Truffle demonstration by Erick Hansen

Truffle molds: silicone or thick, clear plastic (his were a thick, commercial grade where tapping won't break them)

To achieve the colorful, drizzle effect on the outer shell of truffles, Erick melted white chocolate and added an oil based, orange food coloring (powdered works better than liquid form). Water based coloring like gels and food coloring will harden the chocolate. Chocolate is already oil based. Oil and water do not mix!

For this batch, he made orange flavored truffles, so he used an orange and white drizzle for the shell. He used a pastry bag and drizzled over the molds.



Type of chocolate to use:

He used Guittard wafers (this brand produces chocolate in a nut-free facility), which are preferred over chips. Chips and wafers have distinct tastes. Wafers win here.

Milk chocolate wafers for the outer shell, white chocolate wafers for drizzle and semi-sweet chocolate wafers for the truffle filling.

Dark chocolate is used traditionally.



Tips on melting the chocolate:



Incrementally melt in microwave. 

Or use a double boiler.

Milk fat affects the melting of the chocolate (must be tempered) and sugar content affects taste. He prefers milk chocolate for the shell and semi-sweet for the truffle filling.



Tips on thinning out outer shell chocolate: use paramount crystals, which is a food-grade wax. 1-2 tbsp or eyeball until it is like cake batter thick.



Next, after drizzling over the molds, he used a bench scraper to scrape off excess drizzle between the wells of the mold. He then filled each well of the mold with the melted, tempered milk chocolate. Working quickly, he used a wooden spoon to fill the well with chocolate and turning the spoon to prevent/reduce spilling and overfilling wells. 



After wells were filled, he tapped the entire mold on the counter to get out any air bubbles. This prevents any bubbles/small craters forming on the outside of the shell. 



Then he inverted the molds over the bowl of melted milk chocolate to dump out the excess chocolate and letting the shells set in the fridge. Making the shells is the hardest part of truffle making.



For the truffles, he used a ratio of 1 pound of wafers to 1 cup of heavy cream. He prefers Costco heavy cream, but any cream will do. He used 2 lb chocolate to 2 cup cream for the truffles tonight.

Incrementally melt in microwave (about 45 sec at a time) or melt in double boiler. Another method suggested by Erin Lopez was to heat the cream to hot and then take off stove and dump the chocolate in, let it sit for 10 minutes, and then stir to combine the cream and the melted chocolate. 



Once the chocolate is melted, you may add any flavoring to it. He used LorAnn Professional Kitchen Bakery Emulsion and LorAnn Gourmet products. For the orange flavor, it is LorAnn Gourmet and the product was a small, .125 oz vial. Dump the entire vial into the mixture (for the 2 lb chocolate : 2 C cream). Incorporate well. He then placed truffle chocolate into a pastry bag. You can also make free handed truffles by piping directly to a parchment lined baking sheet. He filled the wells of the mold, only to 3/4 full so that he can cap off the truffle with the shell chocolate. 



After filling with truffle chocolate, he tapped the mold to let chocolate settle in the wells. Clean in-between wells of mold using bench scraper to make capping less messy and easier to release truffles.



Pour the shell chocolate on top of each well in the mold, tap mold, and scrape off excess with bench scraper, making sure wells are filled evenly.



Place in freezer to set faster until sides of chocolate seem to pull from the side. He left them for about 5-10 minutes. 



Release by tapping mold upside down, whatever comes out is set. Place any unreleased truffles back in freezer for a few more minutes.



With the excess truffle chocolate, Erick mixed in rice krispies cereal. He suggests cinnamon toast flavored cereal and even potato chips! You can be creative with extra truffle chocolate.



Free handed truffles can also be rolled in cinnamon or cocoa powder. Lots of ways to dress them up if desired.



Extra tips:

Hand dipped chocolates (his specialty during Christmas time) and how to prevent a puddle at the bottom of your candies.

