Cocoa Truffles

Let’s start with this: I love this recipe.

These melt-in-your-mouth truffles make it look like you did so much work (and I promise, you won’t have to). The recipe is also incredibly versatile and resilient – I’m pretty sure you could make a lot of changes and still come out with something wonderful. I used a vanilla vodka, but you can use any type of sweet alcohol or liqueur. (My next plan is to try it with orange tequila.)

I used black cocoa powder instead of plain old cocoa, which made these truffles look and taste beautiful. I also split the batter and rolled 1/2 in powdered sugar and 1/2 in powdered sugar and cocoa. (You’ll see I ran out of the black cocoa when I rolled them.)

One thing to note though: This didn’t make as many truffles as I had hoped. It probably came about to about 30 little balls, so next time I’m going to double or triple the recipe.

Ingredients

½ cup butter or margarine, softened

2 cups confectioners’ sugar

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

4 tablespoons vanilla vodka

Coating

¼ cup confectioner’s sugar

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Beat together 2 cups confectioner’s sugar with butter until well blended in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed. Beat in 2/3 cup cocoa powder and vodka. Mixture will be soft and creamy. Refrigerate, covered, 4-6 hours until firm.

To shape

In a shallow baking pan, combine ¼ cup each confectioner’s sugar with cocoa powder. Using 2 spoons, scoop butter mixture onto coating mixture in level teaspoons. Dust fingertips lightly with coating mixture; shape truffles into small balls, rolling completely in coating mixture. Cover and store in refrigerator. Makes about 4 dozen truffles.

Adapted from an old magazine clipping

Baked [Pomegranate] Cheesecake

There is something about cheesecakes. Despite all the waiting, they are so versatile (and so worth it) - from your fluffy Cool Whip-esque type to your deliciously decadent oh-my-god type. Both have their merits. Both are good. But everyone has a favorite.

Let me preface this by saying two things:

• I'm visiting home right now and don't have my favorite recipes on me.
• It was late and I only had 1 package of cream cheese.

Given both of these limitations, I googled around for a simple, new recipe until I found one that let me work with what I had. I found this one for a baked cheesecake and thought I would give it a try. I'd also never done a cheesecake that you actually bake the topping onto. Seemed easy enough though.

Lastly, I was short on graham cracker crumbs and mixed some almond meal in to cover it. This ended up making the crust a little softer than your typical graham cracker crust - a nice change up.

I made one big mistake though: I tried to go pomegranate. Realizing a few minutes in that this recipe could be just light and simple (read: nothing special), I thought I would try my hand at flavoring it. After adding some pomegranate juice, I wasn't seeing the flavor or color I wanted. So I added more. And more. And because it was just slightly tinted where I envisioned gorgeous, gracious swirls throughout my cake, I added a few drops of red and blue food coloring.

Note to self: don't do this. This recipe is meant to be short and sweet - so leave it that way.

I ended up with a grayish looking batter that only darkened when it baked. Ugh.

What I will say for this recipe is that it was incredibly easy and went much quicker than normal cheesecakes. If you're in a bind for time or ingredients, this is a good route to take. Also, the cool sour cream topping covered up my grayish mass of blah. Although the color was, well, off, the cake itself is fluffy with a nice, slightly pomegranate-y flavor. Not cheesecakey enough for cheesecake-lovers, but definitely recognizable for what it is.

Ingredients

Crust
2 1/4 cup graham cracker crumbs


1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted

Filling
1 (8 oz.) pkg. cream cheese, softened


1 Tbsp. lemon juice


1/2 cup sugar


1/4 cup milk


Dash of salt


1/2 tsp. vanilla


2 eggs



Topping
2 Tbsp. sugar


1 cup sour cream


1/2 tsp. vanilla


Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter, press into buttered springform pan to form crust on bottom and sides. In a mixing bowl, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Gradually add in lemon juice, 1/2 cup sugar, milk, salt and vanilla. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition. Pour filling into crust. Bake at 325F for 25 to 30 minutes or until set.

Combine the 2 tablespoons of sugar, sour cream, and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla; spread over top of cheesecake then bake for 10 minutes longer. Chill for 5 hours or more before serving.

From momswhothink.com

Marzipanstollen - es weihnachtet!

I don't generally bake breads because, well, I'm terrified of the dough-hook attachment on my ancient mixer. Besides that, I've never had luck with it and there is SO much good bread out there without me.

That all said, it's Christmastime and my mother has been baking Stollen for as long as I can remember. Stollen is a glorified [and German] version of fruitcake - actually, it's the other way around, but that's alright. However, it deserves so much more credit than your stereotypical American fruitcake. Stollen is cooked with rum, filled with marzipan, and covered in powdered sugar. What's not to love?

