Truffles

I didn't get to craft much during this week so here is a previous project that I did last december but never posted here. Last Christmas, I decided to make truffles for all of my relatives:


Here we have, from top left to top right:Dark chocolate, peppermint, grand marnier and coffee.

I you want to make some, here's the recipe.First, make some basic truffles, just chocolate flavored. For this part I took the Martha Stewart recipe that you can find on her website:

MAKES ABOUT 3 /12 DOZEN Use different brands of cocoa powder (such as Hershey's, Valrhona, Droste, and Ghirardelli) to make truffles of assorted colors.

Ingredients

-8 ounces best-quality bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped

-1/2 cup heavy cream

Directions

1. Put chocolate into a large heatproof bowl. Bring cream just to a boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat; pour over chocolate in bowl. Stir in liqueur, if desired. Cover with plastic wrap; let stand 10 minutes. Stir until smooth. Let stand until thick, about 15 minutes.

2. Pour chocolate mixture into a shallow 8-inch dish or pie plate. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until mixture is very cold and set but still pliable, about 30 minutes.

3. Using a teaspoon or a 1/2-inch melon baller, scoop balls of chocolate mixture, transferring them to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper as you work. Refrigerate truffles 10 minutes.

THEN, when you have your chocolate mix, the fun/messy part begins.

For the dark chocolate truffles: This is the easiest recipe. Just take your truffles and roll them in cocoa powder until they are completely covered.

For the peppermint truffles: add some peppermint extract (how much you put is up to you) to your chocolate mixture and roll the truffles in powdered sugar

For the grand marnier truffles: Add some grand marnier (once again, you decide how much) to your truffles and let them cool in the fridge for about 10 min. While they are cooling, Melt some dark chocolate with cream in a small pan. Dip your truffles in the melted chocolate and let them cool for a while. Add some grated orange peel for decoration.

For the coffee truffles: Add some coffee granules to your chocolate mix and roll your truffles in some powdered sugar mixed with a bit of coffee granules. Add a chocolate dipped coffee grain on top for decoration.

When all your truffles are done, put them in these little foil containers and package them neatly:

And voilà! You now have the perfect fun to eat and fun to make Christmas gift. ;D

Strawberry Applesauce

This is a nice and fast autumny recipe that goes very well with the oatmeal cookies I baked earlier. I made a gigantic batch this week and it only took me about 25 min and now I eat it with everything ^_^

Strawberry Applesauce (by Odri) My own recipe. I'm proud.

Ingredients

14 peeled and cut apples

1 pound strawberries

1 1/2 cup old fashioned apple juice (the brown kind)

6 tablespoon sugar

1 pinch cinnamon

Directions

1.In a pan over medium heat, cook the apples, the strawberries and the apple juice for approximately twenty minutes or until the fruits are tender.

2.Put this mix in the blender and mix until very smooth.

3.Ad the sugar and the cinnamon and let cool before serving.

Carrot Cake

I recently made this carrot cake and I swear, it is the best carrot cake I have ever tasted. I normally don't even like these types of cakes because I find the icing to be too sugary or they contain raisins which I don't like. This one was perfect for me because the cream cheese icing was just sweet enough and it contained pecans and no maleficent raisins. Sadly, I took the recipe in my mother's Coup de pouce magazine and the recipe is not on their website so no recipe this time. (Buy the magazine!) ;)

Oatmeal cookies

Since I had no school this week, I've been cooking like crazy, trying to make a lot of food to freeze so I could later have tons of healthy homemade meals for my lunches. As delicious as they are, I am really starting to get bored with weight watchers and lean cuisine frozen meals. Therefore, since last Friday, I've been in cooking heaven. I've been cooking at least 2 recipes a day while knitting, watching many CSI episodes and doing the obligatory homework. My latest creation is a batch of delicious oatmeal cookies from the Martha Stewart website. I followed the exact recipe but I didn't any dried fruits to the batter because I like my cookies plain and simple.

