Every once in a while I get a domestic thing going. Yesterday we had friends coming for dinner, and I was cooking and trying to make the table look pretty by folding the napkins like the instructions in the library book I borrowed. I had to take a picture of my very simple table just for those of you who eat with us regularly and know that we don't hesitate to put the ketchup bottle on the table nor to serve you something out of a saucepan if it will stay warmer that way. So here is my table. Martha would probably call this "casual" or "country living" or something that means not-too-fancy. It is still noteworthy in my book.
I also asked for (and received) a book about making Chocolate candy (truffles to be exact) from my Dad this Christmas. I bought some dark chocolate and worked on my first batch of those over New Years. Here are some photos of my decadent creations!
The first part is making the ganache for the centers of the truffles. This is a marvelous, low-fat concoction of 72% bittersweet chocolate, heavy cream, and real butter. This first picture is the centers for the truffles cooling on the parchment paper awaiting the finishing steps.
Tonight I tempered the outside chocolate, which is 60% and rolled the centers into little balls. Then I dropped the little darlings into the melted chocolate and rolled them in a mixture of cocoa and powdered sugar. I learned that you need to be fast about this finishing step because the chocolate sets up as it cools off. I had to reheat it once to finish my truffles because it started to get hard.
In general, the endeavor was a success. Here are the finished candies. They don't look like much; but trust me . . . these are not your standard, run of the mill candies. There is some powerful chocolate in these babies. Good thing they keep for a while if you seal them up. We are going to be enjoying these (and sharing them) for a while.
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