Booze balls are easy to make and are a great edible homemade gift that you can send to loved ones. They don't require refrigeration and can be stored at room temperature for a month.

In fact, storing them allows the booze flavours to develop over time, infusing the cookie crumbs in the mixture. So it's actually better to make these ahead and store them for a couple of weeks before serving them!

Booze balls or amaretto balls are easier to make than chocolate truffles. Truffles are made from chocolate ganache (like these Earl grey chocolate truffles made from a 1:1 ratio of dark chocolate to cream by weight). Truffles require refrigeration to store them because they are made with cream. They also require careful mixing of the ingredients because the ganache is an emulsion that is delicate and can break.

I'd say booze balls are more akin to cake truffles, which are made by combining crumbs of leftover cake with milk or alcohol. You can make Christmas cake balls from leftover light fruitcake and booze, and you can make birthday cake truffles with leftover confetti cake.

What You Need to Make Amaretto Balls

These amaretto chocolates are made from a simple list of ingredients. Here's what you need:

• chocolate—I prefer to make these with dark 70 % chocolate
• corn syrup—you can use light or golden/dark corn syrup but remember darker corn syrup has a flavour that will impact how the amaretto truffles taste
• sugar—you will need both icing sugar and granulated sugar
• nuts—I use either whole or ground nuts, typically almonds or walnuts
• alcohol—I always make these with amaretto liqueur, which is almond-flavoured and slightly sweet
• cookie crumbs—I used social tea biscuits, which are a plain, dry, vanilla-flavoured cookie that you can grind in the food processor to make crumbs.

Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.

Substitutions and Variations

• Nuts—this recipe is even easier if you use ground almonds, but you can use any nut, especially walnuts or pecans. Grind them in a food processor if you can to make them easier to incorporate and to give the truffles a finer texture. Pistachios would also be amazing here (but this would be more expensive).
• Nut-free—if you want to make nut-free booze balls, replace the nuts with sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds. Grind them as finely as possible.
• Cookies—I used plain social tea biscuits which are quite affordable and readily available in grocery stores. You could also use vanilla wafers or even graham crackers/graham cracker crumbs but the latter will add more flavour to the chocolates.
• Alcohol—I love to use amaretto, but you could also try Kahlua for a coffee-flavoured booze ball, Frangelico for a hazelnut-flavoured booze ball, Cointreau for an orange-flavoured booze ball, or any of your favourite liqueurs. You could also try bourbon or rum. The resulting chocolates will be slightly less sweet but still delicious!
• Coating—I always coat booze balls in granulated sugar or superfine sugar. I love how this looks. You could also roll them in cocoa powder or icing sugar if you prefer. Another option is to coat the truffles in a very thin layer of melted chocolate and then roll in ground nuts.

How to Make Booze Balls

Booze balls are a great no-bake Christmas treat to prepare for the holidays. I like to make them a month before and store them in the freezer. Here's how to make them:

Step 1—Place the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl and set it over a pan of simmering water (image 1). Melt the chocolate until smooth (image 2), then add the corn syrup (image 3) and stir it in. The chocolate mixture will thicken slightly (image 4).

Please note that you can melt the chocolate in the microwave if you prefer, but I like to do this step on the stove.

Step 2—Place your plain biscuits or wafers in the food processor (image 5) and grind them into fine crumbs (image 6), then add the melted chocolate mixture, ground nuts, icing sugar, and alcohol (image 7). Process the mixture until it comes together into a cohesive mass (image 8).

Step 3—Scoop the mixture into small truffles (image 9) and then roll them in a shallow dish of granulated sugar to coat them (image 10).

Storage Information

You can store these chocolate amaretto truffles at room temperature for a couple of weeks, but for longer storage, place them in an airtight container in the freezer.

More Homemade Gifts

If you like to give homemade gifts for the holidays, here are a few other easy confection recipes to try:

If you tried this recipe for the best booze balls (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Booze Balls

This easy recipe for booze balls made from dark chocolate and amaretto makes a great edible gift to send to loved ones for the holidays.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Total Time 35 minutes minutes

Servings 66

Calories 60kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Food processor
• Wooden spoon

Ingredients

• 175 grams dark chocolate (70 % cocoa content) or your favourite dark chocolate
• 45 mL light corn syrup
• 300 grams vanilla wafers or other grocery store plain cookies like social tea cookies
• 120 grams ground almonds or chopped walnuts
• 63 grams icing sugar
• 125 mL amaretto liqueur
• Granulated sugar for rolling

Metric - US

Instructions

• Melt the chocolate over a double boiler or in the microwave at 50% power. Set aside.
• Add the corn syrup and stir well to mix.
• In the bowl of a food processor, combine the vanilla wafers with the chopped nuts. Process the mixture to form fairly fine crumbs.
• Add the powdered sugar, amaretto, and melted chocolate mixture.
• Mix really well until it forms a cohesive mass.
• Let stand about 20 minutes and then form the mixture into 1-inch balls (roughly 13 grams mixture per ball).
• Roll the balls in granulated sugar. Store in an airtight container.

