A quick post tonight as I still have a million and one things to get done. But I wanted to share this recipe while there is still time (as if!) to make these. Trust me - they're worth finding the time to make. Though I didn't find the time to make any myself this year. This is another post that I never actually posted last year ;)
Back in my old life when I actually had some time, we used to make these for friends and family over the holidays every year. And I have had many, many friends request a batch of these well in advance. That's how good they are. And they're amazingly simple to make.
The most important thing to have excellent results is to use quality chocolate. We always use dark, dark chocolate (probably at least 70%). We typically use chocolate that we bring home from France, so I can't share a specific brand with you. But we have, on occasion, bought some of the dark chocolate bars at Costco and had good results with that.
Believe it or not, these are actually freezer-friendly. I wouldn't necessarily freeze them before giving them out as gifts, but we have often frozen post-Christmas left-overs and eaten them over the following months (in other words, a frozen one every time I opened the freezer!).
The recipe below is for plain ol' chocolate truffles. We have, however, been known to spike them with some Baileys or Amarula from time to time ;)
1 C 35% cream
8 oz. (approximately 240g) chopped dark chocolate
1/3 C butter at room temperature
cocoa powder
1. In a saucepan, gently heat the cream (without bringing it to a boil) and incorporate the chopped chocolate. Stir until melted, taking care to not let the chocolate burn.
2. Add the butter and mix well until the butter is melted.
3. Cover and refrigerate for approximately 4 hours or until the consistency of the mixture is firm enough to be able to form truffles - if not, just eat it directly out of the saucepan with a spoon ;).
4. Dust your hands with cocoa powder and scoop a teaspoon sized amount of the mixture into your hands. Roll until you have formed a ball. Continue to do same until you have used all of the chocolate mixture. Keep coating your hands with cocoa, as needed, along the way.
5. Roll the truffles in cocoa until fully coated.
6. Eat. Stop eating before you get sick.
Options for garnish:
- grilled coconut flakes with five spice powder
- cocoa and five spice powder
- cocoa and ground cardamom
- chopped pistachios
- ground hazelnuts
- etc, etc, etc...
Variation: For mint chocolate truffles, add 1/2 C of chopped fresh mint to the cream. Bring to a boil and let infuse for approximately one hour at room temperature. Bring to a boil again and pass through a strainer to remove the mint. Wait until the cream has cooled somewhat and continue with the rest of the recipe.
Difficulty level: easy to moderate
For a soy and/or nut-free version, just be sure to read the label on your chocolate (use a brand such as Enjoy Life).
Christmas has caught me a bit off guard this year. I'm usually well into the house decorating and cooking baking by early December. But somehow, it is already mid-December and I have yet to do a single holiday-related task. That is, if you don't count hanging our Christmas wreath on the front door. I had to at least pretend to the world outside that I'd made some effort to make things special for Christmas this year.
This couldn't possibly be any further from the truth.
Things have been more than a bit nutty in our household lately. This isn't the first time I've mentioned this. Juggling a million and one weekly appointments for my kids, constantly preparing foods for our relatively new "intolerance diet" and my fairly recent return to work have left me feeling drained on more days than I would like to admit. Add to this that the kids keep getting sick, which then gets me sick... and you get one very messy household and one pretty tired momma.
The idea of having to set up a tree, drag out decorations and having to test run gluten-, soy- and dairy-free cookies seemed more like a chore to me this year than the fun it usually is. And with the propsect that said tree might remain in my living room until June 2013, I decided to go where no woman has gone before.
I decided to not take out anything for Christmas this year.
Yikes!
Does that make me the Grinch?
Hmmm....
Well, I'm just as happy about Christmas this year as I am any other year... decorations or no decorations.
I wish I had the time and energy to get things all done up the way I would most years. But there will be many more years of that to come, when my kids will actually be old enough to appreciate all of the whoop-dee-da. I've decided that, at this point in my life, they would probably prefer a rested, sane mommy to a burnt out mommy who yells at them non-stop to stop touching the decorations on the tree because she's so fried she can barely remember her own name.
This year, I chose self-preservation over making a big deal just to say that you made a big deal.
