Chocolate truffles

These chocolate bites are very easy to make. I experimented with them yesterday, and the end result came out pretty good, for a first attempt. The main idea is mixing chocolate with cream to make a ganache, add some flavor or liquor, and then mold it into bite-sized chunks after it starts solidifying. Flavoring can be whatever, I've seen recipes that use orange zest, sweet liquors like cherry liquor or Grand Marnier, mint (yuck), even whisky!

In my case, whisky-flavored truffles were out of the question--why waste a nice single malt by mixing it with anything? So, as I didn't have any sweet liquor or zest, I decided to use vanilla and honey to flavor the truffles.

1. A bar of dark chocolate
   
2. A bit of crème fraîche (about 5 tbsp)
3. A bit of butter (1 tbsp)
4. Honey (about 1 tbsp)
5. Vanilla (1 tsp extract)

First, chop the chocolate in a bowl.
Then melt it in a bain-marie or carefully in the microwave, with the butter. Add the honey, vanilla and crème, and stir until smooth.


Put it in the fridge for a few hours, until it sets a bit. It thickens without hardening, and becomes like moldable plastic, in texture.Then, with two teaspoons, make small bite-size pieces, scraping one teaspoon with the other, and roll them in cocoa powder. You can also use confectioner's sugar, but I didn't have any.
Put them in the fridge again, until they harden a bit more (they'll still be soft).

Enjoy. They are good with a bitter espresso.

See you all soon!

Happy new year!

Hello everyone, and a happy new year! I'm back from the break, 4 kilos heavier. I went home for the holidays, but unfortunately I didn't cook at all there, so no new cooking posts yet. I started with all the good intentions, planning to cook a lot and post a lot of recipes, but I hadn't counted on one factor: proximity to mothers' food. So, instead of cooking a lot, I was just eating a lot, for almost two weeks.

I'm back for almost a week, and believe it or not, I haven't cooked yet, still eating the food I brought with me from home... So, I'll try to do the next best thing, and list some of the things I had during the break, that I'm going to try and replicate in the future:

1. Stuffed pumpkin with chestnuts, pinenuts, rice, minced meat, pulled chicken, raisins, various herbs and spices (I couln't tell all of them), melted cheese, dried plums and probably other stuff that I've forgotten now. It was unbelievable.
2. Lamb fricassée with wild bitter greens.
3. Grandma's leek-pita (of course with home-made fyllo).
4. Slow-roasted beef with dried plums, cooked for a few hours in a cast iron pot in a wood-oven (and other roasts in the wood-oven).
5. Eggplant and tomato-wrapped pork "bites" with melted cheese on top.
6. Soufflé with cheeses.
7. Stuffed turkey.

No wonder I gained weight... I still feel like I won't be hungry for some time.