For those who like chocolate, things need to be simple, nothing too fancy.  I adore chocolate truffles, you get the luxurious flavour of chocolate melting away.  The issue is, they see to be damn expensive for just one or two little truffles with your coffee.

Fret not, as they are easy enough to make, as long as you don’t mind getting your hands messy.

Makes 18-24 truffles (dependent on size/greed etc)

• Heat the cream(115 ml) and butter ( 15 gm)  in a saucepan, and bring to the boil
• Pour this over 150 gm of broken dark chocolate
• Allow this to stand (2/3 minutes) to melt the chocolate
• Stir with a whisk till smooth

Then just take this mixture, and put it in your fridge for a couple of hours (or overnight)

It is then onto the fun part, take spoonfulls of your truffle mixture and roll them into a ball and coat with cocoa powder.  

Once created, place them back in the fridge to firm up.  They will last for a week or two, but it is likely that friends and family will have made sure they don’t!

Personally, I fall at either extremes, really dark or really sweet.  This is all about ‘real’ chocolate, nothing but the essentials are needed.  Thanks to the people at Mayan Magic (yes that was a mini plug, I did receive the kit for free) I’ve had the opportunity to get messy in the kitchen with chocolate.

Mayan Magic Closeup

The kit itself has three main ingredients, powders, butters and agave nectar (for sweetening).  Even if you can’t bake and have issues measuring things then do not fret.  It’s as simple as :

1. Chop & Melt the butters (bain marie aka bowl over water)
2. Whisk in the powders till smooth
3. Taste, and taste again.
4. Add agave nectar till sweet enough.
5. Pour into moulds.
6. Chill
7. Devour

Finished and Nibbled Chocolate

I used mini silicone tart tins as my moulds, and had a little nibble as you can see.  Check back in the next day or two (or have a look at you RSS) to see about the mess I made using the chocolate.  Just think, pure unadulterated truffles.

Therefore, no doubt people have indulged with a gluttony of chocolate based goodies.  I’m no different, and I thought I’d share some chocolate tarts I made:

Freshly decorated chocolate tarts

Chocolate Tarts (x5)

For the shortcrust pastry (~400g):

• 200g of sifted plain flour,
• 100g of diced butter
• dash of salt
• 1 beaten egg

You can of course buy in the pastry, but it’s simple enough to make (even by hand).  Combine the dry ingredients, and rub together, till you end up with flaky breadcrumb style texture.  Add the egg slowly, just enough to bind the mixture together.  Place the mixture on a work surface, bring into a ball and squish down to 2/3cm high.  Wrap it up in clingfilm and leave it in the fridge for 30mins before use.

Once chilled, roll out and line the pastry tins and blake bind for 12-15 mins, at 180C.

Chocolate Filling

• 200g of melted dark chocolate (you can use plain for a lighter tart)
• 50g flour
• 4 eggs
• 75g butter
• 100g golden caster sugar

Mix all the ingredients together (set aside a small portion of melted chocolate for decoration).  Fill the tart cases with the mixture, bake for 5-8 minutes till set.

Decorate off with the cocoa and melted chocolate in any dazzling design.

Sit back enjoy, and share with those around you.  Be careful, they are devilishy tasty.

The February 2009 challenge is hosted by Wendy of WMPE’s blog and Dharm of Dad ~ Baker & Chef.
They chose a Chocolate Valentino cake by Chef Wan; a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Dharm and a Vanilla Ice Cream recipe from Wendy as the challenge.

February’s challenge is a Flourless Chocolate Cake, Chocolate Valentino, inspired by Malaysia’s “most flamboyant food ambassador”, Chef Wan. Recipe comes from Sweet Treats by Chef Wan.

So, it required chocolate, and eggs.  Lots of both were required, I’ve put up a couple of pictures of the creation.  I must say that I don’t think I ever want to whisk egg whites by hand, time to get some robotic help in the kitchen.

Unfortunately, due to rubbish light, unsteady hands and general clumsyness I’ve only got a picture of the cake from aware; and you can’t see how rich and heavy it actually looks.

The recipe:

Chocolate Valentino
Preparation Time:  20 minutes
16 ounces (1 pound) (454 grams) of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
½ cup (1 stick) plus 2 tablespoons (146 grams total) of unsalted butter
5 large eggs separated

1. Put chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and melt, stirring often.
2. While your chocolate butter mixture is cooling. Butter your pan and line with a parchment circle then butter the parchment.
3. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites and put into two medium/large bowls.
4. Whip the egg whites in a medium/large grease free bowl until stiff peaks are formed (do not over-whip or the cake will be dry). 
5. With the same beater beat the egg yolks together.
6. Add the egg yolks to the cooled chocolate.
7. Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and follow with remaining 2/3rds. Fold until no white remains without deflating the batter. {link of folding demonstration}
8. Pour batter into prepared pan, the batter should fill the pan 3/4 of the way full, and bake at 375F/190C
9. Bake for 25 minutes until an instant read thermometer reads 140F/60C. 
Note – If you do not have an instant read thermometer, the top of the cake will look similar to a brownie and a cake tester will appear wet.
10. Cool cake on a rack for 10 minutes then unmold.

Well, what a week.  The UK officially broke down, though whilst the snow started off in the south it didn’t allow me to get away with a snow day.  Sometimes being based in Birmingham has its downsides, I had to get in the car and drive to see some clients.  Let’s just say that the return trip was a bit hairy, what with driving in a blizzard on non-gritted roads!

Back at home, due to not having any food around I was a bit of of sync with my usual routine.  Nothing too amazing this week, though my friend did manage to make a good dinner on Saturday.  He was happy with 7/10, unfortunately like many people he had an issue with a chocolate mousse not setting!

Monday: Appalling room service – Greasy Pizza with Salami
Tuesday: Onion Risotto, Squid & Belly Pork, Coffee & Petit Fours at Anthony’s
Wednesday:  Chili Con Carne (salvaged from the depths of my Freezer).  Also baked some tasty flourless chocolate brownies [I have a slight craving for chocolate on a weekly basis]
Thursday: Toad in the Hole, with yorkshire sausages and a few strips of beef.
Friday:  Leftover toad 
Saturday: [Dinner at a friends: @RedWineBoy]
Sunday: A misty haze, Beef Pie.