Strawberry White Chocolate Truffles

I'm in that funny floating state of sleep-deprivation at the moment, after tumbling into bed around four in the morning (I seem to write best in the late, late hours of the night, and have yet to convince my brain otherwise). The much-anticipated senior spring will come, I'm sure, but at the moment, I'm bouncing between a mild frenzy to finish writing my thesis and gnawing worry over that dreaded question, "What am I doing after graduation?"

I can't say I'm in the mood for any sort of Valentine's Day baking at the moment, but I seem to still want chocolate. Chocolate truffles are a nice study break, easy to make in my microwave without needing to leave my room. I don't like the pressure that Valentine's Day seems to put on all parties involved--on the wallet, on couples to make  some sort of romantic gesture, on single people to justify our single-ness--so I'll just say that these are perfect for sharing and gifting, impressive-looking without requiring much effort. (For a more quantified measure of romantic, effortless desserts, I'll refer you to Monica's and my very scientific post from last year).

The only remotely tricky part of this recipe is tempering the chocolate for coating the truffles, but it really only requires one more bowl and two extra minutes of your time than melting chocolate the normal way. You could of course skip this step, but tempering chocolate gives it that classic shiny finish, and allows it to be solid at room temperature. 

My words all seem to have gone into the 15,000 for my thesis and I can't string together anything elegant to say right now, so I'll say it inelegantly: these truffles made me really happy. It was nice to flex my candy-making muscles, and see that special ability of a box of nice chocolates to bring joy. 

Caroline

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Strawberry White Chocolate Truffles

Yields 18-20 truffles

Ingredients
⅓ cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon butter
8 ounces good quality white chocolate, roughly chopped
pinch of salt
¼ cup finely ground freeze-dried strawberries

For Assembly
5 ounces good quality dark chocolate
1 tablespoon finely ground freeze-dried strawberries, for sprinkling

Directions
Place the heavy cream, butter, and white chocolate into a microwaveable bowl. Microwave on medium power for about 90 seconds, or until the chocolate is melted. Make sure to stop every 30 seconds to give it a good stir or else the white chocolate might burn.

Stir in the salt and freeze-dried strawberries. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours, or until the mixture becomes very firm.

Scoop out tablespoonfuls of the truffle mixture, and roll them into balls. Place on a lined cookie sheet and refrigerate for another 5 to 10 minutes.

Prepare and temper the chocolate coating (Stick with me here; it’s not nearly as difficult as it sounds!) Place about 4 ounces of the dark chocolate in a microwaveable glass or ceramic bowl, and microwave on medium power for about 90 seconds (or until the chocolate is melted), stopping every 30 seconds to give it a stir. 

Place the remaining 1 ounce of chocolate in a glass or ceramic bowl (I think the ability of glass and ceramic to absorb heat yields better results than plastic). Pour the melted chocolate into the bowl with the unmelted chocolate, but don’t worry about scraping out every bit of the chocolate. (In other words, leave a little bit of chocolate in the bowl--you’re going to need it again). 

Stir the chocolate until the it has cooled down quite a bit, and most of the remaining 1 ounce of chocolate has melted. When you put a bit of melted chocolate under your bottom lip, it should feel cooler than the surface of your skin. Fish out any bits of unmelted chocolate.

Return all of the melted chocolate to the original bowl, and let the residual heat from the bowl and remaining chocolate to slightly bring up the temperature of the chocolate again. Your chocolate is now tempered and ready for dipping!

With two spoons, dip the truffles in the melted chocolate. Decorate by sprinkling a little freeze-dried strawberry on top of each truffle. You will want to be organized, since the chocolate sets pretty rapidly.

Store in the refrigerator. For a softer truffle, serve at room temperature.

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Fraisier Torte

If nothing else (or, if nothing else besides the freshman fifteen), baking has taught me a lot about failure. For every complicated I managed to nail on the first try are at least three flops. And with baking, all of your failures are very physically present, sitting on the counter in front of you, challenging you to take another bite (maybe it'll taste better on the second tasting?), or to toss the whole thing (which always requires explanations to those you live with). 

While my mother is a very accomplished cook, her cooking is sometimes something of a theatrical production, with tantrums in the kitchen and half-cooked food thrown out. I think it was food blogging that taught me to take failure less seriously, to shrug it off and laugh over it with my friends (or, you know, with the Internet). Flops in the kitchen are an inevitable, if unenjoyable, part of baking.