Notes

• Chocolate—I used 70 % dark chocolate by Cacao Barry (specifically called Ocoa). It is not too sweet. You can use any semisweet to bittersweet chocolate that you like. Try to pick something you think will go well with the alcohol and nuts you are incorporating in these booze balls
• Nuts—this recipe is even easier if you use ground almonds, but you can use any nut, especially walnuts or pecans. Grind them in a food processor if you can to make them easier to incorporate and to give the truffles a finer texture. Pistachios would also be amazing here (but this would be more expensive).
• Nut-free—if you want to make nut-free booze balls, replace the nuts with sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds. Grind them as finely as possible.
• Cookies—I used plain social tea biscuits which are quite affordable and readily available in grocery stores. You could also use vanilla wafers or even graham crackers/graham cracker crumbs but the latter will add more flavour to the chocolates.
• Alcohol—I love to use amaretto, but you could also try Kahlua for a coffee-flavoured booze ball, Frangelico for a hazelnut-flavoured booze ball, Cointreau for an orange-flavoured booze ball, or any of your favourite liqueurs. You could also try bourbon or rum. The resulting chocolates will be slightly less sweet but still delicious!
• Coating—I always coat booze balls in granulated sugar or superfine sugar. I love how this looks. You could also roll them in cocoa powder or icing sugar if you prefer. Another option is to coat the truffles in a very thin layer of melted chocolate and then roll in ground nuts.

Nutrition

Calories: 60kcal | Carbohydrates: 7g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 3g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 1mg | Sodium: 19mg | Potassium: 31mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 4g | Vitamin A: 1IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 1mg

The post Booze Balls with Dark Chocolate and Amaretto appeared first on The Bake School.

This homemade chocolate bars recipe post is sponsored by Cacao Barry.

Homemade chocolate bars are the best. They aren't as difficult to make as you would think. You can customize what you put into them. They make great gifts. And to be honest, I find it very comforting to have a container of these stashed in the fridge for emergencies that can only be solved with a big hunk of chocolate. You know what I mean? Stashes of chocolate are essential in my life.

How do you make chocolate bars?

What kind of chocolate should be used to make homemade chocolate bars?

To make good homemade chocolate bars, you should start with great chocolate because this is really all about the chocolate. I used Cacao Barry Alunga milk chocolate, which many refer to as the milk chocolate for dark chocolate lovers. It's creamy and chocolaty, but not too sweet. It melts beautifully and sets up nicely even without tempering the chocolate. You can buy the 1 kilo bags in some IGA stores in Quebec or you can order it from Vanilla Food Company online from Vanilla Food Company and have it shipped right to your door. Use milk chocolate if you want to make homemade milk chocolate bars, but if you want to make dark chocolate bars, by all means use dark chocolate. Again, choose a quality chocolate to make chocolate bars at home. 

Tools to make homemade chocolate bars

Besides chocolate, the other thing you will need to make chocolate bars at home is moulds. I used two types of moulds: a Lékué 9-cavity silicone mini cake mould (like this one on Amazon) that requires no prep whatsoever, and a set of four mini loaf cake pans (quite like these on Amazon), which require greasing in order to ensure the chocolate bars will unmold properly. Honestly, if you can find silicone pans or candy moulds, I'd use them. Silicone makes perfect moulds for chocolate-making because it requires zero prep (no greasing the pans or anything) and it makes the whole process stress-free (and I think foolproof too). Trust me. You can pop the chocolate bars right out of the moulds without a struggle.

Homemade chocolate bar toppings

My personal favourite chocolate bars are the ones made with puffed rice (Rice Krispies) and the ones that are salty-sweet. So for this chocolate bar recipe, I made some bars with puffed rice, some with puffed quinoa, and a few with pretzels to achieve that super satisfying salty sweet flavour that everybody loves. I also made many with coconut, both shredded and flaked because that's what my brother loves and sharing is caring! I sprinkled a few of the coconut chocolate bars with matcha too, which adds a light tea flavour that balances out the sweetness of the milk chocolate bar. Really though, you can make these with any of your favourite candy bar fillings. Be creative! 

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Homemade Chocolate Bars

Making chocolate bars at home is easy! Now you can make homemade candy bars and top them with all your favourite ingredients.

