Chocolate Truffle Currency

What to do with a whole lotta leftover cream?



Melt 1/2 cup Ghirardelli 60% bittersweet chocolate chips with 1 cup heavy cream. You can either microwave them together and be sure they don't burn OR heat the cream over the stove until it is just warm enough that it doesn't boil - then add the chips and allow them to melt off the heat. Let this mixture stand for about a half hour until it thickens. If it doesn't, add 1/2 cup confectioners sugar. You can flavor this mixture with rum or coffee or mint or raspberry liqueur.



Refrigerate again until the mixture is hard enough to drop into balls on a cookie sheet. Refrigerate once more. If you want, you can roll them in cocoa powder after they have set. They keep in the fridge, in an airtight container, for two weeks.



I made these delights for a friend in my program who loaned me her air mattress when my family came to visit for Thanksgiving. And a personal sidenote here: I like the warmed mixture better than the chilled truffles...call me crazy but mix it into some warmed milk and you've got some crazy good hot chocolate.

The perfect snack :)

Cookies for Sharon

I love this picture because the lighting makes it seem like the perfect mid-night time for snacking!

I have met the most awesome person here at VCU - she's the sweetest and kindest and most delightful person to be around. Everyday she drives about an hour to come on campus where she works in the lab, creates hilarious analogies to remember physiology concepts, and performs a little Maid of Honor work on the side. To thank her for being such a star, I decided to make her a batch of oatmeal cookies.

Now, if you don't know me, here's a little personal detail: I don't like raisins. Crazy? Maybe, but I really don't like 'em - unless they are in rum raisin ice cream. Then I'll make an exception. Usually I substitute cranberries for the raisin part, but unfortunately I didn't have anymore. I crazily dug through the cupboards before realizing - duh! Chocolate chips. Dark chocolate ones. And so the story beings...





I actually made the entire recipe, which I got off the side of my Quaker Oats container - okay, let me honest. I used the Quaker Oats recipe - the oats I had were actually of the Kroger variety because it was $2 cheaper and that was how I justified spending $4 on Ghirardelli chocolate chips.







The end result was sinfully delicious and absolutely perfect paired with a glass of milk. I ate three and called it dinner. I mean, oats are filling, right? Again, remember to take the cookies out when they are still a little un-set in the middle if you want them a little chewier. Or you can pop them in the microwave for 10 seconds before eating.

So here's to Sharon - one cookie for every time you had to explain the intrafusal fibers to me ;) Hehe :)

Mexican Wedding Cookies

Oh the baking urge - it's a scary thing when it hits. For the past week or so, I've been craving these tasty cookies. I think it's positively silly to wait until the holidays to make them. They taste wonderful year-round. I used this recipe off the Food Network site.

I added 2/3 the amount of sugar and then tasted the dough to make any adjustments. I hate it when cookies are too surgery - especially these cookies, since the pecans have such a delicate, buttery flavor. Oh! And I threw my pecans into a grinder so they became more like pecan meal. I think this is the best way to do it since the cookie is quite crumbly as is. Usually I cut down on the amount of butter in my cookies, but this time I didn't because the dough can get very dry without the added fat content.

Shout out to Domino Farms - hometown, Baltimore!!!

The dough should look a little something like this :) Resist the temptation to add more flour to increase the batch size - these little sweeties need the extra fat content to keep a tender crumb.

Roll them into 1 inch balls and place on a cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Bake for about 20 minutes, as the recipe indicates, but check towards the end. When you smell them, they're most likely almost ready to take out of the oven.

The prep station. Allow the cookies to cool on the tray for about 3-4 minutes, otherwise your fingers will burn off - nuts retain heat VERY well. Roll them in confectioner's sugar and place on a serving dish.

Munch away!