For this cake, it was the simple sponge cake base I just couldn't get right. I skimmed over the long, complicated Fraisier Torte recipe in the Pierre Herme cookbook. Mentally, I dismissed the cake portion as a no-brainer (of course I could whip some eggs and fold in flour! I've done it a hundred times), yet somehow ended up with a hard, dense doorstep of a cake.

Genoise sponge cake is made with a handful of pantry staples, yet it took me three tries to really get the technique down. Much more than a successful baking session, kitchen flops fill you with respect for the magic of baking, of carefully transforming simple ingredients into a fancy finished product when it's so easy to have everything go wrong. 

The finished product was definitely worth all the effort and dirty dishes. The sponge cake sandwiches a thick layer of strawberries and mousseline cream, a pastry cream enriched with buttercream. Pierre Herme's version enriches the pastry cream with a French buttercream but also lightens it with a meringue. I've simplified his recipe significantly (who wants to make meringue twice with two separate methods in one recipe?). It's still on the longer side, but is definitely manageable and also so delicious.

I love that this cake showcases the fresh strawberries, which are just coming into season (and are some of my favorite fruits to photograph!) The tricky sponge cake and filling enhance the fragrance of the strawberries, which really is the central flavor.

So if you've got a few free hours, give this cake a try. And if it doesn't quite work out, give it another! It'll work out in the end, I promise.

Caroline

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Fraisier Torte

Click here for the printable recipe.
Yields: one 9-inch cake
Heavily adapted from the Pierre Herme Pastries cookbook
Special equipment: 9-inch springform pan

Ingredients
For the Genoise Sponge Cake
⅔ cup all-purpose flour
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ teaspoon lemon zest
4 eggs
½ cup sugar

For the Pastry Cream
1 cup whole milk
⅓ cup sugar
3 egg yolks
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Swiss Meringue Buttercream
2 egg whites
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, cubed, softened
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

For Assembly
1 pound fresh strawberries
2 tablespoons kirsch (optional, rum can be substituted)
powdered sugar, for sprinkling

Directions
Make the sponge cake. Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line the bottom of a 9-inch springform cake pan with a circle of parchment paper. Do not grease the pan; you want the cake to cling to the sides to allow for better rising.

Sift together the flour and salt over a piece of wax paper. Do not skip the sifting--it’s important to ensuring your cake does not have any lumps.

In a medium mixing bowl, mix together the butter and vanilla extract. Let the butter cool to room temperature. In a small bowl, combine the lemon juice and zest. 

Combine the eggs and sugar in a large heatproof mixing bowl. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water (make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn’t touch the water). Gently heat the eggs and sugar, stirring constantly, until the mixture becomes foamy and is very warm, slightly above body temperature.

Whisk the eggs with a hand mixer or stand mixer on high speed for about 10 minutes, or until the mixture has tripled in volume and is very pale. (If you’re using a stand mixer, it may take slightly less time). When you lift up the whisk, you should be able to draw a clear figure 8 with the mixture.

Remove about ½ cup of the egg mixture and fold it into the butter. With the mixer on medium speed, whisk in the lemon juice and zest, and then gradually whisk in the flour, followed by the egg/butter mixture. Work quickly here, before the eggs deflate too much.

Pour the cake batter into the cake pan and bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the center of the cake springs back when touched. Cool the cake upside down on a cooling rack for several hours.

Prepare the mousseline cream filling. First, make the pastry cream. Pour the milk in a saucepan and heat until it begins to simmer. Meanwhile, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch in a heatproof mixing bowl.

Temper the eggs: gradually pour the hot milk into the egg mixture while whisking the eggs constantly.  Pour the mixture back into the saucepan, and cook until it begins to boil. Take off the stove and stir in the butter, followed by the vanilla extract. Pour into a bowl, and cover with plastic wrap, pressed directly onto the surface of the pastry cream. Refrigerate for at least 3 to 4 hours.
About 30 minutes before making the swiss meringue buttercream, take the pastry cream out of the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature.

Make the swiss meringue buttercream. Mix together the egg whites, sugar, and salt in a clean, heatproof mixing bowl. Place the bowl over a pot of simmering water (again, don’t let the bottom of the bowl touch the water)  and gently heat the egg mixture, whisking constantly, until it reaches 160 F. 

