Ballantyne Magazine covers news, events, real estate, restaurants, shopping, health, schools and business in the upscale Ballantyne Area of Charlotte, NC.
Issue link: https://ballantynemagazine.epubxp.com/i/42111
You Can Do It! CLASSIC CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES Courtesy of The Ballantyne Hotel & Lodge's Cooking School For ganache center: 8 ounces heavy cream 8 ounces good-quality dark chocolate, chopped (use Lindt, Valrhona, etc.) 1 tablespoon room temperature butter Remaining ingredients: 12 ounces good quality dark chocolate, melted. See tempering process below to properly melt dipping chocolate Cocoa powder 2 teaspoons Folgers crystals, optional 1. Bring the heavy cream to a high simmer, just short of boiling. 2. Pour the cream over the chopped chocolate and allow to sit for a minute or two. Stir with a room-temperature spatula until smooth. 3. Add the room-temperature butter and blend with an immersion hand blender (also called a "stick blender") to fully emulsify. 4. Pour the ganache into an eight-by-eight- inch pan, cover with plastic and allow to cool to room temperature. 5. When ready to make the truffl es, "table" the ganache with either a spatula or a taping knife by working it back and forth on either a marble slab or directly on a countertop. The ganache will become stiffer as it's worked. When it holds a peak when the spatula is lifted, it's ready to "pipe." Note: 6. To pipe the truffl es, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or waxed paper. Place a large No. 4 tip (or small, 1/3-inch tip) into a pastry bag. Fill the bag with ganache and, holding the bag a half-inch above the cookie sheet, pipe the ganache until it forms a small ball. Continue piping until all the ganache is used. You should make about 60 to 70 truffl es. 7. Cover the ganache balls with plastic and allow them to sit in the fridge until fi rm, about an hour. 8. While the centers chill, fi ll an eight-by- eight-inch pan with cocoa powder about ¼- to ½-inch deep. Stir in the instant coffee if desired. If the coffee crystals are too large, crush them in a Ziploc-type bag with a rolling pin. 9. Check the tempered chocolate to make sure it's room temperature before proceeding. See chocolate tempering procedure below. 10. Working from left to right if right-handed, place the truffl es on the left, the tempered chocolate in the middle and the eight-by-eight-inch pan fi lled with cocoa on the right. 11. Using your left hand, which will become your wet hand, dip the ganache centers one at a time into the tempered dark chocolate. Roll the truffl es in your hand to give them some texture and to allow the coating to become thicker. TEMPERING CHOCOLATE Courtesy of The Ballantyne Hotel & Lodge's Cooking School Chocolate can be a fi ckle when used in cooking — proper melting and tempering of chocolate is necessary to keep a smooth, shiny, uniform appearance, to create a "snap!" when broken and to keep chocolate from melting easily on fi ngertips. Follow the directions below to temper chocolate like a pro when making truffl es, dip- ping strawberries or cooking up other sweet treats. There are many methods of tempering chocolate, most of which involve melting the chocolate to a specifi c temperature, cooling it to another temperature, then warming it back again to another temperature. The easiest way, however, is to use the seeding method. This method involves buying a good-quality chocolate, such as Lindt, Cal- lebaut, Valrhona, etc., and using the tempering that was done in the factory to "seed" your chocolate. So-called "coating chocolates" such as "candy melts" or "Merckens" are not real chocolate and can't be tempered. Good qual- WINTER 2010-2011 ity chocolate contains cocoa butter, and when the chocolate is tempered properly, the cocoa butter crystals are all in alignment, giving the chocolate a good snap when broken. It also will set quickly and have a good sheen. The quickest and easiest way to temper chocolate follows: • Chop any amount of chocolate into small pieces. It also can be purchased online in wafers. • Divide the chocolate into thirds, place two- thirds of the chocolate into a microwave- safe bowl. • Melt the chocolate in the microwave on low power (40 percent is recommended but can vary by brand), until just melted. • Stir in the remaining chocolate and allow to sit in the microwave for a few minutes until the carryover heat from the melted chocolate causes the remaining chocolate to melt. Now your chocolate should be in tem- per. To check the chocolate to see if it's in good temper, dip the tip of a paring CELEBRATING TEN YEARS 2000-2010 knife into the chocolate. Allow the dipped knife to sit at a cool room temperature for a few minutes. If the chocolate has set fi rmly on the knife, is streak-free and shiny, your chocolate is in temper. Tips: You may need to add a few seconds in the microwave on low power to fi nish the melting process. It's always best to go a few seconds at a time to avoid over melting the chocolate. If the chocolate is melted too far, it will be out of temper. The easiest way to fi x it is to add an additional third of choco- late to bring it back into temper. For this reason, it's always best to have extra choco- late on hand when tempering chocolate. Another way to accomplish tempering is to melt all the chocolate two-thirds of the way and then stop to allow the car- ryover heat to melt the rest. This method takes more experience to be able to judge when to stop cooking and how long to set the timer for, but it's the fastest way to temper chocolate if you can master it. BALLANTYNE MAGAZINE 39 12. Carefully drop the truffl e into the cocoa. Try not to let excess chocolate drip into the cocoa. Roll the truffl e with your right, dry hand to coat the truffl e before the chocolate sets. When the cocoa pan is full, the truffl es should be transferred to another pan to make more room. If at anytime the tempered chocolate begins to thicken, warm it briefl y in the microwave, careful not to over melt it. If overheating occurs, put the truffl es back in the refrigerator and consult the chocolate tempering notes to reseed the chocolate. 13. When all chocolates have been dipped and rolled in cocoa, sift the cocoa powder to remove the extra chocolate and save it for future use. Spread the extra chocolate onto a piece of parchment and cut into square for future use. truffl s chocolate coating after the ganache has been dipped. e' separate and piping will be impossible. Overworked ganache can be saved by scooping with a small ice cr melon baller If the ganache is overworked it will r ganache is to make it fi ganache fr temperatur r m e t om expanding and contracting with . The purpose of tabling the e changes, which will crack the eam scoop or t o p r o e c t t h e