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 minutes minutes

Total Time 12 minutes minutes

Servings 9

Calories 69kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Ingredients

• 115 grams milk chocolate (41 % cocoa content)
• 45 grams puffed rice, puffed quinoa, crushed salted pretzels, etc plus more for garnishing

Metric - US

Instructions

• In a microwave safe bowl, heat the Alunga milk chocolate on power level 5 for 1 to 2 minutes until it's melted. Make sure to pause the microwave every so often to give the chocolate a stir. 
• Remove the bowl from the microwave and stir in 3 tablespoon of puffed rice, puffed quinoa, crushed salted pretzels, or even chopped nuts. Mix well.
• Divide the chocolate mixture between the cavities of a 9-cavity silicone mini cake mould. Sprinkle with more toppings.
• Place in the fridge for 20 minutes at least or until set. Unmold and store in an airtight container.

Notes

• If you use the 9-cavity Lékué mould (from Amazon), you will make 9 thin bars with this recipe.
• If you use mini loaf cake pans (like the ones you find on Amazon), you MUST grease them first by brushing them with a little canola oil. This recipe will yield 4 wider bars (see picture).
• For the milk chocolate, I used Cacao Barry Alunga 41 % milk chocolate.
• For the dark chocolate, I used Cacao Barry Ocoa 70 % dar chocolate.

Nutrition

Calories: 69kcal

 If you don't have moulds to make chocolate bars, here's how to make chocolate bark!

You can use this same chocolate bar recipe to make homemade chocolate bark. Just line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment, then pour the melted chocolate on the parchment and spread it as thin or as thick as you'd like. Then sprinkle generously with your favourite toppings. Put the pan in the fridge to set. Then when the chocolate bark is hard, you can just break it into pieces. Be sure to store the chocolate bark in the fridge.

And you can always make earl grey lavender chocolate truffles or other flavoured chocolate truffles by infusing cream for chocolate ganache.

This post is sponsored by Cacao Barry.

The post Homemade chocolate bars appeared first on The Bake School.

Ingredients to Make Earl Grey Truffles

Homemade chocolate truffles are surprisingly easy to make with simple ingredients: chocolate, cream, and cocoa powder. Since chocolate truffles only have three ingredients, use the best chocolate, cocoa powder and cream you can buy because this is a recipe where the chocolate shines! Here's what you need to make these Earl Grey truffles:

• cream—I used 35 % whipping cream to make rich chocolate truffles
• chocolate—I recommend using 70 % chocolate that has a fruity flavour. Do not use chocolate chips in this recipe because they are too sweet and designed not to melt.
• tea—I used loose-leaf Earl Grey tea, but you can use any favourite of yours as long as you think it will complement the chocolate you are using
• cocoa powder—I coated the truffles with Dutch-processed cocoa powder, specifically Extra Brute cocoa powder from Cacao Barry. It has a lovely reddish-brown hue and a higher fat content..

Please see the recipe card for the exact quantites and ingredients.

Variations and Substitutions

The great thing about chocolate truffles is that they are great enjoyed as is, but you can also infuse them with some fun flavours. When flavouring truffles, try to think about the type of chocolate you are using and its flavour profile so that you can pair it with the right ingredients:

• Fruity chocolate—enhance that with a cream infused with lemon or orange zest.
• Floral chocolate—pair it with Earl Grey tea, lavender, or rose buds.
• Woody chocolate—great with some cinnamon or chilli to make a spicy batch of truffles with a little kick to them.
• Nutty chocolate—try adding a little Amaretto or Frangelico liqueur to your ganache!

It's so easy to add flavour to chocolate truffles by adding tea, herbs, citrus zest, and spices to the hot cream and letting it steep before pouring it over the chocolate. The key is to add as much flavour to the cream as possible.

I like to use a 70% dark chocolate from Cacao Barry called Ocoa, which has slightly sour, fruity, and woody notes that are perfect paired with Earl Grey tea. Be sure to taste the chocolate you will use to make truffles. You want to make chocolate ganache and truffles with a chocolate you enjoy eating. 

You may notice some extra ingredients in some truffle recipes:

• Glucose or corn syrup is added as a preservative when making ganache. It increases the truffles' shelf-life and creates a more elastic, soft, and chewy texture compared to truffles made without.
• Butter or cocoa butter is added to temper the ganache, creating a smoother, more velvety texture.

How to Make Truffles

Homemade truffles are very easy to make. Here's how you can make Earl Grey tea-infused chocolate truffles at home:

Step 1: Start by chopping the chocolate (image 1) and placing it in a heat-proof bowl (image 2). Meanwhile, heat the cream with the Earl Grey tea (image 3). Let the hot cream infused for 10 minutes (image 4).

