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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Shortbread, Three Ways

I actually made these cookies way back at the beginning of the semester, for a housewarming party my roommates and I had (we were super lucky with our senior year housing--and only had two cockroaches this year so far!)

My roommate Imani and I both have the same compulsive fear of underfeeding people and running out of food, so we made a huge batch of shortbread cookie dough (and then ran out last minute to buy chocolate and fruit, because we were convinced people would starve). One of the things I love most about shortbread (besides its wonderful buttery texture and flavor) is that it's so wonderfully adaptable. With minimal effort, you can transform a single batch of dough into a multitude of impressive cookie varieties. Which means, of course, that it's perfect for the holidays.  

 I used this dough to make some pretty classic jam sandwich cookies (which you've probably seen several. times. before), thumbprint cookies with a lemon twist, and traditional Scottish shortbread (well, not so traditional, because I added both egg and cornstarch).

This dough is delicious and so easy to put together. I rarely make a recipe multiple times, but this is one of my favorite go-to recipes. Unlike traditional shortbread or sable cookies, I added an egg yolk for extra softness and cornstarch to create a more tender dough. There are really just three tips for success:

1.  Be very thorough when beating together the butter and sugar. The sugar crystals aerate the butter, creating a more flaky and tender cookie.
2. However, once you add the flour, do not over-mix or over-knead. Add the dry ingredient, and mix until it barely comes together in a dough. Handling the dough to much will develop the gluten in the flour, which will create a very tough cookie. 
3. Make sure the dough is very cold when you put it in the oven. The temperature difference of the hot oven and the cold dough will help create a buttery shortbread.

These cookies make a perfect last-minute holiday dessert platter; you can make cookies that look dainty and unique and different from each other, all from one dough. In fact, looking at these pictures, I think I might whip up another batch tomorrow for Christmas...

Have a wonderful holiday season! 

With love,
Caroline and Monica

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Shortbread, Three Ways
Click here for the printer-friendly recipe

Basic Shortbread Dough

Yields: 1 batch, or about 18 cookies (Quadruple this to make all three cookie varieties)

Ingredients
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup plus 2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
⅛ teaspoon salt

Directions
Whisk together the butter and sugar until it is a very pale, light, and fluffy, about 5 minutes with an electric mixer, longer if you’re doing it by hand. Whisk in the egg yolk and vanilla. 

Fold in the cornstarch, flour, and salt until just combined. Do not over mix.

Chill the dough for at least one hour, or up to overnight.

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Scottish Shortbread

Yields: 24 large cookies, or 36 small cookies

Ingredients
2 batches of basic shortbread dough
2 tablespoon granulated sugar

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Divide the cookie dough into 6 equal pieces. Press the dough into 6 mini 4 ½ -inch tart pans. If you don’t have tart pans, pat the dough into rounds about 4 ½ inches in diameter on a cookie sheet.

Prick the dough with a fork, and sprinkle with granulated sugar. Cut each round into 4 equal pieces, or 6 pieces for smaller cookies. Chill for about 30 minutes.

Place the tart pans onto a cookie sheet, and bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown around the edges.

Let cool and serve.

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Lemon Curd Thumbprint Cookies

Yields: about 18 cookies

Ingredients
1 batch shortbread dough
½ cup sunflower seeds (can be substituted with finely chopped nuts)
⅓ cup lemon curd (can be substituted with jam)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Pour the sunflower seeds into a small bowl or plate.

Roll the dough into 1 ½ - inch balls. Roll the dough balls in the sunflower seeds and placed onto a greased cookie sheet, or a cookie sheet lined with foil. Place the cookies about 2 inches apart.

Use your thumb to indent  the center of the cookie, make a well for the curd filling later.

Bake the cookies for 15-18 minutes, or until slightly golden around the edges. Let cool.

Place about 1 teaspoon of lemon curd into the center of each cookie.

