4 Ingredient Chocolate Truffle Recipe

Is there anything better than a delicious dessert that can be made with only 4 ingredients?! One of my favorite items from Trader Joe's is French truffles but after trying this recipe, I'll probably opt to make them myself.

I had a bunch of my girlfriends over and we tried our hand at making these just in time for Valentine's Day.  I have to warn you that this is messy.  Some people do buy truffle molds so they don't have to hand roll the truffles but that isn't truly "artisan" is it? (Read: Simply not glory worthy.)  The girls felt it was on the messy side but I think they liked their finished product.

Enough with the chit chat, here's the recipe:

Ingredients
12 oz. chocolate chips with 60% or more cocao
1/2 cup of heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Dutch processed cocoa powder or chopped nuts to coat

Directions
1.  Heat the heavy cream on low until simmering.
2. Melt the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl, like a Pyrex, on half power for 30 seconds at a time taking care to stir between each 30 second interval.
3. Pour the heavy cream into the melted chocolate and stir until fully corporated and smooth. 
4. Stir in the vanilla extract.
5. Allow to cool.
6. Use a melon baller to scoop the chocolate and roll into a ball by hand. Place on a plate or tray until all the balls have been formed.
7.  Roll the balls in the cocoa powder or chopped nuts.

Additional Notes
Make sure the cream is hotter than the chocolate.  The chocolate doesn't have to be fully melted but adding colder cream to already heated chocolate will cause the chocolate to seize and it will not melt smoothly.

You can place the chocolate in jars in a slow cooker filled with hot water to melt the chocolate and keep it at the right temperature if you are making a large amount.  Make sure no water gets into the chocolate or that will also cause the chocolate to seize.

The chocolate can be place in the freezer to speed cooling but I wouldn't recommend it.  The best tip I ever heard from a professional chocolate maker was that the slower a chocolate cools, the better the texture and flavor of the end product.

I placed each finished truffle in a mini cupcake liner and kept them in a sealed container in the fridge.  Allow to come to room temperature before eating if you place them in the fridge.

 

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Hand-tied Bouquet How-to DVD Review + Giveaway

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

 Some people go to the market for silly things like food.  Not me, I prefer my groceries in the form of inedible flowers. I grab a few bunches of flowers willy nilly and then slap them together in a vase in an arrangement that inevitably looks like I bought them at the grocery store.

 

 

Lucky for me, the nice ladies over at FlowerDuet kindly sent me over a DVD from their flower arranging series.

The DVD runs about 30 minutes long and takes the viewer through picking flowers, prepping flowers and then arranging them using a European wrap technique. 

The editing of the videos is on the awkward side which provides a bit of comedy what is otherwise a very informative video. 


I bought a couple of bunches of flowers from the supermarket and followed their tips and got an arrangement that looked like it came from the florist.  This particular DVD actually shows how florists arrange flowers in a way that the stems align beautifully. 

The same techniques can be used to make your own bridal bouquet or wedding centerpieces!  The video would be great for the DIY bride who wants help arranging her own flowers.  Just get this DVD, gather up your wedding helpers, have some martinis, watch the video and arrange some flowers!  (Martinis can be substituted with the beverage of your choice.)

I would go through all of the very valuable tips, like cutting the stems of flowers at a 45 degree angle underwater to make sure they are able to drink in the most water during the preparation but instead, the FlowerDuet is allowing me to do a giveaway!

Enter below and the raffle ends on February 9, 2013!  Good luck!


a Rafflecopter giveaway I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

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Red Leaf Eggnog Matcha Green Tea Review + Giveaway

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

Green tea is a lot like wine. You take in the aroma, you look at the color, you enjoy the tannins and complexity of flavor.  There's a ritual that engages the senses.

When Red Leaf Tea sent me a sample of their eggnog matcha to try, I was intrigued. Because along with my love of wine, I also love some boozy eggnog.

Now that I think about it, this review might have been better recieved before the holidays.  No worry, turns out this eggnog flavored green tea has more uses than just spreading some Eastern style holiday cheer.

Upon first opening the package, I was overwhelmed with the smell of vanilla cupcakes.  This makes sense as that's what eggnog often smells like to me.  But, that smell isn't characteristic to green tea.  I was worried that it might be too sweet.

