Posted in Dessert

Tasty Treat Thursdays: Nut Balls

Nut Balls

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1 ½ cups finely chopped/ground nut (hazelnuts, walnuts, pecans, etc.)
1 cup sifted flour
2 tablespoons sugar
½ cup soft butter
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Confectioner’s sugar

Prep Day: Heat oven to 375 degrees. Combine all ingredients except confectioner’s sugar in a large mixing bowl and mix thoroughly. Refrigerate dough for at least one-half hour. Form Dough into 1 inch balls, place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet and bake 15-20 min, until set but not brown. Cool partially on cooling rack and roll in confectioner’s sugar while warm. Re-roll in sugar just before serving.

Note: I baked my cookies before freezing them. Also, I used walnuts in half the cookies and pecans in the other half.

Serve Day: Thaw. Re-roll in confectioner’s sugar just before serving.

Posted in Dessert

Tasty Treat Thursdays: The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie EVER!

The Best Chocolate Chip Cookie EVER!

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Serves: 48 Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 3/4 cups (12 oz) all-purpose flour – (If at all possible, please weigh the flour)
3/4 tsp. smallish-medium coarse sea salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 1/4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips – (You’ll need about 1 1/2 bags)

Prep Day: Cream butter, sugar, and brown sugar until it is nice and fluffy (approx. 3 minutes on medium-high speed). Add both eggs and vanilla and beat for an additional 2 minutes. Add baking soda, baking powder, salt, and flour until cookie batter is fully incorporated. Finally add chocolate chips until well distributed. The cookie batter should be somewhat thick. Drop about 2 tablespoons of dough or use a medium cookie scoop and plop the batter onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Flash freeze on a tray and then place dough balls in a freezer.

Serve Day: Do NOT thaw. Preheat oven to 360 degrees. Make sure your baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake for 12-14 minutes until the edges are nice and golden brown. Remove from heat and allow the cookies to stay on the cookie sheet for an additional 2 minutes. Pick up the parchment paper with the cookies still on top and transfer to a cool non-porous surface. Allow the cookies to cool on the paper for at least 3 minutes before serving. Enjoy!

Notes: please do not use table salt, the sea salt gives the cookies a nice flavor and hints of texture. If you only have table salt, use 1/2 tsp. *When using sea salt, you will get small crunchy flecks of salt when you bite into the cookie. If you do not like this taste, go with 1/2 teaspoon of table salt.

Troubleshooting:

If you’re cookies are coming out flat, there are probably 3 reasons for this…

#1) Baking powder and Baking soda is old. If your baking powder and soda is older than 1 year and has not been in a sealed (preferably air tight) container, it has lost some of it rising qualities.

#2) Creaming. It is not enough to just cream the butter and sugars until it has come together. This recipe requires you to beat it with a mixer for 3 minutes until the texture of the butter and sugar turns to light and fluffy-just like the picture.

#3) Flour. Flour should be weighed. This can make or break the recipe because just scooping flour into a measuring cup will never yield ideal or consistent results.

Posted in Dessert

Tasty Treat Thursdays: White Chocolate Lemon Truffles

White Chocolate Lemon Truffles

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Adapted from Global Gourmet

1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp. heavy cream
Grated zest of 1 lemon
9 ounces good quality white chocolate, finely chopped
pinch of salt
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into thin slices
2 tsp. freshly-squeezed, strained lemon juice
Granulated Sugar, for coating

Prep Day: In small, heavy, non-aluminum saucepan, combine the heavy cream and lemon zest. Over low heat, heat until cream comes to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat, cover tightly and let sit for 20 minutes.

Combine the white chocolate, salt, and butter in medium heatproof bowl. Remove the cover from the cream and reheat over low heat, stirring occasionally, until it reaches a simmer. Remove from heat. Strain through fine-meshed strainer into white chocolate mixture. Press down on the lemon zest left in the strainer to extract all the liquid from it.

Place white chocolate mixture over a pot of warm water on low heat (water should not touch bottom of bowl). Stir the chocolate frequently just until almost melted. Remove the bowl from the warm pot. Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth. (Note: White chocolate can be difficult when melting. If there are small lumps of white chocolate use a food processor and process the mixture at high speed just until smooth.) Stir in lemon juice. Transfer the mixture to a small bowl. Chill at least 4 hours, covering tightly when cold.

To make truffles: Using a small cookie scoop or a spoon, form balls of about 1 inch diameter from the cold truffle base. Roll in sugar until well-coated. (If you’re having trouble, drop the small spoonful of white chocolate into the sugar, using the sugar to help roll it into a ball. Once a ball is formed, re-roll it in the sugar until coated.) Store truffles airtight in refrigerator for up to one week or freeze for longer storage.

Serve Day: Remove from refrigerator or freezer 15 to 20 minutes prior to serving time. Let stand at room temperature, covered, until serving time.