The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com/ offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!
Firstly, the truffles. They turned out most imperfect but they taste good. I used a half-pound each of Callebaut white chocolate and Callebaut semi-sweet chocolate to make the actual truffles. It was not a large enough quantity to temper so I just used it for the truffle centers, boiling cream and then pouring it over chopped up bits of chocolate. This is the recipe I used, from Epicurious, slightly adapted from Trio of Chocolate Truffles.
Semisweet Chocolate Truffles
1/3 cup whipping cream
6 oz. of Callebaut semisweet chocolate
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. Grand Marnier
Finely ground pistachio nuts (about 4 ozs).
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Bring cream to boil in medium saucepan. Remove from heat. Add chocolate; whisk until melted and smooth. Whisk in vanilla and Grand Marnier. Pour into medium bowl. Let cool on counter top then cover with foil and chill until firm, about 3 hours. (A good alternative would be to pipe the chocolate into a pomponette pan so it will keep a roundish shape.) Remove when they are just firm enough to shape and roll by hand, then replace in fridge to cool again.
While the chocolate is cooling in the fridge, prepare the Bada Bing Bada Boom enrobing candy melts, which does not require full tempering. However, some temperature changes are necessary to get it to the right state.
The Bada Bing Bada Boom Enrobing Chocolate
Heat water in bottom pan of double boiler to 130 - 15o degrees F. Turn off heat.
Place candy melts in top pan, and fit over bottom pan. Stir frequently with rubber spatula, until temperature is reduced to 100 - 105 degrees F.
Remove top pan. Let melts cool and hold temperature at 96 - 98 degrees F.
Dip prepared, rolled truffles into candy melt mixture (a slotted spoon is quite helpful). Place back in fridge for about 5 minutes, then remove and dip into the ground pistachio nut mixture.
Refrigerate truffles until set up, then keep at room temperature. (I have stored mine in a cake box covered lightly with a plastic bag).
White Chocolate Truffles
Repeat process with white Callebaut chocolate and white candy melts. (I found white chocolate much trickier than the dark chocolate, it kept on melting). Just keep putting in fridge to firm up as necessary.
Bench Notes: Practice, Practice, Practice - not easy to temper chocolate. For Chocoley Bada Bing Bada Boom Dipping and Enrobing Chocolate, "temper" as described above. For full tempering of couveture chocolate I have in the past used the recipe in About.com (once succesful and once unsuccesful - got streaks). Two good videos are on the sites:http://www.chow.com/food-news/54141/how-to-temper-chocolate/ and http://gourmetcandymaker.com/tempering-chocolate/.
Blackberry Pate de Fruits
These pretty sweets were incredibly easy to make - compared to the Truffles which I found rather difficult. I bought a 14 oz. of Goya frozen Blackberry pulp from the local supermarket and used a recipe in About.com (somewhat adapted):
Ingredients
14 oz. blackberry pulp (the recipe was for mango pulp)
2-1/2 cups sugar
1 Tbs. butter
6 fl. oz. liquid pectin
sugar for sprinkling
Directions
Prepare an 8x8 inch square pan by lining it with aluminum foil or parchment paper and greasing it with Crisco.
Cook blackberry pulp and sugar together in a medium saucepan over low heat until they form a very thick syrup, for about an hour. The syrup should thickly coat the back of a wooden spoon.
Add butter and cook for 3 minutes more, stirring constantly.
Remove from the heat and stir in the pectin while hot. Pour immediately into the prepared pan.
Allow to cool to room temperature. Cover pan with foil and refrigerate overnight until set.
Cut the candies into into small squares with a knife dipped in water. Roll in granulated sugar.
They can be stored in the refigerator in an airtight container for 2-3 days.
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Well, my truffles are really wonky, quite embarrassing in fact. My aim: work on making them so that they come out beautifully rounded and glossy. I did not like the fruit at all, possibly because the brand was not of the best. On the other hand, I have never been one to reach for fruit jellies in a box so I don't think I will make the jellies again.
All in all, a great learning experience with the hope of perfect truffles in the future.
