I know that making cezerye does not involve baking, so it doesn’t count as a part of the Baking Challenge. Therefore, I decided to change the name of my challenge to New Year Dessert Challenge (NYDC), which means I can make more truffles (especially chocolate truffles!) in the following days too.Remember my cezerye trial decades ago? Well, I decided to make cezerye again, but as in the form of a truffle. Also, I didn’t put any nuts inside my cezerye last time. This time, I added chopped hazelnuts, increased the amount of cinnamon and added some ground cloves. Result? Well, I don’t think I need to tell you that!

I also tried to go further and dipped some of the cezerye in chocolate, turning out be an epic fail!! Now you may think how it is possible to fail with something covered in chocolate, but it was really disgusting. I really don’t recommend it. In summary, you can make chocolate-covered cover everything (even chickpeas) but cezerye!

Cezerye Truffles

makes 20 truffles

Ingredients:

- 300 gr (10.6 oz). carrots, finely grated

- 150 gr (5.3 oz.) sugar (I used white sugar, but brown sugar can be better, since it increases the caramel flavor)

- 1 cup water

- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

- 1 teaspoon ground cloves

- a pinch of salt

- 1 to 1 1/2 cups chopped hazelnuts or walnuts

- coconut flakes (to cover)

Directions:

Put the carrots, water, and spices to a large pan and cook over medium heat. When the mixture starts to boil, reduce the heat and let the mixture cook for 45 minutes, or until all the water is absorbed and you get a sticky mixture (for more instructions, see this post).

Take the pan from heat and mix in the nuts. Let the cezerye cool in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

Take the cezerye from the refrigerator and using a spoon, shape 4 cm (2-inch) balls with your hands.

Cover the balls with coconut.

About a month ago, Kitchen Impromptu turned 2! Over the course of these years, I managed to publish 61 posts (62, with this post) even though nobody read my blog. At first, it didn’t really matter to me, because I was just writing for pleasure. But during my busy times, I was not really motivated to write. I know I decided to focus on my blog so many times before, but this time, it will be different. Promise.

To celebrate KI’s second birthday, I made chocolate covered leblebi and raisins. Chocolate covered leblebi (or literally, chocolate-covered chickpeas) may seem an awkward idea, but it is indeed not! All I did was to dip some raisins and leblebi in melted chocolate and let them rest and harden in the refrigerator. Then we ate..

And, as you may have noticed, I am too lazy to take DSLR photos, and use my beloved Hipstamatic instead.

I haven’t been around here for quite a long time.. I wasn’t that busy to write anything, though. I just couldn’t decide about the blog’s future. As I wrote before, I was thinking about opening a Turkish food blog with an emphasis on healthy eating, but couldn’t find a proper name for the blog (or couldn’t find any empty domains for candidate names). Then, after waiting endlessly for an idea to pop into my mind in bathroom or before I sleep (where creative ideas usually come to me) I decided to stop trying to be always creative and perfect, and just open the Turkish blog under kitchenimpromptu domain. So, for Turkish readers, my new blog is tr.kitchenimpromptu.com, until I find a better name.

Other than my new blog, a lot of things and a lot of cooking happened in the last couple of weeks. My cousin got engaged, and most of the food served was homemade by us! My contributions were: hummus, spinach strawberry salad, sweet and salty avocado dressing from Choosing Raw (killer!), strawberry lemonade soda adapted from here (also killer!), chocolate barks, homemade bounties, chocolate covered peanut butter and chocolate covered fudge babies. And a cute cheese plate!

Closeup on table:

Hummus (recipe will come- I promise!):

Spinach strawberry salad was so easy to make; I blended some chopped spinach with chopped strawberries and walnuts, and sprinkled with grated parmesan cheese. For balsamic vinaigrette, I blended 3 parts of olive oil with one 1 part balsamic vinegar, and drizzled over the salad. DELICIOUS:

Sweet and salty avocado dressing:

Strawberry lemonade soda raised some different comments. Some said it was good, and some said I should have used less mineral water. But I do agree that it cannot be called “lemonade”, as in Martha’s recipe, because it was more like a soda with an emphasis on strawberries. I liked the taste, though I’m planning to make a honey sweetened version. And I think the others liked it as well, because there wasn’t any left at the end of the day!:

Wait, there’s more!