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Jam Sandwich Cookies

Yields: about 12 cookies

Ingredients
1 batch shortbread dough
⅓ cup jam

Directions
Place the dough onto a sheet of parchment paper, and pat into a flat disk. Cover with another piece of parchment paper, and roll the dough with a rolling pin until about ⅛ inch thick.

Place the dough onto a cookie sheet, and refrigerate for at least an hour.
Preheat the oven to 350 F

Using an (approximately) 3-inch heart cookie cutter, cut out 24 hearts from the dough. With half of the cookies, use a mini heart cookie cutter to punch out the centers. When you re-roll the scraps, follow the same process of rolling the dough between the parchment paper and refrigerate for about an hour.

Place the cookie on greased cookie sheets, or cookie sheets lined with parchment paper, about 1 inch apart.

Bake the cookies, using separate cookie sheets for ones with the centers and ones without the centers. Bake the ones with centers for 15-18 minutes, and the ones without the centers for 12-15 minutes, or until they are slightly golden around the edges. 

Let cool completely. Turn the cookies with the centers upside down, and spread about 1 teaspoon jam on each of them. Top with one of the cookies without centers.

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Amadeus Cookies

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As some of my friends may know, bakery marzipan cakes and almond paste filling pastries are my weakness, so today I’m excited to share with you these exquisite cookies that incorporate my favorite ingredients.

Inspired by the Viennese bakery Demel, Amadeus cookies are these delicate butter cookies that enclose an exquisite almond pistachio filling and are dipped halfway in velvety dark chocolate. Taking a bite is like meeting crisp, pleasantly sweet, buttery heaven with the aroma of almond pistachio and dark chocolate to balance.

The filling by itself is absolutely delicious; imagine almond paste but enhanced with pistachio flavor. I don’t normally consume things by the spoonful (unless it’s peanut butter + chocolate chips), but this, I could certainly make an exception for. Almond and pistachio pair wonderfully together, and the pistachios lend the filling a beautiful green color that I think makes it perfect for serving on the holiday cookie platter.

Amadeus cookies are usually shaped as circles, with fork indentations to create faint lines on the surface, but I thought it would be fitting to shape the cookies as hearts because “amadeus” is derived from the Latin word meaning “to love” (translation: I simply thought these cookie cutters looked cuter.). I also decided to incorporate butter cookies instead of shortbread. So in the end, these cookies may be a little different from the Amadeus cookies you might find in Vienna (granted, I’ve never been, so I actually have no idea how this compares with the original), but the important thing is that they are inspired by the original and let’s be honest, the only way to get the real deal is to visit the bakery and see for yourself!

Anywho, I hope you enjoy the cookies as much as we did. Definitely double or triple up the recipe if serving a crowd, or even just feeding yourself, because there certainly wasn’t enough to go around when I made these!

A vignette featuring my lovably oblivious dad, who doesn’t know how to read post-its: “Monica, those cookies you made are yummy!” “Which ones?” I ask, because we have lots of cookies lying around the kitchen these days. He responds, “The ones you labeled, do not eat. They’re very impressive. Have you ever considered baking school?” *facepalm* Happy holidays!

Cheers,
Monica

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Amadeus Cookies

Filling from Saveur, Cookies from Land O'Lakes   |   Yield: 18 cookies, 9 cookie sandwiches

Ingredients

For the butter cookies:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 egg (whisk whole egg and use half)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder

For the almond pistachio filling:
1/2 cup shelled & unsalted pistachios
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/2 cup almond paste, room temperature, cut into pieces (recipe below)
2 tablespoons cherry liqueur, preferably kirsch*
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

4 ounces fine-quality semisweet chocolate, for dipping
1 teaspoon almond oil or canola oil

Directions

For the butter cookies:
Combine butter, sugar, egg. Beat at medium speed until creamy. Add orange/lemon juice and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Fold in flour and baking powder and mix at low speed until combined. Divide dough in half. Shape into balls, flatten slightly, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or silplat.

