Venue: Soho House, West Hollywood

truffles

went to a Honing Your Hosting event last night, anticipating the holidays and curious about their tips to improve upon my themed endeavors. first station was homemade truffles.

ingredients

as opposed to the soft consistency of the chocolate base from the rum balls i had recently made (i blame the sour cream) – the base they started us out with just had equal parts chocolate (dark) and cream. this made for candies that held their form nicely during the rolling process and had a uniform looking final product.

step: chop up chocolate into small pieces and put into a bowl. pour warm cream over it – off of heat and stir to combine. at this point when you’re adding in the hot cream you can apparently add in a splash of a booze of your liking. the combined mixture is chilled and then scooped into small amounts to be rolled – wear latex gloves.

topping

dip chilled chocolate balls into plain melted chocolate – they did this using a toothpick which made it easy to shake off the excess. sprinkle on edible gold leaf for super fancy looking truffles. or roll in chopped nuts (they had pistachios and walnuts on hand), graham cracker crumbs mixed with some melted chocolate (to form a crumble), cocoa nibs or cocoa powder. the coating of chocolate hardens nicely after you let the candies sit for a bit after rolling.

drinks

since my preference was (and is always) the champagne tasting portion i just watched and learned how to make the featured drink – Grey Goose La Poire Almond Froth.

Ingredients:
1 and 1/2 parts Grey Goose La Poire Flavored Vodka
1/2 part brandy
1 part unsweetened almond milk
3/4 part agave nectar

in cocktail shaker filled with ice add all ingredients and shake vigorously. strain into glass and garnish with freshly grated nutmeg. happy entertaining.