Like my cute little cheese plate:

And the dessert table (Notice the baklavas?):

Chocolate barks were a big hit! And they were so easy to make. First, I melted some milk chocolate. Then I spread it onto a tray with parchment paper. After that, I topped the chocolate with chopped hazelnuts, raisins and orange zest. Orange zest is the key to great smelling chocolate barks! Then I chilled the chocolate for 5 minutes in the freezer. Finally, I put a second layer of melted chocolate and chilled for 10 minutes. When the chocolate is completely solidified, I broke them into pieces, and voila! I also made another variation with dark chocolate, pistachios and raisins.

Homemade bounties (recipe coming soon!), chocolate covered peanut butter and chocolate covered fudge babies:

Oh, we ate so much that day. So much that I wasn’t that hungry even the day after!

I also experimented with a lot of recipes. For example, I made Smitten Kitchen’s Light Brioche Burger Buns with some changes. I used honey instead of sugar, reduced the amount of butter and used whole-wheat flour; and I was very pleased! I even made kidney bean burgers with them, but the burgers looked more like bean paste (I should have used an egg and more flour to bind the burgers). And when I decided to make some burger buns for my cousin’s engagement and doubled the recipe, it didn’t work! I must have missed something, but I’ll definitely try again.

I also made Gena’s macaroons, and they were fantastic, but somehow since I used my oven instead of a dehydrator like Gena does, their shapes were not good enough to put in an engagement menu. But I’ll work on that too, because they were so easy to make, so delicious and healthy! And do you know that I made my own shredded coconuts for that recipe? Yay! I don’t know what took me so long to make them, I guess I was skeptical about breaking and shredding coconuts. But if you have a hammer, it’s easy to break the coconut, and I used food processor instead of shredding the coconuts, which made no difference. Then, all you have to do is roasting them in the oven. I strongly recommend making your own shredded coconut, it’s much much better than the things we buy from store.

I hope to write more often. We’ll see..

]]> http://kitchenimpromptu.com/engagement-food-new-blo/feed/ 3 http://kitchenimpromptu.com/leftover-cake-fudge-heart/ http://kitchenimpromptu.com/leftover-cake-fudge-heart/#comments Fri, 25 Mar 2011 14:23:17 +0000 ulya http://kitchenimpromptu.com/?p=973

I made Katie’s Fudge Babies a couple of times, and they make an excellent snack. But those babies are packed with a lot of nuts and dates, which is healthy and at the same time, calorie-dense. Since I don’t have the luxury to eat as many babies as I wish (acne + belly), I decided to “lighten” up the recipe a little bit, and used leftover chocolate cake instead of half the amount of walnuts. What I came up has about 25% less calories than original fudge babies, but is as yummy as they are. To make them even more tastier (and to add more calories, unfortunately) I decorated my fudge hearts with some white chocolate, and it was literally heavenly! So, go ahead and use your leftover cake! And be sure to use white chocolate, if you don’t mind extra 10 calories per serving; because it really fires up the taste.

Fudge Hearts with Leftover Cake

20-25 servings

adapted from Chocolate-Covered Katie

Ingredients:

• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 cup mashed leftover chocolate cake (you don’t need to add any liquid)
• 2 cups pitted dates
• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder (6, if you use non-chocolate cake)
• zest of 1 orange
• melted white chocolate, for decorating

Directions:

Blend everything (except white chocolate) in a food processor.

Shape small balls. If you have chocolate molds, press the fudge into molds and leave them in the freezer for a couple of minutes. This will make the fudge easier to separate from the mold.

Decorate the hearts with some white chocolate.

]]> http://kitchenimpromptu.com/leftover-cake-fudge-heart/feed/ 2 http://kitchenimpromptu.com/homemade-butter-popcorn/ http://kitchenimpromptu.com/homemade-butter-popcorn/#comments Mon, 07 Feb 2011 20:17:38 +0000 ulya http://kitchenimpromptu.com/?p=932

Oh, I’ve been so busy with everything that I couldn’t enter one post. Actually, I was going to post a brownie recipe, but I lost it! I have the photos, but I cannot find my recipe! Ha!