And God, it feels GREEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAT!
Besides, we're spending Christmas at my parents' place, so the kids can get all the joy of the Christmas season over there. (And pull all the decorations off of my mom's tree!)
So, staying with the theme of my "no Christmas Christmas", I am posting some cookies that I made last year (how's that for cheating???). I made these last Christmas, but didn't actually get around to posting them before Christmas was over. So they shifted indefinitely into my ever growing "to post" file, never to be looked at again until today.
Now, because these are from last Christmas, they are neither gluten, soy, nor dairy-free. And hence, likely much more delicious than if they were something I had made this year.
See... aren't y'all benefiting from my procrastination right now??
These sugar cookies are fantastic. I am typically not a huge fan of sugar cookies, as I don't have the patience to cut them all out and all that jazz. But these are well worth the effort. If you are pressed for time - and let's face it, who isn't pressed for time in December?? - you can make these in advance and freeze them and then decorate them before serving (leaving time for the icing to harden).
This recipe was recommended to me by my best friend Heidi, and comes from theKitchn. The best part about it is that the large batch will make about a bizillion cookies, so you will never run out, no matter how many guests you have knocking on your door over the holidays.
Small Batch (about 3 dozen cookies, depending on size)
1 C unsalted butter, softened at room temperature for an hour
1 C granulated sugar
1 egg
2 oz. cream cheese (1/4 of a standard cream cheese package)
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 tsp. lemon zest
3 C flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and add the sugar. Cream until light and fluffy. Add the egg, and beat until golden. Add the cream cheese and again beat until well incorporated. Add the flavourings and lemon zest.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a separate bowl then add, bit by bit, to the butter/sugar mixture until fully incorporated.
3. Refrigerate the dough for at least one hour.
4. Heat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Divide the dough into smaller balls and roll out 1/4 to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut out cookies.
5. Bake cookies for 8 to 12 minutes, depending on thickness.
6. Let cool before icing or decorating, and store in a tightly covered container.
Huge Batch (between 8 and 12 dozen cookies, depending on size)
3 C unsalted butter, softened at room temperature for an hour
3 C granulated sugar
3 eggs
6 oz. cream cheese (3/4 of a standard cream cheese package)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. almond extract
2 tsp. lemon zest
9 C flour
4 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the butter and add the sugar. Cream until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until golden. Add the cream cheese and again beat until well incorporated. Add the flavourings and lemon zest.
2. Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a
separate bowl then add, bit by bit, to the butter/sugar mixture until
fully incorporated.
3. Refrigerate the dough for at least one hour - preferably overnight.
4. Heat the oven to 350 degrees Farenheit. Divide
the dough into smaller balls and roll out 1/4 to 1/8 inch thickness.
Cut out cookies.
5. Bake cookies for 8 to 12 minutes, depending on thickness.
6. Let cool before icing or decorating, and store in a tightly covered container.
Icing
I used a recipe for powdered sugar icing from from the Better Homes and Gardens 2011 Christmas Cookies magazine, but only made half the recipe.
In a large bowl, stir together 8 C of powdered sugar, 1/4 C milk and 2 tsp. vanilla. Stir in additional milk, 1 tsp. at a time, to make an icing of piping consistency.
Decorations
1 C red candy coating disks
1 C green candy coating disks
small decorative candies (optional)
Tip: Candy coating disks are the little circles of coloured chocolate that can be found in the cake-decorating departments of hobby and crafts stores (I bought them at Bulk Barn).
In separate microwave-safe bowls, microwave red and green candy coating disks on 100% power (high) for 1 1/2 minutes or until disks melt, stirring every 30 seconds. Spoon melted coating into separate heavy resealable plastic bags; snip a small hole in one corner of each bag. Pipe plaids, zigzags, dots, or other desired designs onto cookies. Let cookies stand at least 30 minutes for coating to set.
If desired, add small decorative candies for accents.
Difficulty level: moderate
So I did it. I broke down and got a cleaning lady. I
saw a facebook status that someone's cleaning lady was coming and there I found myself,
a couple of hours later, with the cleaning lady in my house giving me
an estimate. It's a done deal. And I feel liberated.