This recipe is a slight adaptation of two recipes - one for Marzipanstollen (the more decadent) and one for Christstollen (the more traditional, more fruitcakey). I'm all for updating tradition and getting the best of both worlds. To me: Marzipanstollen + Christstollen = Deliciousness. But if you want to leave out the marzipan or cut down on the candied fruit, you should be fine.

Starved for tradition, my mother about flipped when I tried to convert the grams in the original recipe into cups, pulling out the old metric kitchen scale and insisting that I read the recipe to her in German. Hence the lack o' conversion below.

Some ways to cut down on your work and up the outcome:

• Instead of grinding almonds, save yourself some work and use 1/2 sliced almonds and 1/2 almond meal.
• Buy a candied fruit mix instead of all the individual fruity ingredients.
• Add more rum. Where the recipe calls for 3 tablespoons, I saturated the fruit mix days ahead of time.
• Make your own vanilla sugar by adding vanilla beans to granulated sugar.
• Be generous with the powdered sugar topping at the end. It should be at least a millimeter thick all around.
• You can totally eat this before 4 weeks are up - but stollen last forever.

Ingredients/Zutaten

175 g Raisins/Rosinen
50 g Currants/Korinthen
50 g Candied lemon/Zitronat
50 g Candied orange peel/Orangeat

[or a candied fruit mix]

1 Package vanilla sugar/Päckchen Vanillinzucker

175 g Almonds/Mandeln

3 Tablespoons rum/El. Rum

For the dough/Für den Teig
500 g Flour/Mehl
60 g fresh yeast/ frische Hefe
90 g sugar/Zucker
1/8 liter milk/Litre Milch
250 g Butter
Fat for the baking sheet/Fett für das Blech

100 g Marzipan/Marzipanrohmasse
Powdered sugar/Puderzucker zum Bestäuben

Grind one half of the almonds and chop the other half. Mix with raisins, currants, orange and lemon peel, vanilla sugar, and rum. Cover and let it set at least over night.

Put the flour in a large bowl and make a hole in the middle. Dissolve the yeast in luke warm milk and combine with a small amount of flour in the hole until it forms a sticky paste.

Cover and let sit for 20 minutes and then mix in the fruit. Form 4 little Stollen into loaves on a greased cookie sheet. Heat the marzipan until you can work with it. Roll it into 4 equal strips. Fit the marzipan into the middle of each loaf and mold the dough around it. Cover again and let sit for 20-30 minutes.

Bake the stollen about 30-40 minutes at 200C (~380F). Poke small holes into each stollen with a toothpick. Paint each stollen with hot butter and cover in powdered sugar. Repeat as necessary. Let the stollen cool and pack in aluminum foil. Let sit 4 weeks.

Die Hälfte der Mandeln mahlen, die andere Hälfte hacken. Mandeln mit Rosinen, Korinthen, Zitronat, Orangeat, Vanillinzucker und Rum mischen, zudecken und über Nacht stehen lassen. Für den Teig das Mehl in eine Schüssel geben, in die Mitte eine Mulde drücken. Hefe mit einem Tl. Zucker in der lauwarmen Milch auflösen, in die Mehlmulde gießen, mit wenig Mehl zu einem dickflüssigen Brei verrühren. Diesen Vorteig abgedeckt an einem warmen Ort 20 Minuten gehen lassen. Den restlichen Zucker und die weiche Butter zugeben, mit den knethacken des Handrührers (oder in der Küchenmaschine) zu einem glatten, glänzenden Teig verarbeiten. Abgedeckt an einem warmen Ort 20 Minuten gehen lassen, dann die vorbereiteten Früchte untermischen. Aus dem Teig 4 kleine Stollen formen und auf ein gefettetes Backblech setzen. Marzipanrohmasse etwas zum Ausrollen vorheizen/zurücklassen. Auf leicht mit Puderzucker bestäubter Arbeitfläche zu einer Rolle formen. In die Mitte die Marzipanrolle legen und den Teig übereinander schlagen, so daß die untere Teigplatte etwas vorsteht. Abgedeckt noch einmal 20-30 Minuten gehen lassen. Im vorgeheizten Backofen bei 200 Grad die Stollen 30-40 Minuten backen. Die Stollen mit einer Spicknadel mehrmals einstechen, mit Butter bestreichen und mit Puderzucker bestäuben. Wiederholen. Die Stollen auskühlen lasse, in Alufolie verpacken und 4 Wochen ruhen lassen.

From "Das Grosse Weihnachtsbuch"