The color, however, was a gorgeous shade of green.  Matcha is ground up green tea leaves so when the tea is consumed, the antioxidant power of the tea is superior to regular brewed and strained tea leaves.  The vibrant green color is a good indication that this wouldn't be some artificially manufactured powder with  green tea flavoring.

I went about my green tea ritual of scooping the powder into a bowl and whisking it with below boiling water to create bubbles and introduce the air into the tea.

Though the whisked tea maintained the vanilla based aroma, there was no sweetener or overwhelming vanilla flavor.  There was a smoothness on the tongue that contrasted with the tannins in the tea well but this was definitely no artificial powder.

Truth be told, I didn't like this as a tea.  I like the green tea aroma and covering it up with the vanilla scent simply detracted from my experience.  Though the smooth aspect on the tongue was interesting, it isn't worth the trade in aroma.

BUT not all is lost.  This particular matcha would be amazing in a green tea macaron shells just in time for the Lunar New Year!

Lemons & Anchovies has a great recipe for Green Tea Macaron Shells on her blog.

She uses a classic matcha powder but I think the vanilla scent of this green tea would kick up the flavor of a macaron to the next level.

Lucky for you, my small but wonderful group of readers, Red Tea is going to give one of you a package of green tea perfectly sized to try out this recipe on your own with enough leftover to sample a cup of tea for yourself.

Just enter the giveaway below. It closes January 22nd.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck friends!
I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

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Red Leaf Caramel Matchaccino Recipe and Review

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.

Red Leaf Tea sent me two of their varieties of matcha green tea to try.  I was excited to try the Caramel Matchaccino as green tea frappucinos are very popular around my neck of the woods since  coffee based frappuccinos are so passé. We're never really comfortable leaving well enough alone in Southern California. 

Many conversations go like this:

"I'm having a Starbucks frappucino," says someone who proudly frequents Starbucks.

"Don't you know green tea is better for you?  I'm having a green tea frappucino from my local independent coffee shop," says someone who thinks they're better than someone who regularly spends $5 on a blended coffee beverage from a *chain* everyday.

Now I can come in and say, "I make my own vegan green tea frappucinos at home with all natural ingredients and organic coconut milk."

I assume this conversation devolves into someone coming in and saying that they grow their own green tea leaves in their home composted garden.

It's really a battle to see who can make getting the exact same amazing frappucino the most unobtainable to someone else.

And I'm currently a caramel fiend.  I've made sea salt caramels, caramel sauce, caramel apple cider caramel puffcorn.  Yes, I will post recipes one day soon when I get the chance. You know, once I'm done making everything in my life as difficultly unobtainable as possible.

Back to the caramel green tea.  Upon first opening, the package smelled of caramel. As in so caramel scented that I ended up whipping up a chocolate caramel brownie in a mug.  Delicious.

And when classically prepared, the green tea is slightly sweet with this mouth feel that actually mimics the mouth feel of silky caramel. 

Now, I prepared this two ways.  One, straight up as a matcha green tea and as a blended drink. 

As a matcha green tea, this is fantastic.  I really enjoyed the caramel scent layered over the smell of green tea leaves.  The tea that results is lightly sweet while keeping with a robust green tea flavor.  This is fantastic for an all natural product as many of these Frappe/Latte based products tend to be artificial. 

The Matchaccino is only 58 calories so if you're looking for a drink that gives you a healthy energy boost with a dose of antioxidants while staying away from high calorie sugary coffee drinks, this is a good option.

I made the cold latte based on Red Leaf's instructions with the aforementioned vegan twist: coconut milk instead of cow's milk. You can use whatever milk you want but obviously if you're in Southern California, it needs to be as unobtainable as possible.  Next time, I might try some homemade organic hazelnut milk. 

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
1 tablespoon of latte mix
8 oz of organic coconut milk
1 cup of ice cubes

Instructions
Place all ingredients in a blender and blend.  Pour into a cup and dollop with whipped cream if desired.

Again, this is only lightly sweet so adding some actual caramel would up the sweetness to a more classic caramel frappuccino flavor. But only homemade Hawaiian pink sea salt caramel sauce of course.

I enjoy it lightly sweet because in my family the greatest compliment you can give a dessert is "it's not too sweet" but for the average palate, you will need to add some additional sugar using whatever sweetener you prefer. Like blue agave nectar grown in the backyard of Brad Pitt's desert home.