Work with one dough at a time, keeping the other dough refrigerated. Work quickly, while the dough is quite cool to the touch. Place dough on top of lightly floured parchment paper. Place another parchment paper on top, and use rolling pin to roll dough to 1/8 to 1/4 inch thickness. Using parchment makes it easier to avoid sticky dough and create a smooth surface.

Cut into shapes using round (or shaped) cookie cutters. Immediately place on baking sheet as you go, leaving approximately one inch between each cookie. Make lined indentations by gently pressing a fork on the surface of the cookies.

Bake for 6-8 minutes, or until edges are just slightly golden. Watch carefully after the 6 minutes mark, because the edges will turn golden extremely quickly, and then will burn.

Cool cookies completely before filling. Meanwhile, roll up scraps and place in freezer to quickly cool down the dough. Work with the next dough in a similar process, until all scraps are used.

For the almond pistachio filling:
Process pistachios and sugar until finely ground. Gradually add almond paste in pieces. Then add kirsch & vanilla. Consistency will be relatively thick.

For assembly:
Make sure almond pistachio filling is completely at room temperature for easier piping/spreading. Make a makeshift piping bag by placing filling into plastic ziploc bag, cutting a snippet from one corner, and bringing the filling to that corner. Take a cookie and carefully pipe close to the edges, outlining the shape of the cookies before filling the centers with the filling. Do this with half of the cookies, and then top with other half to make a cookie sandwich.

Carefully melt dark/semi-sweet chocolate in a small deep dish (good for dipping), along with 1 teaspoon of almond oil (to help smooth the chocolate). I used the microwave method, but double boiler also works. Dip cookies halfway in chocolate & garnish with powdered sugar or other embellishments if so desired. Serve & enjoy!

*Note:  Alternatively, any fruit juice that pairs well with pistachio and almond would work. I used sparkling apple cider.

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Almond Paste

From Jacques Torres Chocolate, MrChocolate | Yield: 1/2 cup

Ingredients

1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon water
3/4 cup blanched almonds*
1 tablespoon Kirsch or simple syrup (optional)

Directions

Place granulated sugar, honey, and water in saucepan and bring to strong boil. Place almonds in food processor and grind until coarse. Remove boiling water from heat and pour over coarse almonds. Blend thoroughly until smooth. If mixture is too thick, slowly add Kirsch or simple syrup. Quality of almond paste is determined by how smooth the consistency. Wrap almond paste in plastic wrap and allow to cool.

*Note: All-recipes has a great video on how to blanch almonds: http://allrecipes.com/video/263/how-to-blanch-almonds/

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"Naked" Tim Tams

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This constitutes probably one of the most ambitious cookie endeavors I have ever tried carrying out within a school mile radius, in what I consider one of the nicer student kitchens of off-campus living. My friend, Sophia, and I had grand plans for the baking adventures that we would go on during our last year, and our chats would often involve us exchanging endless ideas of what to make in what would turn out (unsurprisingly) our virtually non-existent free time. Now that I look back at our conversations, I realize that over half of the time, I am the one doling out bunches of links to recipes I want to try. It’s a miracle the sweet girl hasn’t gotten tired of me yet ;)

Anywho, I jumped on the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap this year, and it’s been so much fun! I want to say straight off that I couldn’t have done this without the help and generosity of sweet Sophia, who offered her kitchen for our cookie shenanigans. After deliberating for like 5 seconds over a long list of cookie possibilities, we decided on Tim Tams!

Tim Tams are a popular Australian cookie, malted chocolate biscuits with creamy chocolate filling and enrobed in chocolate. They are usually rectangular shaped, but of course we couldn’t resist throwing in a few heart shaped cookie cutters and shot glass round cut-outs (read: resourcefulness of college bakers) for holiday love and cheer. We were also inspired by Molly Yeh’s Tim Tam adaptation and used chocolate-peanut butter filling instead of regular ol’ chocolate cream filling. De-licious. For a while, I was snacking on leftover frosting paired with banana slices and chocolate chips. It’s quite honestly the best.