He uses a Wilton dipping spoon and fork. Another method is to place dipping chocolate on a slab of marble and temper the chocolate using three fingers, going in circles. Then add your center and coat the center with chocolate. Once coated, lift candy and shake twice, then place on parchment, lift off fingers gently and you can do a little design with excess chocolate dripping from fingers. 

Apple Pie by Sam Sifton

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 1/2 pounds apples, peeled and cored, then cut into wedges (5 large honeycrisps will do it)
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 2/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 recipe all-purpose pie dough
• 1 egg, lightly beaten.

Directions:

1. Melt butter in a large sauté pan set over medium-high heat and add apples to the pan. Stir to coat fruit with butter and cook, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, whisk together the spices, salt and 2/3 cup sugar, and sprinkle this over the pan, stirring to combine. Lower heat and cook until apples have started to soften, approximately 5 to 7 minutes. Sprinkle the flour and cornstarch over the apples and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, another 3 to 5 minutes. Remove pan from heat, add cider vinegar, stir and scrape fruit mixture into a bowl and allow to cool completely. (The fruit mixture will cool faster if spread out on a rimmed baking sheet.)

2. Place a large baking sheet on the middle rack of oven and preheat to 425. Remove one disc of dough from the refrigerator and, using a pin, roll it out on a lightly floured surface until it is roughly 12 inches in diameter. Fit this crust into a 9-inch pie plate, trimming it to leave a 1/2-inch overhang. Place this plate, with the dough, in the freezer.

3. Roll out the remaining dough on a lightly floured surface until it is roughly 10 or 11 inches in diameter.

4. Remove pie crust from freezer and put the cooled pie filling into it. Cover with remaining dough. Press the edges together, trim the excess, then crimp the edges with the tines of a fork. Using a sharp knife, cut three or four steam vents in the top of the crust. Lightly brush the top of the pie with egg wash and sprinkle with remaining tablespoon of sugar.

5. Place pie in oven and bake on hot baking sheet for 20 minutes, then reduce temperature to 375. Continue to cook until the interior is bubbling and the crust is golden brown, about 30 to 40 minutes more. Remove and allow to cool on a windowsill or kitchen rack, about two hours.

Jazzed-Up Store-Bought Pie Crust

Any crisp, lightly sweetened, relatively neutral-tasting cookies will work here. I particularly like animal crackers and thin wafer cookies. Feel free to add a bit of spice according to what kind of pie you’re making to bump up the flavor even more. Brushing a bit of melted butter on the rolled crusts can give a nice richness if that’s what you’re after.

Makes 1 double-crust pie

• 1 cup crisp, lightly sweetened cookies (see note)
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional–see note)
• 1 15-ounce box refrigerated pie crust (2 single crusts), softened according to package directions
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted (optional–see note)

In the bowl of a food processor, combine the cookies and the sugar and cinnamon, if using. Process until very finely ground. Dust a work surface generously with the cookie dust. Carefully unroll one of the pie crusts onto the work surface and sprinkle with more cookie dust. Use a rolling pin to roll the crust slightly thinner and press some of the cookie dust into the dough.

Fit the pie crust into the desired pan. For a slightly richer tasting crust, brush lightly with melted butter. Refrigerate until firm before filling the crust as desired.

Repeat the dusting and rolling process with the second crust, and drape it over the pie filling. Crimp the top and bottom crusts together. Brush the top crust lightly with melted butter. Chill for 10 minutes before baking according to the pie recipe you’re using.

Top tips from a Professional Baker on fruit pies

Top tips from a Professional Baker on fruit pies

FOOD 52  https://food52.com/blog/17321-a-professional-baker-s-tips-for-baking-pies-smarter-not-harder  

1) Make your own Pie Dough Mix ahead of time up to months in the freezer. Icy ingredients create an extra flaky crust

2) Stock up on the dough itself. Make the dough ahead of time and freeze up to two months.