I think where this would really shine, however, is in a green tea ice cream with chocolate fudge.  Because I really want some ice cream. Made from the finest valrhona noir of course. Or something harder to pronounce.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

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Gourmet Marshmallow Giveaway!

This is not my giveaway but it is my friend Staci's over at Luker Family Tales.  Free marshmallows for my hot cocoa while gathered with my family and friend around the Christmas tree sounds amazing.  And I'm entering.  You can too. 

But just so you know, I'm rooting for myself.

Enter below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Product Review: Ricola Extra Strength with Natural Menthol



Compare the size of the box to a 3 month old baby.

I came home to what looked like the biggest box of Ricola I had ever seen.  I could only hope it was just one big block of the herby cough drop that I could chip and gnaw at during the cold flu ridden months of winter.  I would know that spring had come when the brick was completely consumed.

Sadly, when I picked up the box, it was so light there's no way I could have been a Ricola brick.

But when I opened it, I was greeted with the Ricola yodel, a big Ricola wrapped candy and my nosy cat trying to get all up in the box.  You can see the video on instagram. (Follow me while you're there.)




Could it be the Ricola brick of my dreams?

When I unwrapped the box, there was two bags of Ricola.  The Original and the new Extra Strength with Natural Menthol. 




That blue makes it look extra mentholy.

I should preface this whole review by saying that my husband gets sick a few times a year and inevitably he asks me to get him cough drops.  Except what he really means in to get him Ricola, the Original flavor.

Early in our relationship, he asked me for cough drops and I foolishly brought home Halls and was met with a deeply disappointed sick boyfriend. Lesson learned.



Wait, that's not Ricola brown.

Naturally, when he saw the blue bag, he immediately said, "I don't think I'm going to like this.  I like the mild menthol flavor of the original."

That packaging really makes the Extra Strength Menthol point.  And the candy is not Ricola's characteristic brown color.  This did not bode well.

But the Hosh is nothing if not an adventurer.  He was willing to try anyway.

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Birchbox, Sample Society and IPSY Bag Review

Ipsy Bag - December

Last Christmas, I gave the gift of Birchbox and Sample Society to my cousins and an Ipsy subscription for myself.  We were all very excited.

Then, as the items started to arrive, I found myself extremely happy with my Ipsy bag while being somewhat embarassed about the less than stellar offerings from Birchbox and Sample Society.

Let me explain.

Birchbox - $10/month.

Birchbox offers a combination of high end and low end products, mainly samples of high end products and full size items of lower end products. And the samples are usually of the in a paper package that could be in a magazine fold variety. 

Sample products include face masks, chapstick, glosses, skin toner, etc.

Unfortunately, the Birchbox often comes with more samples than full size products making the box seem more like a goodie bag you can get for free during a fruitful trip through the beauty aisle at the local department store.  Not something I would like to give as a gift.

Subscribers can expect a value of about 1-3 times the cost of the box.  

Ipsy Bag - November

Sample Society - $15/month.

Sample Society offers a mix of high end to mid size sample products.  The sample packaging is a step up from Birchbox's in that more of their products come in smaller versions of their full size bottles.  The products, however, are not as well matched.  They might send something pigmented that doesn't match the end user's skin tone. 

The resulting gift is ok as a gift.  It's a combination of products that seems a little higher end that Birchbox's offerings but aren't always as usable. Each month is curated with a theme. So one month might be skincare and another month Fall Favorites.

Subscribers can expect a value of 2-9 times the cost of each bag.

Ipsy - $11/month

Every  month, I am more and more thrilled with the Ipsy bag offerings.  Not only do the products come in an adorable cosmetics bag every month (which I usually pass on to my little sister or use to hold gift cards), most of the products are full sized! I rarely get an item that's in a paper sample pack.

The bag contains a mix of middle and lower end products but they're typically very usable.  For instance, in my never ending quest for the best mascara, I've been able to try 3 different types.  Currently, I really like em. by Michelle Phan (who is also a partner at Ipsy).

A particular plus of Ipsy is that it often comes with nail polish so I get to try brands I colors I might not usually even give a second thought.

Subscribers can expect to get a value of 2-5 times the cost of each bag most reliably on the 5 times end.

My favorite box is Ipsy followed by Sample Society and then Birchbox.

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