But, there was one thing that doesn’t have a recipe, and that is homemade butter! It’s nothing like those smell-less and taste-less things you buy from the groceries. It’s real butter and super easy to make.

You have three options to make butter. First two are the best ways, but they take longer time. So, there’s a third way for the lazy ones;)

1- (I tried this one) First, you have to buy raw whole milk. Yes, it should come directly from the cow’s boobies! You can search for local suppliers, but make sure that they don’t take away any excess butterfat from the milk. That’s what we use to make butter.

Boil the milk, so any harmful bacteria gets killed. But you know, also the good bacteria gets killed during this process, so if you’re OK with it, you can use the raw milk directly, but I boiled my milk anyway. When the milk boils for good 30 minutes, just take it away from heat let it cool, then chill it in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours.

When you look at your milk bottle, you should be able to see a fat layer at the top. Take this “chilled” butterfat using a scoop and put it into your electric mixer and start to whisk the mixture. You will start to see the butter clumping together. Whisk a little more, and take this “butter clump”, rinse in water to get rid of the excess milk (actually what you’re left is buttermilk). And your homemade butter is ready!

If you don’t have an electrical mixer, you have to use the grandma method. Put the chilled butterfat in a bottle, close the lid, and give it a good shake for about 15 minutes. Work your muscles a bit!

2- This method is similar to the first one, but it gives a different type of butter (I don’t know the name). You use the same electrical mixer (or bottle) method, but instead of butterfat, you use the fat of yogurt. This may sound weird, but in Turkey, when you buy a package of yogurt, it usually has a layer of fat, which is called “kaymak”. So, if you want to make your butter this way, you have to make some homemade yogurt with the milk you just boiled, and then you have to whisk the chilled butterfat of the yogurt.

3- This is the lazy method. Buy some heavy cream, chill it for 6 hours in the refrigerator and whisk it using an electrical mixer. You’ll still get some delicious butter, though!

So, what did I make with my homemade butter?

Fİrst of all, I of course ate some with a bite of bread. Then, I made some whole grain cereal brownies and lost the recipe. Brava!

And today, I made some popcorn! I had recently bought some non-GMO corn kernels, so I used them.

For recipe, just try the grandma version in Simply Recipes. It really works! Instead of oil, I just used my homemade butter, and it worked well. The popcorn tasted really good, if you don’t mind the few burnt ones.

But popcorn is never complete without its best friend: chocolate! For me, they’re one of the best food couples in the world: one bite of salty popcorn and one bite of sweet chocolate, then one bite of salty popcorn again, and it goes on like that! So, I topped the popcorn with some dark-hazelnut chocolate I recently bought from the duty-free. I had never heard of this brand, Starbrook Airlines, but the packaging was cute enough for me to buy it!

So, here’s my after-dinner snack for today. I’ll compensate the extra calories, don’t worry. One less slice of bread and more workout for tomorrow!

So, the New Year has come, which means it’s Gingerbread Cookie Time! There’s a strange tradition in Turkey. As we’re not Christian, we don’t celebrate Christmas or Thanksgiving, but instead we celebrate the New Year’s Eve like it’s Christmas or Thanksgiving. We decorate our houses with Christmas trees, we bake Turkey, and as for me, I bake gingerbread cookies. I try different recipes each year, but until this yesterday, I couldn’t find the perfect one.

I mentioned about the old book I bought from Cuba. Well, it turned out that this book has the most amazing gingerbread cookie recipe ever. It’s originally a chocolate gingerbread men recipe, but you can’t tell it has chocolate in it. Chocolate just gives a concentrated flavor to the cookies and makes them tastier. I really can’t tell how good the cookies were. I don’t think I’ll ever change my recipe again. This is it.

I also wanted to do something little more this year, and made a gingerbread Christmas tree from star-shaped cookies. It’s really easy to make (not like making a gingerbread house) and it definitely impresses your friends!

And finally, I decorated the gingerbread tree with some truffles. I mentioned that before, but making truffles is really easy (but also messy), and you can be creative by adding different liquids. I used some homemade rose water in my truffles, and decorated them with some dried roses and homemade rose sugar. Everybody in the office liked them. Besides, you cannot hate something with rose. It just smells like heaven!

