Ganache Magic!

Chocolate ganache is magical. Is really is the most magical food you can make and every time I whip a batch up, I'm enchanted. A very forgixving recipe, even if you mess up the proportions it'll probably still come out okay. Part of what's so magical is how easy it is to whip up and how versatile this concoction is. It's my single most-made recipe. Observe:

Chocolate (8 oz, chopped, ish) in a bowl with a lump of butter (say maybe a tablespoon). Heat heavy cream in a saucepan (3/4 cup give or take, basically enough to cover the chocolate in the bowl completely), pour hot cream over chocolate. LEAVE IT ALONE FOR 5 MINUTES. Seriously, don't rush this part or the magic won't happen.

One your timer goes off, whisk.

And keep whisking gently.

Have faith - it'll come together. Just keep whisking.

There we go! It's starting to get beautiful and shiny.

And all of the sudden we have a beautiful bowl of shiny rich versatile chocolate. If your cream wasn't hot enough or you didn't wait long enough before whisking (tsk tsk), just toss the bowl in the microwave for a few seconds and then try whisking again. It'll come together.

Chill it and turn it into truffle filling. Pour it over a cake or pastry or cheesecake. Swirl it into ice cream. Use it to fill a tart or  a macaron. Dip cupcakes in the glaze before frosting them.  Pour it over anything you want to make look fancy. Spread it on some toast. Whip it up and use it for frosting. Eating it with a spoon. 

You know you want to and I promise, I won't judge. It's ganache, just go with it.


By the way, this is a great vase for a bunch of other yummy treats. Add fruit sauces, peanut butter, flavored extracts, or anything else yummy to make fabulous fancy flavored ganache. Use it in anything. Scratch that - use it in everything.

Lemon Bar Hamentaschen: Step-by-step

Purim is coming up! It's a Jewish holiday filled with celebration, silliness, and, of course, food. In celebration (and because they're delicious) I made some hamantaschen. They're basically just a three-cornered cookie with some sort of filling in the middle. These amazing recipes have been making their way around Facebook, and I was inspired by the lemon bar variety.

So let's get started! We start with a basic sweet dough. This one is butter free, baking this entire recipe dairy free - yay! The dough is tougher and sturdier than your average cookie dough and also less-sweet. I used this dough recipe here. Roll the dough out right away and cut into circles. I didn't have a circle cookie cutter, so I used a drinking glass. Worked just as well.

Because I was using a liquid filling, I didn't fold the cookie around the filling. Instead, I folded the cookie first to make a little cup. 

 
Just pinch in each corner.

Make sure to press firmly so they don't open up in the oven. 

Nice little cups ready for filling. 

 

I made a standard lemon bar filling using eggs, flour, sugar, and lemon juice. I cooked it over the stove to thicken it before filling the cookies.

Spooning it in.

Then I gave the corners and extra pinch just to make sure they stayed where they were supposed to.

And here we go! Beautiful right out of the oven. I did a little dance when I saw how well they kept their shape!

These treats are surprisingly easy and super impressive. From idea to oven in only about 45 minutes.

A little sprinkle of powdered sugar on the top and they're ready to go. 

By the way, these little guys travel pretty well, too.

And taste great! Not too sweet, not too soft, not too crunchy, not too messy. Easy to pick up and eat and a good size, too.

Happy Purim!

Peanut Butter Tarts

I made a cheesecake. Almond crust underneath lemon cheesecake, vanilla bean cheesecake, strawberry cheesecake all swirled together.  It was absolutely delicious, but it got sliced and eaten and smashed and digested before my camera got anywhere near it, so I don't have any pretty pictures to share.

Instead, here are some peanut butter tarts. I'm not exactly sure what was in each one because I just started plopping different fillings to crusts rather haphazardly, but I do know that there was a ton of chocolate and peanut butter happening. 

Chocolate peanut butter ganache. 

Peanut butter cheesecake swirl. 

Crunchy and sweet peanut butter filling.

Dark chocolate ganache. 

And a yummy shortbread crust. The crusts, by the way, were baked in a toaster oven. Because I'm a college student and that's just what we do.

A Truffle or Two

First, I should explain that I bake because I get this "I can do that" feeling whenever I eat something sweet. I get so much satisfaction from recreating treats I've tasted and that is how I ended up with dozens and dozens of truffles.

Unfortunately I didn't get any in-progress shots, but I can show you the final product! Most of these pictures were taking by Stephanie, as usual. She rushed over to my house in the morning right before I delivered the treat.

 Oh yes, and I made the box out of chocolate, too (a graduation present for a good friend). It was easier than it looks and pretty sturdy, too!

Ready for each type of truffle?

Here's the raspberry truffle.  I made a fresh raspberry filling - tart and just the right amount of sweet.

This one has a coffee buttercream center.

And a vanilla bean filling

This one was my favorite - cinnamon caramel filling with chopped pecans.

Mint chocolate ganache in the center

And creamy ganache dipped in chocolate, then rolled in toasted pecan crumbs.

Well, I guess I could have another...