomb starts to stick to your teeth and doesn’t really dissolve. the chocolate was a pretty touch, but doesn’t really address these main concerns. a friend who does not like honeycomb as a general rule did, however, like this confection because it had such a different-than-typical taste. also i find it weird that honey was not an actual ingredient. i will be making an alternate recipe tomorrow.

 

pretzel treats

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Soundtrack: Baby It’s Cold Outside

finished pretzel treats

so i have fond memories of making chocolate/sprinkle covered pretzel rods in the past, and as such decided to use some of my leftover bark toppings to try on the super crispy flat pretzel variety (inspired by the Trader Joes holiday offerings a friend evilly introduced me to…)

inspiration

on some of the flat pretzels i poured the excess toffee topping – then threw in the oven to bake for 6min – and topped with dark and white chocolate drizzles. some i just drizzled with chocolate, no toffee. and then a few i coated completely in chocolate. all varieties were topped with crushed candy canes because, well…tis the season.

they were all delicious but my favorite would be non toffee, all dark chocolate drizzled completely coated ones. salty, crispy, chocolatey pepperminty deliciousness.

noms

Saltine Toffee Bark

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Soundtrack: …And Out Come The Wolves, Rancid

finished saltine toffee bark

 
Supplies:
aluminum foil lined cookie sheet
3qt saucepan
measuring cups/spoons
offset spatula

Ingredients:
1c (2sticks) unsalted butter
1c brown sugar (i used light)
1 to 2c semi-sweet chocolate chips
35 saltine crackers
crushed candy canes

prep

preheat oven to 350degrees. line cookie sheet with aluminum foil. arrange saltine crackers.

boiling

combine butter and brown sugar in saucepan. once mixture is melted and at a boil reduce heat to simmer. simmer 5-6min until mixture is thickened.

cooking

pour onto prepared saltines – slowly and spread with offset spatula so that saltines are entirely covered by toffee mixture.

cooking

place in pre-heated oven, cook for 5-8min until toffee is bubbling.

cooking

bubbling toffee – ready to come out.

topping

sprinkle with chocolate chips. let sit for a few minutes until chips are spreadable. i actually put the cookie sheet back into the oven to make sure that they were good and melty.

topping

spread chocolate evenly. sprinkle crushed candy canes on top – i did half with, half without just for experimenting’s sake.

noms

Lessons Learned:

  • the saltines will move around when you’re pouring on the toffee and again when you are spreading the chocolate – i just smooshed them back together with the offset spatula which seemed to work fine
  • next time i might use a double boiler to melt the chocolate chips and pour that onto the saltines/toffee rather than sprinkle with chips – but just using chips was pretty easy and eliminated that step, so maybe not.

Review: kind of chewy – i’d prefer if the saltines stayed more crunchy, like chocolate covered pretzels (which i actually made with excess toffee mixture and melted chocolate i had on hand…). the peppermint topping cut the sweetness and richness that was so pronounced with the non-peppermint topped confection.

*update: so word is that these should be a bit crunchier – next time i’d cook the butter and brown sugar mixture longer which i think would result in a harder toffee. no temperature guidelines were given in the recipe i used so therein lies the problem, next time i’d attach the thermometer and keep track and adjust accordingly.

**after a few hours in the freezer these turn magical.

Peppermint Bark

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Screening: Elf

finished peppermint bark

 
Supplies:
aluminum foil lined cookie sheet
hand blender/mini food processor
heatproof bowl
3qt saucepan
measuring cups/spoons

Ingredients:
5 whole candy canes
12oz dark chocolate chips
3/4Tbs flaked sea salt (i used Maldon)
12oz white chocolate chips

ingredients

line cookie sheet with aluminum foil. grind up candy canes.

ingredients

simmer water in pot. place glass bowl on top of saucepan, just above simmering water but not touching. slowly melt chocolate chips, stirring constantly just until chips are almost entirely melted. remove from heat and continue to stir until smooth.

cooling

pour onto aluminum foil lined cookie sheet. spread out chocolate into a thin layer with offset spatula.

toppings

sprinkle with sea salt and place tray in fridge to cool for at least 20min.

toppings

melt white chocolate chips in same way as dark chocolate chips. spread on chilled dark chocolate/sea salt. sprinkle with crushed peppermint. chill and break into pieces.

noms

Lessons Learned:

  • definitely use metal offset spatula. it made the process of creating an even, thin layer of chocolate way easier than trying to use silicone spatula.

Review: very, very easy to make. i prefer thin bark but it would have been just as easy to make a thicker bark just by altering how chocolate was spread out. i love the layer of salt on top of the dark chocolate, but that’s my flavor preference.

experimenting with different toppings (crushed pretzels, nuts, mini marshmallows??) would be totally do’able. also would be a quick way to make this candy appropriate for whatever the occasion – st. patricks day: crushed thin mint cookies?, valentines day: crushed red hots? hmmm….

Chocolate Rum Walnut ‘Fudge’

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Screening: The Addams Family, 1991

finished 'fudge'

Supplies:
microwave
microwave safe bowl
8in square pan buttered or lined w/parchment paper
measuring cups/spoons
Ingredients:
butter for pan if buttering
1 (12oz) package semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1/8 c rum (or amaretto, coffee liqueur)
3/4 c walnuts (halves and pieces)

ingredients

line square pan with parchment paper. pour chocolate chips and sweetened condensed milk in microwave safe bowl. measure out rum and walnuts.

microwave chips and milk on high for 1 min 30 sec, remove and stir. put back in and microwave for 1 min 30 sec more. even though for me the chips and milk combined and mixed into a smooth consistency i put it back in for a second heating hoping that would help the fudge firm up. mix in the rum until combined. mix in nuts.

cooling

pour mixture into buttered or parchment lined pan, again make sure when you are pouring that the mixture doesn’t flow over the parchment lining, easy to prevent so long as you are monitoring. let cool – at room temp! – for at least an hour. apparently putting fudge to cool in the fridge produces a grainy consistency so plan accordingly if you are making the fudge last minute for an event/gift.

noms

(attempt to) cut into squares. serve with white chocolate fudge failure #1 topping.

Lessons Learned:

  • the fudge STILL takes longer to harden and is softer than i had anticipated. honestly it doesn’t hold up well enough to cut and serve in a social setting because the heat from your hands warms up the chocolate and it starts to melt over everything.
  • i haven’t given up on fudge yet, i will master this beast.

Review: people seem to love fudge and this is a really sweet boozy nutty version which i think will be an appreciative addition to an office party setting – IF it actually held up. because it really still seems too soft for me to even feel right about touting it as fudge, i have a feeling i will be putting this batch into a jar and calling ‘topping’ as i did with the white chocolate attempt.