Romance Cookalong Challenge

I wouldn’t categorize myself as a food blogger. I post about food and recipes at times, but I don’t feel like I’m a fully fledged food blogger, unlike some of the lovely ladies on my blogroll. I also follow a lot these bloggers on Twitter and would see them doing a cookalong the first Friday of every month and was curious about this. When I looked into it, I discovered they were Irish Foodies Cookalongs and after a while of thinking I decided that while I don’t think of myself as a food blogger, I do think of myself as an Irish Foodie of sorts and decided I’d give it a go! So I hope others don’t mind me joining considering the above. If there is a problem, just let me know and I won’t participate in future cookalongs. I don’t want to step on anyone’s toes!

It was just my luck February was the first cookalong I joined, the theme being Food for Romance. And nothing says romance more to me than chocolate! I thought it would be a great chance for me to bust out my heart shaped chocolate mould and to also try a brand new recipe, Nigella’s Instant Chocolate Mousse.

Dark Chocolate Truffles coated in White Chocolate

Ingredients

225g good quality dark chocolate

120ml cream

2 tablespoons butter

About 100g White chocolate to coat, more might be needed

1. If using a mould, melt some white chocolate and brush along the bottom and sides to create the shell for the truffle to be added too. Using a clean paint brush would be best, I however forgot and used a pastry brush! Place in fridge to firm.

2. While the white chocolate is firming in fridge, bring the cream and butter to the boil over medium heat in a saucepan. Take off heat and pour over chocolate in a bowl (though I added to saucepan instead). Whisk to melt chocolate until completely smooth. If chocolate doesn’t melt completely, microwave for 20 seconds or heat gently over a pan of boiling water until smooth. If desired, liqueur or other flavourings like orange can be added at this step.

3. Remove mould from fridge and spoon in some truffle mixture, leaving room on top for final coating of white chocolate. Set in fridge again to firm.

4. Once truffle mixture has hardened, melt some more white chocolate and spoon over the top of the mould to complete the shell. Place in fridge to harden.

5. Once chocolate is set on top, pop out of moulds and enjoy! (I had trouble getting the first one out, so I placed in freezer for 3 minutes and they were then easier to remove).

If you are not using a mould, then make truffles as in step 2 and place the mixture in fridge to firm. Once firm, remove and use a spoon or melon baller to scoop out truffle mixture and roll into round balls (warning, very messy!). These truffle balls can be then rolled in different coatings (chopped nuts, grated chocolate, cocoa powder) or dipped into melted chocolate and left to harden.

 

Cheat’s Chocolate Orange Mousse

Adapted from Instant Chocolate Mousse from Nigella Express

Ingredients

150g mini marshmallows

50g soft butter

250g good quality dark chocolate, chopped into small pieces (though Nigella uses chocolate buttons)

60ml of hot water from a recently boiled kettle

1x 284ml tub double cream

1tsp Vanilla Extract

1 tsp orange extract (optional)

Chocolate shavings or shapes for decoration or some grated orange zest (optional)

1. In a large heavy bottomed saucepan, place marshmallows, butter, chocolate and water. Place over a gentle heat and allow to melt, stirring every now and again. Remove from heat once melted.

2. Meanwhile, whip the cream in a bowl along with the vanilla and orange extract until thick. Fold the cooling chocolate mixture carefully into the cream until it is smooth and consistent.

3. Pour or scrape into glasses or ramekins or whatever you would like to serve it in. Place into fridge to chill.

Now, I would like to add a few notes of my own in here. I didn’t have the right amount of dark chocolate so I chucked in some milk chocolate.

I think I also put in a bit too much water, I didn’t measure properly.

I also used a 227ml tub of cream, thus omitting 50mls or so. This made a huge different, because when I added the chocolate mixture, the cream melted and disappeared, instead of forming the mixture Nigella had promised! I panicked and so I decided to add some air to the mixture using my hand mixer and whisked for maybe 5 minutes. It was still rather liquidy, however I added them to the glasses and placed in the fridge. They took forever to set (ok,maybe 2 hours, felt like forever though!). This resulted in a rich mousse texture, it wasn’t light and full of bubbles but it was definitely moussey and very decadent!

The remaining mixture I placed into a plastic Chinese takeaway container and placed into the freezer, stirring every now and again until it set. This gave me a rich mousse like ice cream which was very nice I must say! I felt like the Kitchen MacGyver or something after it!

Truffles in a heart shape around chocolate mousses!

Colour gradient, I think because of milk chocolate added, nice effect I think!

Position of truffles on mousse reminds me nipple tassels or something!

Not too bubbly but still very nice!

In inside of my beautiful truffle! Drool