Also, you can use the homemade rosewater in any recipe you want. Just add a few tablespoons of rose water instead of milk or water. Its smell is barely noticeable, but that’s enough to increase the joy you get from your food. Happy New Year!

Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies & Tree

adapted from The Pocket Cookbook

makes one tree and a lot of cookies

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter, in room temperature
• 1/2 cup molasses (I used mulberry molasses)
• 60 gr (2.1 oz.) dark chocolate, melted
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 2/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground ginger (or grated fresh ginger)
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• confectioners’ sugar for dusting

for the confectioners’ sugar frosting:

• 1/2 cup butter, in room temperature
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons rose water (or any other liquid)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Cream butter and sugar. Add molasses and chocolate, mix well. Add all the dry ingredients and form four patties. Chill them for at least 3 hours. (To increase this chilling process, you can put the dough in freezer. But be careful, don’t let them freeze!)

Take the patties out one by one (because, if you take them all out once, they wait too long and become sticky with room temperature) and roll. You can use confectioners’ sugar if the dough is too sticky. Wİth the first patty, you can make the gingerbread tree. You have to have 5 types of star shaped cutters, which are in different sizes. Cut 3 stars with each cutter, and place them on the baking tray.

Roll the other three patties and cut in the desired shapes. Put them in a baking tray (I used 3 baking trays to make my cookies).

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C (375 degrees F) and bake the cookies for 6 minutes.

For the frosting, cream butter and gradually add sugar and vanilla extract. Finally, add the rose water, and you should get a creamy mixture. Put this into a piping bag, and when the cookies are cooled, decorate the cookies with this frosting. Put the decorated cookies in the refrigerator overnight to harden the frosting.

To make the gingerbread tree, put the biggest stars on the bottom. Align them properly so that the stars don’t overlap each other. Stick the stars using the frosting you made. Then, put the next biggest stars using the same technique, and finish your tree with your smallest stars. Decorate your tree with frosting, some sugar pearls and confectioners’ sugar for a snow effect.

Rose Truffles

adapted from Making Artisan Chocolates

makes 16 truffles

Ingredients:

• 140 gr (5 oz.) 70% dark chocolate
• 112 gr (4 oz. or about 1/2 cups) cream
• 2 tablespoons rose water
• 1 tablespoon butter

for dipping:

• 70% dark chocolate, melted
• cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon confectioners’ sugar
• dried roses or rose petals

for rose water:

• 1 cup fresh rose petals or dried roses
• 2 cups boiled water

Directions:

First, make the rose water at least three hours before making the truffles. Prepare it by pouring the boiled water over roses. Put the mixture into a jar and close the lid. After it’s cooled, store it in the refrigerator.

To make the truffles, heat the cream in a pan, and when it reaches its boiling point, add the chocolate and take the pan away from heat. Stir the mixture until all the chocolate is melted. Then, add the butter and two tablespoons of rose water and stir until the butter is melted. Chill the mixture in the refrigerator for three hours, or until it’s hard enough to work with.

When the mixture (or ganache) is cooled, take a spoonful, form a ball and dip it into melted chocolate and finally to cocoa powder. Make all the truffles this way. After that, chill them in the freezer for 5 minutes, and take them out. Dip into cocoa powder again to get smoother truffles.

To make rose sugar, blend confectioners’ sugar and dried rose petals using mortar and pestle. Continue until rose petals are all grounded. Sprinkle the rose sugar to truffles and decorate the truffles with some dried roses.

I was also hoping that it will help me save a lot of time making cakes and other pastry. But, I was such a fool to assume that KitchenAid will solve all my problems. Well, here’s the result:

What is that? I mean, they are as bad as my first macarons. I couldn’t create the “perfect foot”, although the consistency is okay. I managed not to crack them by resting the meringues for 1.5 hours to harden its shells, but what about the foot? It is not evenly distributed. The macarons were also stuck on the baking tray, and I couldn’t pick the macarons off. I thought I didn’t bake them enough, but when I rebaked them, they started to crack, so I stopped. And the baking temperature was OK too,  it was 160 degrees C (325 degrees C).