I have a story for you.

Now, we did not intend for these cookies to turn out “naked,” so to speak, but as it happened to be, the chocolate gods were not in our favor, and our chocolate simply wouldn’t melt properly. Horrified, we racked our heads for what to do. Can we can call these Tim Tams anymore if they are not rectangular shaped or dipped in chocolate and have peanut butter in the filling? Sables? No, they’re not sandy. Oreos? No, not exactly. Chocolate cookies with chocolate-peanut butter filling? No, too wordy. Cocoa piecrust cookies? Hmm, a bit misleading. “Naked” Tim Tams? Aha…! 

Meanwhile, the clock strikes 12 p.m. Our friend Kaitlyn waltzes into the kitchen, brews up a cup of morning coffee, and drops in a dollop of our “melted” chocolate.

“Tastes like heavenly mocha!” she announces. “I’ll eat this fudge if you don’t want it.”

And so, “naked” Tim Tams was born (our deepest apologies, Tim Tam snobs), and no chocolate was wasted. Existential cookie crisis. Averted.

The great thing about these cookies is that they taste even better the next day after chilling in the refrigerator and letting all the flavors harmonize over time. They’re crisp but soft to the bite, with a wonderful balance of creamy chocolate and hint of peanut butter. Not rich or overwhelming; perfect with a cup of tea or coffee.

Beyond the busyness of school work, studying gender theory and anxiety disorders, or fellowship applications for the future after college (oh dear), baking in the kitchen and making food for friends and loved ones is always a joy I try to make time for, and it’s wonderful to be able to share this joy of food with people near and far. I’m so happy to be able to share these cookies with Alisa Huntsman, Jennifer Meyering, and Carrie Farias as a part of the cookie swap. I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as we did, making them for you!

I also want to thank Nichole for her addicting peanut butter cookies, Stacy for her flourless chocolate peppermint cookies, and Laney for her adorable mini chocolate chip cookies.

If you're interested in joining in next year on the fun of the Food Blogger Cookie Swap, you can sign up for notifications here.

Love,
Monica

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"Naked" Tim Tams

Adapted from The Sugar Hit!   |   Yield: 4 dozen (46) sandwich cookies

Ingredients
For the chocolate cookies:
1 1/2 cup (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt

For the chocolate-peanut butter filling:
1 1/2 cup (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup peanut butter (optional)
3 cups powdered sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
3 tablespoons malted drink powder
(e.g. Olvatine, Nesquik, etc.)*

Directions
For the chocolate cookies:
Cream butter & sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs. Add cocoa powder and beat until smooth. Then add salt. Last, fold in flour by hand. Place dough on a large sheet of parchment paper, taped/secured to the work surface to keep from moving. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Place another sheet of parchment paper on top and roll it out for smooth finishing. Place on a tray and freeze for 20 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF and line 2 baking sheets with parchment.

Remove dough from freezer. Work quickly at this point, before the dough comes to room temperature. Slice into shapes using cookie cutters, or cut out rectangles if staying true to the original Tim Tams. Place on lined baking trays. Bake for 8 - 10 minutes, or until your finger doesn’t make an indentation when you touch the surface of the cookies. Watch carefully to make sure the cookies don’t overbake. Cool completely before frosting.

For the chocolate-peanut butter filling:
Cream butter & peanut butter until smooth. Sift in powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and malted drink powder. Spread a heaping teaspoon of filling on half of the cookies, or use a piping tip. Top with the remaining cookies. Dip in melted chocolate or dust with powdered sugar, if so desired. Serve & enjoy!

Storage: Store in air-tight container at room temperature (or refrigerator) for up to 7 days.

*Note: Malted drink powder can be omitted if cannot find in stores near you.

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