Classic Oatmeal Cookies (By Martha Stewart)
Ingredients
Makes about 3 dozen
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large egggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup wheat germ
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 cups mixed dried fruits and nuts, such as golden raisins, currants, coarsely chopped dried apricots, dried cherries, coarsely chopped pecans, or a combination of above

Directions
1.Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with Silpats; set aside.
2.In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs; mix on high speed to combine. Mix in vanilla; set aside.
3.Combine oats, flour, wheat germ, baking soda, and baking powder in a large bowl. Stir to combine. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, and beat on low speed to combine, 10 to 15 seconds. Remove bowl from mixer, and stir in dried fruits and nuts.
4.Using a large metal scoop, drop dough onto prepared sheets, about 2 inches apart. Bake until golden and just set, about 18 minutes. Transfer sheets to wire rack to cool.

I'll try to update with many other recipes during the week, I took a lot of pictures of everything I cooked/baked, I just need to find the time to post them!

Cooking class

For my 18th birthday, my uncles and aunts signed me up for a pastry making course at l'Institut Culinaire (The Culinary Institute) of Montreal. I just came back from the course and I'm so thrilled! It was a 7 hours intensive course where we learned all the basics of baking from making pie pastry to cream puffs. Here are the results:

Apple pie

Of course, this was my favorite, partial as I am to fruity desserts. I hope I'll have the time to pick apples this autumn to make plenty more apple pies but since I learned to make the crust, I guess I could do it with any other fruit. I'll try it with strawberries and rhubarb next.

Boston Cream Pie

I don't usually like Boston Cream Pies but the one we made that day was heavenly. I think it has to do with the fact that we used real vanilla beans to flavour the pastry cream instead of cheap vanilla extract like I usually do at home. Well now, no more vanilla extract for me!

Choux à la Crème/ Cream Puffs

We learned to do puff paste which was quite impressing because my puffs looked like little ugly blobs when I put them in the oven and when I took them out they looked perfect! The next time I make puffs, I'll fill them with ice cream and cover them with the fudgy sauce below.

Crème Anglaise

Again, I don't normally like English Cream but with the vanilla bean, it tasted so good.

Hot Fudge Sauce

Very simple to make, goes well with Ice cream

I'm prrrretty proud of myself! :)
I still can't believe that I got to learn all these recipes and baking tips in just One day. At the beginning of the day, we were given a small recipe book and I swear, at the end mine looked like the Half-Blood Prince's potion book since it was covered in so much writing ^_^
There are still many classe I would love to take at the Académie but since they are so expensive, I think I'll wait for Christmas and my birthday. *Subtle hint*

Smores Cupcakes

I made these last weekend. ^_^

I took the recipe from Sewdarncute and while they were very good, I found the icing to be a bit too buttery for my liking, I couldn't taste the marshmallow. If I were to make them again I would use less butter for the frosting and put melted chocolate in the cupcakes to make them more gooey. So...here's the recipe:

Smores cupcake by Sewdarncute
The cupcake part can be any chocolate cake you like (such as Martha's One-Bowl Chocolate Cupcakes, which is pretty much my standby). Here's how to make the frosting:

-1 lb. (4 sticks) butter, room temperature1 lb.
-(2 cups) confectioner's sugar
-1/2 tsp. vanilla
-16 oz. tub of marshmallow cream (I recommend Fluff)

Cream the butter (I love my Kitchenaid!) on high until it's light and fluffy. Add the confectioner's sugar, 1/4 cup at a time, and beat until fluffy each time. Beat in the vanilla until incorporated. Then dump in the Fluff and mix it up 'til it's all creamy. Transfer to pastry bag (if desired) and pipe onto cupcakes! (You can also cut the corner off a Ziploc bag and use that instead.)

The tops are dusted with graham cracker crumbs, and each cupcake is topped with a square of Hershey's chocolate. Yes, there are fancier chocolate bars out there—but for that authentic retro campfire taste, I say you oughta stick with the classic.

New York, New York

Unfortunately, I was not lucky enough to have my picture taken with this beauty. ^_^
I actually came back from New York a while ago but I hadn't had the time to upload my pictures. I didn't take much anyway because I had already been in New York last year and took plenty of pictures of all the touristic attractions we saw this year. I was mainly there for shopping and I got to do that for a whole day where I ventured alone on Canal Street, searching for fake Chanel. Here are some of the only good pics that I took, at some abbey of which I don't remember the name (I'm such a bad tourist!)

I'm looking forward to posting more crafty stuff, I can't wait for this horrible semester to be over so I can cook, read, craft and sunbathe all day. That's the kind of party monster I am.