Calling all chocoholics and coffee addicts!

Chocolate and coffee have always been BFFs, so it was a no brainer what to make for my husband's birthday, who cannot get up in the morning without a cup of coffee. Well he will get up, but his brain is left behind somewhere curled up in a bed upstairs.

A small sugar fix in the morning is also right up his alley, so I came up with this super easy recipe for a treat that combines both. Soooo I didn't really invent something special, since this is just dark chocolate ganache with coffee, but still ... these were actually my beginnings or better yet beginnings of a blog, which I started a little over a year ago (the original one, where I write in my language).

If you disregards the time that it takes for the ganache to thicken, it takes 10 minutes to make these small bites - 5 minutes to make the ganache and 5 minutes to form the truffles.

For approx. 20 truffles:

100 ml cream
200 g dark chocolate
3 tsp instant coffee
bitter cocoa

Chop chocolate in small chunks and put it into a bowl. Pour your cream into a small pot and heat it up to boiling point ( do not boil it), remove from stove and mix in instant coffee until it has completely dissolved. Pour the cream over the chocolate and let it sit for a few minutes.

Mix the cream and chocolate until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is completely smooth. If not, heat it in a microwave for additional 15 - 30 seconds and mix until there are no hard pieces of chocolate left.

Cover the mixture with a foil, so that the foil touches the mixture. By doing so you prevent the mixture from crusting and then you don't end up with hard chocolate pieces in your truffles. You will loose a bit of the ganache when you peel of the foil, but it is really a small amount and I wouldn't worry about it. It is much nicer to have an even smooth mixture that lets in your mouth. Leave the mixture on a counter overnight or if you are in a hurry stick it in a fridge, but it will not thicken evenly as it would on a counter. It will become harder on the edge of the bowl and stay softer in the middle, so I would mix it a couple of times during cooling; you do not need to mix it, if you leave it on the counter. Leaving it overnight also has the added benefit that the coffee flavour can develop over time. You will taste the coffee much more the next day than when you initially mix it in, so don't overdo it.

When the mixture has thickened, you can it into truffles. You will know it is thick enough, when you can spoon a bit in your hand and form it into a ball shape. It won't thicken so much that you can form a perfect ball, but you can certainly make a ball like shape, kinda more rustic looking. If it does not want to thicken enough, put it in the fridge for a bit and try again. Roll the truffles in bitter cocoa. You can also use sweet cocoa, but the bitter one goes so much better with the coffee mixture.

If there are any left that need storing (not likely ... :) ), store them in the fridge, but leave them at a room temperature before serving again.

balls bites chocolate cocoa coffee dark chocolate ganache pralines truffles

junij 12, 2016

It happens sometimes that you are left with an ingredient from a different recipe, which may be quite specific. The other day I had some condensed milk lying around from making key lime pie. While condensed milk may be more common in American kitchens, we don't use it that much in European kitchens. Well at least I don't ... not to anger any Europeans who may be more familiar with it :)

I made raffaello balls before, but it was a long time back and I only remember that the main ingredient was powdered milk. Given that I don't normally stock powdered milk (hell I wouldn't even know where to look for it in a supermarket) I decided to try my own version of these sweet coconut bites.

I knew that if you mix powdered milk, confectioners sugar and water, you actually get a homemade version of condensed milk, so it shouldn't be that difficult to recreate something similar. In the spirit of experimentation I went through my kitchen and found some white chocolate, which helps everything stick together.

For 14 bites:

10 g butter

80 g condensed milk

80 g white chocolate

60 g grated coconut + a little extra for rolling the balls

Melt butter in a pan over the stove or in a microwave and ad to the condensed milk. Melt white chocolate in a microwave or in a double broiler.

Mix contents of both bowls together. The mixture will become very thick, actually it will seize, but this time it is ok (in any other case, seized chocolate will give me nightmares). Add coconut, mix well and let cool in a fridge for about 30 minutes.

Take the cooled mixture, form little balls and roll them around in leftover coconut. Work quickly, since the longer you handle the balls, the stickier the mixture will get. Store them in a fridge (if there is any leftover). Even though in the end they do not taste anything like raffello, mine were gone in an instant.

balls bites chocolate coconut rafaelo raffaello white chocolate

junij 09, 2016