cjwb * bloglet

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A beautiful Bicycle Day! http://tinyurl.com/55rpks

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congratulations to county exec ron sims on his nomination for deputy secretary of US HUD. go ron!

Darin’s Diablito Truffles

Diablitos are rich, dark chocolate truffles infused with hot chiles, cinnamon and cayenne. sweet, rich, painful, decadent.

INGREDIENTS:

- 1# coverture-grade dark chocolate (for the ganache)

- 1 cup heavy cream

- 2 dried chiles

- 1-2 dozen black peppercorns

- ground cinnamon

- ground cayenne pepper

- ground white pepper (optional; adds heat)

- dark cocoa powder

- turbinado sugar (may subsitute refined white sugar; turbinado = more texture, white = more sweet)

- yield = ~4 dozen or ~48 truffles

recommendations:

* chocolate: Callebaut 835; Guittard ‘La Nuit Noir’; Callebaut ‘Bittersweet 60/40’, Guittard ‘Gourmet Bittersweet’, Guittard ‘Oro’

* cocoa: Scharffen Berger, Schokinag

* heavy cream: organic, with *nothing* added (it should list “ingredients: cream”)

* chiles: poblanos, anchos, guajillos, New Mexico, California NOT recommended:

** chocolate: Scharffen Berger (it’s too sacred, too amazing on its own for this), Ghirardelli, anything in the Barry brand (personal dislike), or any cheap crap like Baker’s, Nestle, Hershey, etc.

**cocoa: anything cheap or sweetened or cut with milk powder/solids, Hershey, etc.

** heavy cream: any brand containing colors, fillers, preservatives, and/or carageenen

** chiles: chipotles, japones, Thai chiles, or any green chiles

PROCESS:

- coarsely chop the dried chiles into rough chunks; set aside.

- put the cream in a sturdy pan, heat on medium-high.

- watch closely: the moment the cream hits a boil, remove from heat and stir in the peppercorns, chiles and chile seeds. set aside to cool.

- chop/break the chocolate into rough chunks with a big knife, the smaller the better. put in a dry glass dish and set aside.

- back to the cream: when the pan is just cool enough to hold in your palm, strain the chiles from the cream, directly into the chocolate chunks.

- stir stir stir with a spatula until you have a perfectly smooth, thick ganache. usually the residual heat from the boil + friction from stirring is enough to melt all the chocolate. if it’s not, you can put it in the microwave.. but NO more than 10 seconds at a time!! (seriously.) stir vigorously between nukings, otherwise you could get a scorched hotspot and ruin the whole batch.

- add generous amounts of cinnamon and cayenne to the ganache (to taste).

- add trace amounts of white pepper to the ganache (optional, also to taste).

- set ganache aside to cool. okay to put in the fridge or freezer, maybe with a plate over top to prevent a lot of air-exchange. Do NOT use an air-tight lid, otherwise condensation will form and drip into ganache.

- meanwhile: toss ~0.5 cup cocoa into a small, shallow dish. this will be the dry coating for the truffle balls.

- add ~1 tsp. cinnamon, ~1 to 2 tsp. cayenne, ~1 T. sugar to the cocoa. stir well, and adjust proportions to taste.

- once the ganache has cooled and solidified: use a melon-baller, two spoons, or your hands to roll out truffle balls. yes, it’s a challenge; your hands will melt the chocolate faster than you can roll. (i use a melon-baller with a thumb-release, like a mini ice cream scoop, cleaned in hot water and dried thoroughly after every 3rd or 4th truffle. i also use unpowdered, food-service latex gloves to smooth out the spheres.)

- drop each ball into the dry coating bowl and roll around until evenly coated.

- set aside on parchment paper with a little breathing room between each one. - try one (quality control, of course) and adjust the coating as needed

- add cayenne for more burn, cocoa and sugar for less.

