As I mentioned in one of my last posts I bought a cookbook with truffle recipes. During the last week I tried a few of them. And today I will present you my first try. I decided to go for raspberry truffles as they perfectly fit the season. For me the hardest part was to understand how to make the shell. In the book they somehow expect you to just have pre made shells so I had to figure out how to make them. I explain it in the recipe.
Now I feel like a proud chocolatier in the making and I am eager to try more recipes. Since most of my family and friends are on vacation I need to step back a little bit. Otherwise I would eat them all by myself and this wouldn’t be the best option in bikini season ;)
I am off for some reading time in the garden. It is supposed to be the hottest day of the year in Germany with 38 degrees Celsius. Don’t forget to put on sunscreen!! Really important!!!!
Enjoy your sunny sunday,
Annika
Raspberry Truffles
(makes 30 truffles)
Ingredients
For the filling
150 g white chocolate
90 g raspberries
20 g cream
For the shells
250 g white chocolate coating
Directions
1. Coarsely chop the 250 g white chocolate coating for the truffle shells.
2. Melt 2/3 of the dark chocolate in a double boiler.
3. Remove pot from the cooktop.
4. Stir in the rest of the dark chocolate.
5. Fill the truffle molds completely with the liquid chocolate.
6. Remove the excess of chocolate with a scraper.
8. Tap the side of the truffle molds with the scraper so that the air bubbles rise.
9. Turn the truffles molds and tap on the back of the bottom side of the truffle molds so that most of the chocolate coating runs out of the molds (you will need this chocolate coating later on).
10. Again, remove the excess of chocolate with a scraper.
11. Put the truffle molds in the fridge.
12. Boil up the raspberries and the cream in a pan over medium heat for about 1 minute.
13. Coarsely chop the white chocolate.
14. Remove raspberry cream from cook pot.
15. Pour the liquid over the white chocolate.
16. Stir until the two ingredients are fully incorporated.
17. Take the truffle molds out of the fridge.
18. Fill the truffle forms - still sitting in the molds - with the raspberry chocolate filling (you might want to use an icing bag). Make sure that you leave a 2-3 mm border. This will be the bottom of your truffle and it should be sufficiently thick.
19. Place in the fridge for about 30 minutes.
20. Heat up the rest of the chocolate coating that you used for the truffle shells earlier.
21. Pour the melted chocolate over the truffle molds so that all truffles are equally covered with chocolate.
22. Remove the excess of chocolate with a scraper.
23. Tap against the side of the truffle forms so that the air bubbles rise.
24. Put the truffle forms in the fridge for one or two hours before removing them from the molds.
With the sun shining and not really needing any comfort food, I decided to vary the classic brownie recipe. I didnt’ use any dark chocolate but white chocolate! And a some mandarine pieces for a fresh taste.
These white brownies are very moist - exactly how I wanted them.
They are incredibly delicious and a really good change to regular brownies.
And no worries about the paradox of the name - you ll forget about it when tasting them!
With those brownies as a good food base I am now getting ready to go out with one of my girlfriends. I m looking forward to a fun beginning to the weekend!
Enjoy those white brownies and have great Friday night,
Annika
White Brownies with Mandarins
(makes one loaf pan)
Ingredients
125 g/ 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch salt
2.5 tbs butter, room temperature
60 g/ 1/4 cup sugar
vanilla
1 egg
60 g/ 1/4 white chocolate, chopped coarsely
60 g/ 1/4 cup white chocolate chips
60 g/ 1/4 cup canned mandarins
Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius/ 360 degree Fahrenheit.
2. Melt the white coarsely chopped white chocolate.
3. Pour the white chocolate to the butter and mix it.
4. Beat in the egg.
5. Add the vanilla and the sugar.
6. Stir until well blended.
7. Mix in the baking powder, salt and flour.
8. Fold in the mandarins and the white chocolate chips.
9. Fill the dough into a pan loaf. The white brownie should have a height of about 2-3 cm.
10. Bake for 20 minutes.
11. Wait until brownie has cooled off before taking it out off the pan loaf.
12. Cut the brownie into small pieces.
I really like those white brownies with mandarins when refrigerated. But it really depends on your taste. If you leave them outside they will be softer.
No worries - they will definitely gone soon either way!
