Tag Archives: whitechocolate

White Chocolate Cream Eggs

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Soundtrack: Punk Bunny

finished white chocolate cream eggs

Supplies:
saucepan
measuring cups/spoons
spatula
silpat lined baking sheet
wire rack
Ingredients:
1/4 c butter
1 c finely chopped pecans
1 and 1/2 c confectioners sugar
1/3 c sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
8 oz white baking chocolate chips
paste food colorings

chopped pecans

finely chop pecans

candy center

melt butter in saucepan. stir in pecans, sugar, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla. transfer to bowl

chilled filling

chill for 2 to 3 hours

chilled centers

shape mixture into eggs (…decided to go with balls vs. eggs since making mini eggs wasn’t really working out for me) - place on silpat lined baking sheets and refrigerate overnight

dipping

melt white chocolate in bowl set above pot of simmering water. using fork or candy holder carefully dip candy into melted chocolate.

chilling

place on wire rack and allow chocolate to harden

coloring

place small amount of food coloring on paper plate (or plastic container lid). dilute with a bit of water to achieve pastel colors.

speckling

crumple piece of wax paper, dip and carefully blot eggs to decorate.

chilling

allow coloring to set, chill candies

noms

Lessons Learned:

  • the pecan cream filling is pretty rich so i wanted to make smaller sized pieces – especially since they were going to be coated in white chocolate which is suuuper sweet. i thought small ball shapes just made more sense than eggs since every time i tried to make a mini egg it wound up looking round anyways
  • dipping the candies in white chocolate with the round chocolate dipping tool i have resulted in some weird marks when i put the candies down to cool – i let the chocolate harden up some and then re-dipped wonky looking ones for a thicker coat
  • the bottoms of the coated candies stuck to the wire rack while cooling. luckily i still had some melted white chocolate left over so i went back and tried to fill in the gaps

  • wear gloves
  • seriously – this was what the final product was supposed to look like. i like to think mine’ve got character.

perfection

Review: really rich tasting but pretty and festive. i don’t like white chocolate but it’s a sacrifice that has to be made to get the colors to turn out so vibrantly. smooth and melty with little bits of crunch from the pecans. i like them better chilled vs. room temperature. again, i cannot re-itterate enough these are so sweet i can’t imagine eating more than one at a time, if that. maybe if you really like white chocolate…

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

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….

White Chocolate Rum Walnut Topping

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Screening: Twilight Zone, black and white episodes

white chocolate rum walnut topping

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 white chocolate chips
1 (14oz) can sweetened condensed milk
1/4 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. for me the chips and milk combined and mixed into a smooth consistency so i did not have to return it to the microwave to heat it up any more. mix in the rum until combined. mix in nuts.

cooling

i poured my mixture into a parchment lined pan (my friend still has my proper pan following the divinity disaster so i’ve been relying on disposable ones…) because i was still under the assumption that it would harden up into fudge – NOT TRUE. 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.

this is the point at which i discovered my fudge was still super runny and plan b, c, or d’s would need to be employed. i put the ‘fudge’ into the freezer for a while and still no luck.

noms

since i have made hot fudge topping in the past with great success, i figured that this kind of had the same look and feel and would make a good stand in. i/gift recipients could then come up with ideas of ways to use the (still delicious) confection as a topping to all sorts of treats. that decided, i spooned the final product into a jar, slapped a label on it and called it a day.

Lessons Learned:

  • the fudge takes longer to harden and is softer than i had anticipated. it is possible that i added too much rum (shocking assumption i know) but truth be told i stuck to the 1/4 c measurement so maybe the recipe was at fault with this one. were i to make this again i would definitely use less.
  • this recipe does not for a fudge make. period. end of story.

Review: confession - i actually dislike fudge, and dislike white chocolate even more. i decided to make this confection though because it is one of the easiest recipes that i have come across in my scouring of things to make, and it avoids having to mess with boiling sugar or a candy thermometer. it is super quick to throw together and does not require vigilant attention to detail.

all this said, however, it did not deliver on the promised fudge final product. i substituted white chocolate chips for semi-sweet so i also thought that might have been my error, but as my next attempt proves this has nothing to do with the failure. i would have rather attempted a more involved recipe were it to guarantee that i’d wind up with actual fudge.