3) Crimp and store your homemade crusts in disposable tins

4) Rustic Crostata style: no tin, fill a rolled out circle of crust dough and pinch and ruffle edges inward to form a crust.

5) Make streusel ahead of time.

6) Basic fruit Pie formula: 5 cups of fruit to 1/2 C sugar to 1/4 C cornstarch to 1 big pinch of salt. Play with the sugar part especially if your fruit is tart

7) Low Maintenance fruit: Blueberries, blackberries, raspberries. Sturdy fruits like pears and apples can be roasted or sautéed or poached to intensify flavor or change the texture.

8) Chess pie or custard based pie: you can prepare the filling up to five days in advance and store in the fridge. Par bake crust up to one day ahead. When ready to bake, whisk well and pour into crust and bake until center jiggles.

9) Anytime something seems off with the dough, stick it in the fridge and come back in 30 minutes. Let the dough relax and hydrate in the fridge.

10) Sheet pans are just as important as pie tins. Fruit pies on the bottom rack first (to encourage bottom crust to brown) then move to top rack toward the very end to encourage the streusel to crisp.

11) Know what done looks like. Crust color at edge and sides should be golden brown and not at all raw. For fruit pies, look for thick slow bubbles on top. If bubbling over, it’s gone too far. For chess pies, look for slight puff of the custard and a lazy shimmy in the center when shaken. If it’s puffing dramatically, it’s gone too far.

12) Cooling time is critical. Fruit pies need a lot of time to cool, ideally 3-4 hours. Chess pies take a couple of hours. If it’s warm to the touch, don’t cut into it!

Easy OREO Truffles

By Kraftrecipes.com

Prep Time: 20 min.                
Total Time: 1 hr.

Makes 48 Truffles

Ingredients:

36 OREO Cookies, finely crushed, divided
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
4 pkg. (4 oz. each) BAKER'S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, broken into pieces, melted

Method:

Reserve 1/4 cup cookie crumbs. Mix cream cheese and remaining cookie crumbs until blended; shape into 48 (1-inch) balls. Freeze 10 min.
Cover rimmed baking sheet with waxed paper. Dip cream cheese balls in melted chocolate; place on prepared baking sheet. Sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs.
Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm.

By Anne-Catherine

Ingredients per person:

2 eggs
1.8 ounce of Chocolate
2 tbsp powder sugar

Method:

·         Separate egg whites from yolks. Set the yolks aside to use later.

·         Whip whites until a very stiff texture

·         Slowly melt the chocolate

·         Add the yolks to the chocolate (careful not to cook the yolk)

·         Add powder sugar to the chocolate and yolk mix

·         Incorporate softly and slowly the chocolate preparation to the egg whites

·         Chill in the fridge for at least 8 hours before serving

·         Warning, don't conserve the mousse more than 48 hours

Chocolate Frosting

By Kathryn

Yield: Enough to frost top of 9x13. If you want to frost a two layer cake, then double this recipe.

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter (8 Tbsp)

⅔ cup cocoa powder (I Like Hershey's)

⅓ cup (6 Tbsp) milk

1 tsp vanilla

3+ cups powdered sugar (1 box)

Method:

Option 1: Melt butter and add cocoa powder. Stir until lumps are out. Let it cool on counter until room temperature.

Option 2: Bring butter to room temperature. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter. Add cocoa powder and beat together.

·         Add 1 ½ cup powdered sugar, mix the sugar into the butter/chocolate mixture.

·         Add 3 Tbsp milk and 1 tsp vanilla, mix in until incorporated

·         Add 1 ½ cup powdered sugar, mix in

·         Add in 1 Tbsp milk, Mix

·         Add another 1 Tbsp milk, Mix

·         At this point you should have 1 Tbsp of milk left.

·         Beat on high speed until desired consistency.

·         Add 1 tsp at a time and beat until desired consistency.

If the frosting gets too soft, add 1 Tbsp of powdered sugar at a time and mix.