Another round of cookies - I made those for my brother and his friends when they left for their summer holiday to France. These cookies seemed appropriate because they weren’t covered by chocolate that could melt yet they incorporate chocolate pieces. So you still get that chocolate component…even white and dark chocolate, so a double chocolate cookie. I didnt know my brother’s friends taste but with regular chocolate chip cookies you cannot go wrong in my oppinion. Who doesn’t like them? Plus they got a little box filled with brownies - so the cookies weren’t the only choice they had! :)
Have a wonderful day,
Annika
White and Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies
(makes around 35 medium sized cookies)
Ingredients
125 g/ 1/2 cup butter, melted
125 g/ 1/2 cup white sugar
125 g/ 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cup flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
125 g/ 1/2 cups white chocolate chips
60 g/ 1/4 cup dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 180 degree celsius/ 350 degree Fahrenheit.
2. Mix flour, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
3. Stir melted butter, white sugar and brown sugar until creamy.
4. Add vanilla and the egg.
5. Pour in the dry ingredients and stir.
6. Fold in the white chocolate chips and the coarsely chopped dark chocolate.
7. Place tsps of dough on the baking sheet.
8. Bake for 9 minutes.
Sun is out - and the end of the exam period is in sight!
What else do I want. I am so excited for tomorrow noon: I will be able to do all the things I haven’t had time for during the last weeks: go out, see friends, go shopping, do some paperwork, hang out in the garden, read books (I have accumulated a very big pile), plan vacation, look for an apartment in Vienna and obviously bake ;)
I really like those cookies - white chocolate and cranberry. A combination that you don’t get too often. At least in Germany. We are not that much of a cranberry nation. We don’t even have a German name for them. But the berries give the cookies the special twist…!
So give them a try.
Enjoy the sun and have a wonderful day,
Annika
White Chocolate Cranberry Cookies
(makes 30 cookies)
Ingredients
250 g/ 1 cup butter, room-temperature
125 g/ 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 tsp vanilla sugar
2 cup flour
pinch salt
125 g/ 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
90 g/ 3/4 cup cranberries
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius/ 350 degree Fahrenheit.
2. Mix the butter and confectioner’s sugar.
3. Add vanilla sugar, flour and salt.
4. Fold in the white chocolate chips and the cranberries.
5. Make a log of dough with a diameter of 3 to 4 centimeters.
6. Place the log on plastic wrap.
7. Put the dough in the fridge for about an hour.
8. Cut the log into 1 cm thick cookies.
9. Place on a baking sheet.
10. Bake for 10 minutes until golden brown.
When I first saw this recipe I was amazed. Loving oreos, those cookies were exactly the thing to try. In my opinion the real Oreos are really yummy but very sweet. In contrast to those, these oreolike cookies have a more individual and fresh taste. The filling is a little different than you are used to since it is based on white chocolate chips.
You can either eat the cookies cooled or at room temperature!
Have a wonderful day,
Annika
Oreolike cookies with white chocolate filling
(makes about 18 cookies when using a shape with the diamter of 5 cm)
Ingredients for the cookies:
170 g/ 0,7 cups all-purpose flour
60 g / 1/4 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
120 g/ 1/2 cups sugar
60 g/ 1/4 cup butter
0,5 large egg
Directions for the cookies:
1. Preheat the oven to 300 degree Fahrenheit/ 150 degree Celsius.
2. Put together in a bowl the flour, the cocoa, the baking soda, the baking powder, the salt and the sugar.
3. Add the butter and the egg while stirring the mixture.
4. At first the batter will be very sandy, but while mixing it will gradually transform into a smooth dough.
5. Roll the dough. Using a little bit of flour will help if you have difficulties.
6. Cut out the cookies with any shape you like.
7. Bake the cookies for about 8 minutes
8. Let them cool before filling the cookies.
Ingredients for the white chocolate filling
120 g/ 1/2 cup white chocolate chips
2 teaspoons butter
2 teaspoons cream cheese
120 g/ 1/2 cup confectionar’s sugar
Directions for the white chocolate filling
1. Heat the chocolate chips, the butter and the cream cheese until combined.
2. When cooled a little, stirr in the confectionar’s sugar.
3. Put mixture into fridge.
4. When the filling is not runny anymore, fill two cookies with it.