Anyways, I’m done with all this drama.. Let’s move on to the good news. 10 out of 25 macarons came out clean this time. What a success! Well, it’s at least better than the last time. And what’s more, these macarons taste SUPERB!!

I swear this is my last chocolate post and I’m not going to make any chocolate recipe for a very long time! I know I’ve been obsessed with chocolate recipes recently, and it has two reasons. First of all, I have been consuming a lot of chocolate these days, and don’t know why.  Secondly, chocolate making is easy in terms of ingredients; you just melt some chocolate and pour it in molds. Actually, the reason I’m always making desserts rather than savory dishes is that. I always have sugar, flour, eggs, and milk at home, which are the basic things for pastry. Anyway, this is a recipe from Making Artisan Chocolates, which is like my artisan chocolate Bible. It’s originally “turtle tablets”, but I don’t have molds for tablets, I changed the recipe and make little molded chocolates, which have caramel filling. And I used brown sugar when making the caramel, because I didn’t have any white sugar left.

I think I’ll stop with desserts for a while, and put only savories to the blog..

Caramel Chocolates

adapted from Making Artisan Chocolates

makes 25-30 chocolates, based on mold size

Ingredients:

• 500 gr (17.5 oz.) dark chocolate, melted
• 55 gr (2 oz.) brown sugar
• 2-3 tablespoons warer
• ½ cup heavy cream, warm
• 280 gr (10 oz.) white chocolate, melted
• pinch of salt

Directions:

Put the sugar and water in a pan, and melt the sugar in medium heat. Wait until the mixture comes to boil, and the color turns darker, which takes about 10 minutes. Take the pan from heat.

Add the warm cream and salt to the mixture. Note that the cream should be warm! Otherwise, when you pour the cold liquid into a very hot sugar mixture, bad things can happen, and I don’t even want to think about that. (I’m quite afraid of boiled sugar!)

Pour the mixture into melted white chocolate, and combine until it gets creamy. Let it cool in room temperature.

Now, it’s time for molding! Take your chocolate molds. If you don’t have any, you can use little silicon cake molds. You have to coat the molds with melted dark chocolate. There are some methods for doing this, like pouring chocolate in the molds and turning them upside down to remove the excess chocolate. Well, since I am quite messy, I didn’t even want to try this method. So, I found a solution. I simply wore plastic gloves and I dip my finger to melted chocolate. Then, I smeared the chocolate to molds with my finger. Here are some shots:

When you finish coating, let the chocolates chill in the freezer for 5 minutes. You have to do this at least 3 times, or until you are sure that you get a thick enough chocolate layer.

After that, fill the molds with the caramel mixture using a piping bag, and finally cover the top of the molds with dark chocolate again. You can flatten the tops by using a spatula. Let them chill for 10 minutes.

Take the chocolates out from the molds, and keep them in the refrigerator. That’s it! And try not to mess the kitchen like I did…

Note: As you may have noticed, the chocolate filling does not look like caramel. This is because I didn’t boil the sugar enough (since I’m afraid of getting burnt!).

There are some white and dark chocolates waiting to be used in the kitchen for about a month. Actually, it’s a miracle that these chocolates can survive in the kitchen for a long time. In short, it was the time to use them. So, what I did was quite impromptu, I brushed my chocolate molds with white chocolate, and filled with some nice dark chocolate with almonds. But it was too “plain”. So what should I do to make these boring chocolates extraordinary? I simply added some red hot pepper on tops, and make these chocolates reaally hot!! Enjoy!

Spicy Chocolates

makes 12 chocolates

Ingredients:

• 100 g (3.5 oz.) white chocolate
• 100 g (3.5 oz.) 70% dark chocolate (preferably Mexican)
• 100 g  (3.5 oz.) heavy cream
• powdered red hot pepper
• chopped almonds (optional)

Directions:

In a pan, bring heavy cream to boil, and remove it from heat. Add the dark chocolate and stir until it is completely melted.

Let the ganache cool in the refrigerator. Add almonds to the ganache if you want.