Step 2: Bring the cream back to 70 °C (158 °F), then pour the hot cream through a strainer set over the chocolate (image 5). Let the mixture stand for 1 minute to allow for heat transfer, then emulsify the mixture using a whisk (image 6), a spatula/spoon, or even an immersion blender (image 7). The mixture should be smooth and glossy.

Step 3: Cover the ganache, placing plastic wrap directly on the surface and chill it for a few hours in the fridge until set (image 8), then scoop and roll the ganache into truffles with gloved hands (image 9). Toss the truffles in cocoa powder to coat them lightly (image 10).

Top Tip: Fixing a Broken Ganache

Chocolate ganache is a delicate emulsion of fats and liquids. These two do not necessarily want to interact or engage together, as we know: fats and water tend to separate into two distinct layers that seem immiscible. So sometimes, instead of making a smooth, fluid, emulsified ganache, you may end up with a broken ganache where the fat has separated out and the cocoa solids and sugar are left behind with the water.

A broken ganache may appear chunky with pools of clear fat separated out. it doesn't adhere to spoons or spatulas and slides right off. It is frustrating when this happens, but you can fix a broken ganache! Here's how:

Step 1: Identify that you have a broken ganache. The ganache should be warm, not hot, and all the chocolate should have completely melted, but the fat is separating from the mixture. The broken ganache may look lumpy or chunky (though it is melted). It doesn't adhere to surfaces like your mixing bowl, whisk, wooden spoon, or spatula and slides right off (image 1).

Step 2: Add a splash of cold liquid (water or milk—I used cold skim milk straight from the fridge) (image 2).

Step 3: Stir the mixture and continue adding a splash of cold milk every minute or so until you can see the ganache coming together (image 3). To fix the broken ganache in this recipe, I added a maximum of 2 tablespoons of cold milk to get it emulsified. The emulsified ganache should be smooth, fluid, and emulsified (image 4). It will cling to the bowl when you stir it and coat your spoon or spatula.

Chocolate Truffle FAQs

Homemade Candy is Fun

These easy Earl Grey chocolate truffles are perfectly smooth, mildly floral and citrusy from the lavender and Earl Grey. You could infuse the cream with any of your favourite teas/herbs, but I love Earl Grey and lavender tea. Double up on the tea for a more pronounced flavour and infuse the cream for longer. Chocolate truffles are easy to make. Try them and see for yourself.

If you like to make chocolates and confections, try these chocolate booze balls, birthday cake truffles and fruitcake truffles!

Other Recipes with Tea

Actually, you can use this same technique to infuse other desserts with tea. For example, you can make flavoured panna cotta by infusing the milk/cream with tea or another flavour. These recipes for Earl Grey panna cotta tarts, Earl Grey chocolate tart, and even Earl Grey hot chocolate are prime examples of infusing tea flavour into desserts. I've infused frosting and cake layers to make this impressive Earl Grey cake.

If you tried this Earl Grey chocolate truffle recipe (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Earl Grey Chocolate Truffles

Learn how to make the best Earl Grey chocolate truffles with this easy recipe infused with Earl Grey tea. These make a great homemade gift for Valentine's Day or other holidays!

Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Prep Time 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time 5 minutes minutes

Chill time 3 hours hours

Total Time 3 hours hours 20 minutes minutes

Servings 22 truffles

Calories 79kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Ingredients

• 170 mL whipping cream (35 % fat)
• 5 grams loose leaf Earl Grey tea
• 175 grams dark chocolate (70 % cocoa content)
• 45 grams Cacao Barry extra brute cocoa powder for coating the truffles

Metric - US

Instructions

• In a small saucepan, heat the cream with the tea leaves over medium—high heat. When the cream has almost come to a boil (steamy and hot), take it off the heat and let it infuse for 10 minutes.
• In the meantime, chop the dark chocolate. Transfer the chopped chocolate to a metal or glass bowl.
• When the tea has steeped sufficiently, check the temperature of the cream. Make sure it's at 70 °C (158 °F). If it's not, heat it again on the stove, then strain the cream mixture over the chocolate, pressing the tea leaves into the strainer to extract all the cream.
• Let the chocolate+cream mixture stand for 1–2 minutes to allow for heat transfer. Whisk the cream/chocolate mixture until the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth. You can use an immersion blender.
• Cover the bowl with plastic wrap (placing the wrap directly on the surface of the ganache), and chill it for about 2–3 hours until the mixture is firm enough to scoop and roll into truffles.
• Scoop and roll truffles in small, 12 gram portions. You will get about 22–24 truffles. Use gloved hands to roll the truffles between your palms.
• Toss each truffle in the cocoa powder to coat it, tapping off the excess.
• Store the truffles in an airtight container.

