Chocolate Truffles

Chocolate Truffles
from the Barefoot Contessa

1/2 lb. good bittersweet chocolate (recommended, Lindt)
1/2 lb. good semisweet chocolate (recommended, Ghiradelli
NOTE: I use Hershey bars to equal 1 lb. Last year I used the free Lindt chocolate bars I got at Christmas time. I use 3 parts milk chocolate and 1 part semisweet and I like the way it turns out. Not sure how many Hershey bars that would be or the size. I would probably buy 2 half lb. milk chocolate bars and one small dark bar and take out some of the milk choclate to equal a pound of chocolate.

UPDATED NOTE 1/26/11-Half lb. candy bars no longer weigh a 1/2 lb. They are 15 oz. This past Christmas I used 2 large Hershey milk chocolate bars that were 15 oz. each, plus a row pr two of squares from a third bar and a half of a dark chocolate Hershey bar. This made it the right consistency.

1 C. heavy cream
2 T. orange flavored liqueur, optional. NOTE: I never use this
1 T. prepared coffee. NOTE: I never use this
1/2 teaspoon good vanilla extract. NOTE: I use the cheap kind, it's fine
Confectioner's sugar
cocoa powder

Chop the chocolate finely with a sharp knife. Place them in a heat proof mixing bowl.

Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it just boils. Turn off the heat and allow the cream to sit for 20 seconds. Pour the cream through a fine-meshed sieve into the bowl with chocolate. Whatever, NOTE AGAIN: I never do that step. With a wire whisk, slowly stir the cream and chocolates together until the chocolate is completely melted. Whisk in the orange flavored liqueur, if using, coffee, and vanilla. Set aside at room temperature for 1 hour. NOTE: Put it in the fridge or you'll be waiting until Dec. for it to firm up.

With 2 teaspoons, spoon round balls of the chocolate mixture onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or waxed paper. NOTE: Use your hands, it will be messy but you can wash them later. I use gloves like restaurant workers use when I do this. Roll each ball of chocolate in your hands to roughly make it round. Roll in confectioner's sugar, cocoa powder, or both. These will keep refrigerated for weeks, but serve them at room temperature.

NOTE: The kind rolled in cocoa powder will be bitter, so you may opt for the powdered sugar. My older kids happen to like the cocoa powder kind. The powdered sugar will absorb into the truffle and look kind of wet. I just re coat it before giving it away. Nuts or chocolate jimmies are also good coatings. These really are yummy.

English Toffee

Hands down. This is my favorite English Toffee recipe ever. And my mother and aunt used to make an English Toffee recipe for years in an electric fry pan. I like this recipe a teensy weensy bit better than the electric fry pan version. I don't make it any more, can't keep it in the house because I end up eating it all. It doesn't help to freeze it, because I like it that way also. And of all the things that I hide from the family so they won't eat it in 30 seconds or less and then can't remember where I've put it, yeah, I know that I would remember where I hid the toffee. And to make it better or worse, depending on how you look at it, the year I made this to give as gifts my husband had bought a case of Dove candy bars at Costco. So that was the chocolate that I used on top of the toffee. oooooooooooooo........

English Toffee
from Kim P.

1 cup sugar
1 cup butter
2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 teasoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
chopped walnuts
Cadbury bar or Hershey bar


Stir in heavy pot over medium heat until mixture turns the color of a brown paper bag (aproximately ten minutes). Pour the mixture over chopped walnuts that have been layed out and patted onto a baking sheet. The mixture will not cover the entire baking sheet, just a big circle of it in the middle. Place milk chocolate squares on top while still hot, let them melt and then spread the chocolate evenly over the toffee. This can be put in the freezer at this point to speed up setting a enjoying. Caution: Do not attempt to double this recipe. It doesn't work.

NOTE: While the mixture is boiling, and this is where it gets a bit quirky, I go to my cabinet and pull out a brown paper bag to match up the mixture to the bag so that I get it right. I also prefer pecans to walnuts, so that is the kind of nut I usually use with this. Also, I stored this in the freezer after it was made and put in gift bags to hand out. One batch got funny white spots on the chocolate from doing this. I'm sure it was just a cocoa butter thing and not some deadly freezer virus. It was a shame, I had to eat it, couldn't hand it out looking like that. So store at room temperature, I would think, unless you're saving it for you and like it frozen. Room temperature in winter in Phoenix. Not room temperature in spring, summer or fall in Phoenix. If you live elsewhere, your room temp. is probably fine all year long. I'm rambling. This stuff is good even when you mess up and it doesn't get to that hard crack stage and it's soft like a cookie.

Peanut Clusters

This is my easy no brainer treat for the holidays that my family devours

Chocolate Covered Peanut Clusters

1 package of chocolate coating, like for almond bark
1 can of salted peanuts or any nut you like (I tried it with cashew pieces and really liked it)

Melt the chocolate coating in the microwave in a deep bowl according to package directions. Stir well. Dump the nuts into the chocolate, stir, spoon out by teaspoons onto parchment or waxed paper. Let set for about an hour.