Working Girl Cooks!

The third installation of my Cookie Bake-athon is not exactly a cookie. Chocolate truffles! I decided to make Ina Garten’s chocolate truffles because they looked easy and this is my first time making truffles. The recipe can be found here.

The ingredient list: Chocolate! And lots of it! I used half a pound of bittersweet 70% dark chocolate and half a pound of this heavenly dark milk chocolate from Africa or South America. OH MY F*ing G*D! It was the best chocolate I have ever had. I got it at Whole Food Markets and I couldn’t stop eating the little pieces as I was chopping it up. I still dream about that chocolate at night…it was that good!

Mmmmm……chocolate. Oh…where was I? Oh yeah, the ingredients. I also used heavy whipping cream, some instant coffee, and vanilla extract. Ina’s recipe also calls for Grand Marnier, which I do not have, so I did not use any. I’m sure any type of liquor would be very good in this.

So I chopped up the chocolate…..sneaking little bitty bits for myself…

Then I heated the cream in a pan until just boiling and poured it over the chocolate.

I gave it a stir with a whisk until it was dark and creamy….and used all my willpower not to drink it from the bowl.

Then I added my coffee (as you can see that is way more than 1 tablespoon, and my vanilla (way way more than 1/2 teaspoon) and stirred it all together until combine.

I have a tendency to add way too much flavor to my baked goods. It calls for a teaspoon of cinnamon and I add a tablespoon, 1/2 a teaspoon of vanilla and I add two tablespoons, a touch of wine and I add the whole bottle! I dunno why I do it, I guess I just like my flavors to be intense! Or maybe my sense of taste is bad?

Anyways, I let the ganache cool at room temperature for an hour and when I tried to roll it it was too mushy. Oh no! Too much liquid! Well crap! I used all my good chocolate! What am I going to do now? How am I going to fix it?

Frantically I tore apart the kitchen and found the only chocolate left in the house…mini chocolate chips and Reese's cups! I was desperate so I threw them both in, remelted the chocolate, and whisked until smooth, hoping, praying to the Gods that I had not ruined my beautiful truffles.

Well it worked, I was able to get my ganache rolled into balls, after refrigerating the ganache for three hours! And boy did I make a mess of myself while I rolled those balls! I had fun licking all the chocolate off my hands though! Mmmmm peanut buttery chocolate! I was surprised how pronounced the peanut butter was considering how much chocolate it was mixed wit. It was actually quite good, very good! I couldn’t stop licking myself!

Once my balls were rolled (he he) I threw them in the freezer to harden then rolled them in some sweetened cocoa and prayed they would not melt into gobs of goo before they were given out as gifts.