Take the bowl off the heat, and beat with a hand mixer or stand mixer on medium speed for 2 minutes, medium-high for 2 minutes, and high for 5-7 minutes, until the eggs form a stiff, glossy meringue. Turn the mixer to medium speed, and gradually add in the butter a few cubes at a time. Beat the frosting at high speed for another 2 -3 minutes. The mixture may look curdled at first after you add the butter, but it will smooth out. Beat in the vanilla extract.

Make the mousseline cream: With the mixer on medium speed, gradually add the pastry cream you made earlier to the swiss meringue buttercream.

Assemble the cake. Cut the sponge cake in half, into two even layers. Peel off the parchment paper circle. Brush the tops of both layers with the kirsch. (If you do not drink, you can omit the kirsch.)

Set aside about 10 small strawberries (about 1 inch in length) for the sides of the cake. Cut these strawberries in half. Roughly dice the remaining strawberries.

Place one of the sponge cake layers in the bottom of the springform pan. Line the strawberry halves along the side of the pan, cut side facing outward. Spread about half of the mousseline cream over the cake, being careful not to dislodge the strawberries. Scatter the diced strawberries over the cream, and spread the remaining cream over them. Top with the other cake layer.

Refrigerate the cake overnight. Remove the cake from the springform pan, and dust with powdered sugar.

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Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

As you know, it's been blizzarding here in New England. As Juno dumped almost two feet of snow on us (seriously, the weather was so bad that even the tourists disappeared), I spent much of the week hibernating in the dorm, watching the snow swirl past my window. 

It's times like this that I remember just how incredibly spoiled I am as an undergrad at Harvard. We call getting caught up with school and activities "the Harvard bubble," but Harvard was quite literally a bubble during the snowstorm. I got to spend the blizzard curled up by the radiator while being fairly confident that the power wouldn't give, and if something did break, it would be fixed quite soon. I was able step downstairs and get my hot meals in the dining hall as usual, because some of the staff had slept over the night before so they could be at work during the blizzard. And the next day when we woke up for class, we found all the side walks cleared into neat channels through the deep snow, after the yard workers had worked through the night.

It really makes you realize who has the better work ethic at this place. 

Since the communal kitchen is in another building, I decided to make some no-bake goodies that didn't require me to leave my room. These really are an ideal dessert for making in the dorm. You don't even need a microwave to melt the chocolate; I used a hairdryer, which actually works beautifully.

As you might have noticed, the Pass the Cocoa's logo has long been a chocolate-covered strawberry. Though it's taken on many guises, that strawberry has remained a constant through all our design overhauls. 

There's no real story about why we chose it; I made some chocolate covered strawberries for Monica's birthday some three years ago, and later wrote this post about them. We decided it would make a cool graphic, and it's stuck around since.

Anyways, I thought it was time that we re-visited that old post. Considering how many times we've changed the graphic strawberry, it seemed fitting to take new pictures to match the new design.

As I pointed out two years ago, these are a perfectly Valentine's treat, impressive yet requiring almost no effort. Though I know strawberries are still out of season, they're also a wonderful dessert to make on a cold winter's afternoon, sure to lend some brightness and sweetness to even the snowiest day.

Stay warm!
Caroline

One Year Ago: Abbracci Cookies
Two Years Ago: How to Make Homemade Nutella

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Chocolate-Covered Strawberries

Click here for the printer-friendly recipe.
Yields: about 20 strawberries

Ingredients
4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, roughly chopped
4 oz. white chocolate, roughly chopped
1 lb. fresh strawberries
2 tablespoons finely chopped nuts (optional)

Directions
Melt the white and dark chocolates over a double boiler, or with a hair dryer. Simple turn the blow dryer on low/medium power and hold about 10 inches from the chocolate, stirring occasionally.

Dip half the strawberries in dark chocolate, half in white. Place on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper or plastic wrap. Sprinkle the nuts of some of the strawberries, if desired.
Drizzle the white chocolate on the dark chocolate-dipped strawberries, and vice versa.

Refrigerate the strawberries for about 15 minutes, to set the chocolate. 

Enjoy!

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Raspberry Meringue Cheesecake

Guysguysguysguys, guess what? It's a reallyreallyreally special day! Because it's our birthday! Pass the Cocoa turns two years old today.

