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.

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.

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.