Brush the chocolate molds with white chocolate, and let it chill in the freezer for 3 minutes. Continue this process a couple of times. By the way, make sure that all sides of the mold are covered with chocolate.

Fill in the molds with the dark chocolate ganache using a piping bag, while leaving some space at the top. Let the molds cool in the freezer for 15 minutes.

To the top of the molds, pour white chocolate to complete the white chocolate shell. Flatten the molds with a palette knife. Let them cool for another 10 minutes in the freezer.

Finally, sprinkle the tops with powdered red hot pepper. Keep the chocolates in the refrigerator.

What I like most about truffles is, they are easy to make and you can let your imagination do the rest! The last time I made truffles, I followed the recipe, but this time it was a real impromptu. I made two types of truffles: hazelnut and white chocolate dip truffles and dark chocolate raisin cocoa dip truffles.

You can add whatever you like to your ganache: candied orange peels, candied gingers, raisins, almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts, some orange zest, lemon zest or some red pepper.

Black and White Truffles

makes 20 truffles

Ingredients:

• 200 gr (7 oz.) dark chocolate
• 200 gr (7 oz.) heavy cream
• handful of chopped hazelnuts (for white truffles)
• handful of raisins (for dark truffles)

For dipping:

• 100 gr (3.5 oz.) white chocolate, melted (for white truffles)
• ½ cup chopped hazelnuts (for white truffles)
• 100 gr (3.5 oz.) milk chocolate, melted (for dark truffles)
• cocoa powder (for dark truffles)

Directions:

Heat the cream in a pan until it starts to boil.

Remove the pan from heat, and add the dark chocolate. Stir well until all the chocolate is melted.

Divide the ganache into two parts. Add hazelnuts to the first one and raisins to the second. Spread each part thinly to a pan with parchment paper on bottom, and let them cool in the refrigerator for an hour.

Take a piece from the ganache with a little spoon, roll with your hands and form little balls, and dip each ball to 1- white chocolate, 2- hazelnuts or 1- milk chocolate, 2- cocoa powder.

Keep truffles in the refrigerator.

Well, I’ve decided to put some recipes from Turkish cuisine, and started with something I really love to eat: “cezerye”. Cezerye is like Turkish delight, but is made from carrot. It is not something you cook at your home, you usually buy these for the religious festivals. I’ve never made these jelly-candies before, and when I found this easy “cezerye” recipe today, I decided to try it.

Cezerye (Turkish Delight with Carrot)

adapted from a Turkish recipe

makes 9 pieces

Ingredients:

• 400 gr (14 oz) carrots, grated finely
• 200 gr (7 oz) brown or regular sugar
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 100 gr hazelnuts or walnuts, chopped coarsely (optional)
• water (about 1 cup)
• coconut flakes (to cover)

Directions:

Put the carrots and sugar into a pan. Add water, and cook in medium heat, until the carrots start to melt and the mixture is thickened. In the recipe I found, it is written that “thickened” here means; when you take a piece from the mixture and round it between your thumb and your forefinger, it stinks to one finger only. Complicated!

Add the optional nuts to the mixture at this point. By using a plastic spatula, spread the mixture in a tray with parchment paper (I used a little box with foil). The thickness of the mixture should be about 1 cm (~0.5 in).

Allow the mixture to thicken more in the refrigerator for an hour.

Using a wet knife (to avoid the cezerye stick to it), cut 1 x 2.5 cm (~0.5×1 in) rectangles, and cover them with coconut.

Store the cezerye in the refrigerator.

My artisan chocolate making attempts are continued! I really liked the Earl Grey taste in my previous hand-dipped chocolates, so I used tea again in these truffles. I also added orange zest to strengthen the orangey flavor. Unfortunately, I messed up the kitchen again, but I am happy now eating my truffles and drinking my holy Early Grey tea!

Truffles with Orange and Early Grey Tea

adapted from Making Artisan Chocolates

makes 20 truffles

Ingredients:

For ganache:

• 100 gr (3.5 oz.) 60-70% bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 100 gr (3.5 oz.) heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons Earl Grey tea
• 1 orange’s zest

For dipping:

• 100 gr (3.5 oz) milk chocolate, melted
• cocoa powder

Directions:

In a saucepan, mix heavy cream and tea, and cook until it gets to medium-heat. Wait for 5 minutes to allow tea give its flavor.