Who'd have thought we'd still be doing this food blogging craziness after two years? To be honest, I thought this would be a passing interest, and that Monica and I would get tired of blogging pretty quickly, yet somehow I'm sitting here at 1 a.m., writing our 97th post instead of doing my history reading.

The story goes something like this:

Once upon a time, there were two high school seniors in Indiana who were on their school paper. They decided to start a blog about food on their high school paper's website, because their adviser was making a big push to get more traffic on the web, and they liked food, and, okay, they were managing editors on staff and were supposed to be, like, doing stuff for the paper.

Well, eventually they were about to graduate from high school, and couldn't take their blog with them, so they had to get a new URL. After much soul-searching, they chose to name their new website Pass the Cocoa, a name with great philosophical and personal meaning and reflected their most sacred beliefs about food and baking. (Okay, fine, we were just looking for an available URL).

For the first year, their only readership consisted of their mothers and one high school friend (thanks Andy!) who may or may not have been bribed with Oreo truffles. They were busy adjusting to college, juggling classes and being traumatized by dining hall food.

But eventually they found their feet, and started to put more thought and effort into their photography and posts, tried to be more of a presence in social media and the food blogging community.

And so here we are. I've talked about my experiences in food blogging in another post, so I'll just say that Monica and I have learned a lot more from this experience than I thought we would. It seemed so easy: we just needed to bake some stuff and take some photos, slap some words on it, stick it on the Internet, and call it a day. We found out pretty quickly that there was a lot more going on behind just what you see here.

I've seen the site statistics for some other blogs, and I know that Pass the Cocoa hasn't grown nearly as fast as a lot of other blogs. It's tempting to always be comparing ourselves to other blogs, but at the end of the day, we actually do blog because we love making and eating and writing about food.

Which brings me to this cheesecake. This raspberry meringue cheesecake is kind of labor intensive but is more than kind of amazing: a vanilla cheesecake with an Oreo crust, topped with raspberry pastry cream, and frosted with fluffy, lightly toasted meringue. A combination of fruity, tart, chocolate-y, and marshmallow-y.

It's a pretty good way of celebrating turning two, if I do say so myself.

-Caroline

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Raspberry Meringue Cheesecake

Ingredients
For the Cheesecake:
20 Oreo cookies
¼ cup butter, melted
16 ounces (2 packages) cream cheese, at room temperature
⅓ cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, at room temperature
½ cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Raspberry Pastry Cream
1 cup whole milk
3 egg yolks
⅓ cup raspberry jam
¼ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons flour
For the Meringue Topping
3 egg whites
3 tablespoons granulated sugar

Directions
For the Cheesecake
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Finely crush Oreos and melted butter in the food processor. Press into a greased 9-inch springform pan.

Beat cream cheese, with the mixer on medium speed. Add sugar and vanilla. Beat well. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Beat in sour cream on low speed.

Pour the batter in springform pan over the Oreo crust. Bake for about 25-30 minutes, or until the center is almost set.

Let the cheesecake cool completely, and refrigerate at least 4 hours.

For the Raspberry Pastry Cream
Place the milk in a saucepan and bring to a simmer on the stove.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the sugar until they turn a pale yellow. Whisk in the flour and salt.

While whisking constantly, slowly drizzle in about ⅔ of the hot milk into the bowl with the egg yolks. Pour the egg yolks/milk mixture back into the saucepan and cook it over medium-low heat stirring constantly.

The pastry cream is done when it becomes a thick paste and large bubbles begin to pop through the surface. Take the saucepan off the stove and whisk in the raspberry jam.

Allow the pastry cream to cool, then cover it with a piece of plastic wrap placed directly over the surface of the cream so that it does not form a hard crust. Refrigerate several hours, preferably overnight.

Spread the pastry cream evenly over the top of the cheesecake.

For the Meringue Topping
Just before serving the cake, make the meringue topping. Turn on the broiler in your oven. In a double boiler (or a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water), mix together the egg whites and sugar. Gently heat, stirring constantly, until it is 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

Take the bowl off the heat and whisk the egg white/sugar mixture until it is fluffy and white, and stiff peaks form. Spread the meringue over the cheesecake, on top of the raspberry pastry cream.

Place the cheesecake in the oven for 15-30 seconds, until the top of the meringue is golden brown. Keep a close eye on the cheesecake during this process, since it can burn easily.