- if you run out of dry coating, or it cakes up on accident, just make more. - tweak any/all proportions as you see fit for your taste/texture preferences. :)

STORAGE: store in air-tight container (ie. tupperware), with parchment paper between layers. (personally, i add a clean paper towel at the bottom to soak up ambient moisture.) shake any leftover dry coating over each layer. truffles will keep probably ~4-5 days at room temp, ~2-3 weeks in the ‘fridge, or up to 6 weeks in the freezer. if you do chill them, do allow them to warm up to room temp before serving – otherwise most of the flavor will be blunted out by the cold.

Salted Chocolate Caramels

Salted Chocolate Caramels
Gourmet | December 2006

It’s the sprinkle of sea salt that really takes these caramels over the top, teasing out the creamy richness of the buttery chocolate candies.
Makes about 64 candies.

2 cups heavy cream
10 1/2 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (no more than 60% cacao if marked), finely chopped
1 3/4 cups sugar
1/2 cup light corn syrup
1/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon pieces
2 teaspoons flaky sea salt such as Maldon
Vegetable oil for greasing

Special equipment: parchment paper; a candy thermometer

Line bottom and sides of an 8-inch straight-sided square metal baking pan with 2 long sheets of crisscrossed parchment.

Bring cream just to a boil in a 1- to 1 1/2-quart heavy saucepan over moderately high heat, then reduce heat to low and add chocolate. Let stand 1 minute, then stir until chocolate is completely melted. Remove from heat.

Bring sugar, corn syrup, water, and salt to a boil in a 5- to 6-quart heavy pot over moderate heat, stirring until sugar is dissolved. Boil, uncovered, without stirring but gently swirling pan occasionally, until sugar is deep golden, about 10 minutes. Tilt pan and carefully pour in chocolate mixture (mixture will bubble and steam vigorously). Continue to boil over moderate heat, stirring frequently, until mixture registers 255°F on thermometer, about 15 minutes. Add butter, stirring until completely melted, then immediately pour into lined baking pan (do not scrape any caramel clinging to bottom or side of saucepan). Let caramel stand 10 minutes, then sprinkle evenly with sea salt. Cool completely in pan on a rack, about 2 hours.

Carefully invert caramel onto a clean, dry cutting board, then peel off parchment.
Turn caramel salt side up. Lightly oil blade of a large heavy knife and cut into 1-inch squares.

Cooks’ notes:
• If desired, additional sea salt can be pressed onto caramels after cutting.
• Caramels keep, layered between sheets of parchment or wax paper, in an airtight container at cool room temperature 2 weeks.

• Caramels can be wrapped in 4-inch squares of wax paper; twist ends to close.

a few notes I should write on this:
only cook the caramels to 245 degrees not 255 as in the recipe or they will be too hard
I put the salt on as I wrap them, not covering the entire pan
and one inch squares are not bite size :)

Dutch Baby

Ingredients:
1/4 cup (1/2 stick/2 oz./56g) unsalted butter
1 Golden Delicious or Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2-inch-wide wedges
3/4 cup whole milk
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting

Instructions:
Put oven rack in middle position of oven and preheat oven to 450 degrees F/230 degrees C.

Melt butter in a 10-inch cast iron skillet over moderate heat, then transfer 2 tablespoons to a blender. Add apple wedges to skillet and cook, turning over once, until beginning to soften, 3 to 5 minutes.

While apple is cooking, add milk, flour, eggs, granulated sugar, vanilla, and salt to butter in blender and blend until smooth.

Pour batter over apple and transfer skillet to oven. Bake in preheated oven until pancake is puffed and golden, about 15 minutes. Dust with confectioners sugar and serve immediately.

Makes 2-4 servings.

Obama watching McCain’s concession speech: http://bit.ly/EOVM. An amazing set on Flickr.

*happy post-acceptance speech sigh* Also, Gregoire’s looking good. Burner is TBD.

the top 1% and economic stability: http://tinyurl.com/3sfhh9