No matter how hard I try to leave myself
some time at home to get household chores done, there never seems to be
enough time these days. Maybe because I'm too busy cooking and blogging
in any spare time I have - and now, knitting too! (I'm addicted). And let's face it. Who really wants to clean their house when they could be
whipping up delicious meals for their family instead?
After my 'home day' last Friday, I decided that this entire week would be a home week so that I could nap, fill the freezer, clean and just plain relax. And here I find myself sick, yet again, derailing any plans to do much of anything (though I do have a boeuf bourguignon simmering on the stove right now, which I will post shortly). So I think a cleaning lady is in order so that these home days or weeks can actually be spent recharging my ever dwindling batteries, instead of cleaning.
Although I really feel like this money
could/should be spent on other things, such as RRSPs, RESPs, or even
travel, I have decided that this is what we need right now to buy
ourselves a little sanity. And I'm super happy that I've finally decided to give in a little and do what I need to do so that we can manage a little more easily these days. She hasn't even cleaned our house yet and I already feel like this is the best.decision.ever. It will leave me more time to whip up delicious recipes, such as this one.
This treat comes from my friend Cynthia, who makes them every year for her Chrannukah party. Jérôme tried them this year and taunted me, saying I couldn't try them since they have peanut butter in them (which he knows is my absolute favourite!!). But I knew better, since she makes them every year. So I knew she had made them with soy butter. And they are delicious and taste just like peanut butter. I highly recommend these for all those who can't have peanut butter but love it to death, much like myself right now. There is quite a bit of sugar in these, so you will want to cut them into smaller squares.
1 C melted butter
1 1/3 C graham cracker crumbs
2 1/2 C icing sugar
1 C peanut butter or soy butter
Topping:
2 tbsp. butter
6 oz. chocolate chips
1. Mix together the first four ingredients. Spread mixture in a 13 x 9 inch pan. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.
2.
Melt the butter and chocolate chips in the microwave, or using a
double-boiler. Spread the chocolate mixture onto the base. Refrigerate
to harden.
Difficulty level: easy
If you liked this recipe, you might also like:
peanut butter chocolate mousse pie:
crumb-top choco-peanut butter bars:
peanut butter and jam sandwich muffins:
I became fixated on making these (despite having a
sick son and no time these days), after seeing a picture of them that
Karen had posted on facebook. Despite my better judgment, knowing that I
should be cleaning the house in any spare time I can manage, I ran out
to the Bulk Barn
yesterday afternoon to pick myself up some caramels. I then sat in
front of the tv, unwrapping caramels, for the better part of half an
hour, while Logan played with some wrapped caramels and a bowl. So easy
to keep little guys entertained. He kept stealing caramels out of my
bag, as I stole them out of his bowl to unwrap, without him ever being
the wiser.
This recipe comes from the Kraft What's Cooking Festive 2011 magazine.
1 package (269g) caramels
5 squares Bakers premium 70% cacao dark chocolate, melted
1 tbsp. sea salt
toothpicks
I do like Bakers' 70% dark chocolate, but I used some 70% dark
chocolate that we had brought back from France with us. I also used fleur de sel instead of sea salt, as it is a better quality salt (also brought back with us from France).
1.
Insert toothpick into 1 caramel; dip in chocolate. Shake gently to
remove excess chocolate. Place on wax paper-covered baking sheet.
Remove toothpick. Repeat with remaining caramels.
2.
Sprinkle immediately with salt. Let stand until chocolate is firm (or
to firm up chocolate more quickly, refrigerate until firm).
Makes approximately 32 caramels.
I
made a huge batch of these, packing them away to go with a gift
certificate that I've picked up for Logan's two daycare providers to
thank them for the love they've given Logan over the past 6 months.
We
used the leftover melted chocolate to make homemade hot chocolate. We
just stirred some of it into some milk that we'd heated in the
microwave. We usually drink 1% or skim milk at home, but I always keep a
small carton of 2% on hand for hot chocolate in the winter. Lower fat
milk just doesn't seem to cut it.