Stir the mixture through a strainer into a bowl with chopped bittersweet chocolate and the orange zest, and mix until you get a smooth ganache.

Freeze the mixture for 30 minutes, or until hardened.

Using a spoon, take small pieces of ganache, and form 20 ganache-balls using your hands. Freeze for another 30 minutes.

By using a fork, dip each truffle in melted chocolate, then in cocoa and be sure all parts of the truffles are covered with cocoa. Place the truffles onto a parchment paper, and keep them in a cool place.

OK, I’ve wanted to make artisan chocolates for a long time. I even had some very-amateur chocolate trials for the past two New Year celebrations, which turned out to be not-so-bad, but I still wanted to learn some real stuff on how to make artisan chocolates. So, I ordered “Making Artisan Chocolates” by Andrew Garrison Shotts, which is a very informative book about chocolate making. After reading some introductory info and seeing the delicious photos in the book, I decided to try some recipes.

Hand-dipped chocolates are made by dipping ganache-squares into tempered chocolate*, which is an easier process than making molded chocolates, where you pour the tempered chocolate into molds, a messy job. So, I decided to make hand-dipped ones as a beginning chocolate maker. This was actually a recipe with jasmine tea, but I changed it slightly by adding my favorite chocolate-accompanies: hazelnut and raisins. I also put Earl Grey tea instead of jasmine tea to try something different and feel the bergamot in my chocolates.

(* Chocolate tempering is a process where the chocolate is heated and cooled to specific temperatures to give chocolate a shiny look, avoid cocoa butter seen on the surface, and to make the chocolates harden in much lower temperatures.)

As I am thrilled by the word “butter” (an old habit from my past diet days) and try not to use it if it’s not so necessary, I did not put butter into my ganache. But you can feel free to add 2 tablespoons for a smoother taste. (By the way, I used heavy cream and it is nearly the same as butter. But I still don’t want to use butter! Heavy cream is enough to add the desired taste I think!)

I obviously messed the whole kitchen making the chocolates, tried to temper the chocolate without a thermometer and burnt it, so my hand-dipped chocolates look really ugly, as seen from the photo. But the thing is, they taste wonderful! I am still working on making “better-looking” chocolates, but this is an easy & delish recipe, believe me!

Hand-Dipped Chocolates with Earl Grey Tea, Hazelnut and Raisins

adapted from Making Artisan Chocolates

makes 48 chocolates

Ingredients:

• 273 gr (9 ¾ ounces) 55-65% bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 2/3 cup heavy cream
• ¼ cup water
• ¼ cup Earl Grey Tea
• ½ cup hazelnuts, chopped
• ½ cup raisins
• 147 gr (5 ¼ ounces) 30-40% milk chocolate, melted (for the foot, which is to be spread onto the ganache squares to get a smoother surface)
• 906 gr (2 pounds) 30-40% milk chocolate, tempered* (for dipping)

* Make sure you use a thermometer to temper the chocolate, or you can burn the chocolate like me! So, I couldn’t temper the chocolate, and it does not affect the taste. If you are lazy to temper, just don’t!

Directions:

In a saucepan, mix the heavy cream, water and tea, and cook until it gets to medium-heat. Wait for 5 minutes to allow tea give its flavor. Stir the mixture through a strainer into a bowl with chopped bittersweet chocolate, and mix until all the chocolate is melted, and you get a smooth ganache.

Cover the bottom of a square pan (small to medium-size) with a plastic wrap, and pour your ganache into the pan. Spread the ganache with spatula, and cool it in the freezer for at least two hours.

Take out the hardened ganache-rectangle from the freezer, and remove the plastic wraps. To make the foot, spread a thin layer of melted milk chocolate over the ganache with spatula, and freeze for an hour.

With a sharp knife, cut the freezed ganache to 48 squares. Using a fork, dip each one into the tempered chocolate, and make sure that all sides of the ganache-squares are covered with the tempered chocolate.

Place the chocolates onto a parchment paper. Freeze for another two hours.

Keep your chocolates in a cool place.

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