Notes

• For the tea leaves, I have tested this recipe with loose-leaf Earl Grey tea and Earl grey lavender tea.
• For the chocolate, I have tested this recipe with Saint-Domingue Cacao Barry (70% dark chocolate) and also Cacao Barry Ocoa (70% dark chocolate).
• Optional: Add 28 grams (2 tbsp) of butter to the emulsified ganache to temper it and create a smooth finish.
• To make firmer truffles, use a higher ratio of chocolate to cream, like 290 grams dark chocolate for 170 grams (⅔ cup) whipping cream. 
• Other flavours to try: infuse cream with lemon or orange zest, masala chai, lavender or rose buds, cinnamon or chilli.

Nutrition

Calories: 79kcal | Carbohydrates: 5g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.002g | Cholesterol: 9mg | Sodium: 4mg | Potassium: 95mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 117IU | Vitamin C: 0.05mg | Calcium: 14mg | Iron: 1mg

The post Earl Grey Chocolate Truffles appeared first on The Bake School.

This recipe for homemade nut butter cups was sponsored by Cacao Barry.

Last summer, when I visited Seattle, I fell in love with chocolate tahini ice cream from Frankie & Joe's. I was honestly full of judgment when I saw the flavour listed on the menu. Who mixes chocolate and sesame? Brilliant people do. That's who!

After that one scoop of ice cream, I became OBSESSED with the combination of chocolate and tahini (sesame butter). And that's how we ended up with a recipe for chocolate tahini cups (quite like Reese's peanut butter cups) that can be tweaked with your favourite nut butter.

How do you make chocolate peanut butter cups? (or chocolate any-nut-butter cups)

Ever wondered how to make peanut butter cups at home? Just like homemade chocolate bars, making chocolates at home is not as difficult as you would think.

Ingredients you need to make chocolate nut butter cups

Peanut butter cups have two components: a chocolate exterior and a nut butter filling.

1. The chocolate exterior can be white, dark, or milk chocolate. Buy the best quality chocolate when you make chocolates and confections at home. I buy Cacao Barry chocolate. Whatever chocolate you choose, make sure you choose the best chocolate for baking.
2. The nut butterfilling can be:
   • smooth and unsweetened: plain, all-natural nut butter (peanut butter, almond butter, sesame butter)
   • smooth and sweet: a mixture of nut butter and icing sugar (which sweetens and thickens the filling), but I've also made peanut butter cups sweetened with maple syrup and even salted caramel (the ultimate!)
   • crunchy and sweet: a mixture of nut butter, icing sugar, and ground nuts or cookie crumbs which add a lovely texture—adding cookie crumbs is especially useful if you are working with a very fluid nut/seed butter, like tahini

You don't need any fancy equipment to make chocolate peanut butter cups at home

The good news is that if you want to make chocolate peanut butter cups at home, it's easy. In general, you don't need much to make homemade chocolates, really. To make nut butter cups, you need:

• a muffin pan and cupcake liners (plain white liners from Amazon will do just fine) OR if you have a silicone muffin liners (like these on Amazon), you don't even need to use paper liners or a muffin pan. Silicone muffin liners actually work really well for this type of recipe and the chocolate cups pop right out when they set. Since this recipe makes 18, you will need two 12-muffin pans (like these on Amazon) or three 6-muffin pans (such as these on Amazon). I actually used one 12 cup muffin pan and one 6 cup muffin pan because that's what I have.
• a microwave and a bowl OR a double boiler with a bowl set on top—this is to melt the chocolate. In an ideal world you would temper the chocolate, but that can be a little more challenging, so we won't go there.

A little about nut butters and seed butters

Nut butters and seed butters vary in thickness, as you have probably noticed. All-natural peanut butter, when properly mixed, can be quite thick. On the other hand, some almond butters and sesame butters (tahini) are much more fluid or liquid. In general, when you bring home a new jar of nut butter or seed butter, you should open it and stir it very well so that the oil layer gets evenly dispersed into the nut butter. Be sure to dig right to the bottom of the jar when you stir it. Once you feel like the nut butter is well mixed, immediately close the jar and store it in the fridge. Properly mixed nut butter will stay mixed longer when it's cold.

The fluidity of the nut or seed butter you use for this recipe will impact how liquidy the filling is. So filling chocolates with it can be tricky. You may have to tweak this recipe according to the nut butter you use:

• For fluid nut/seed butters like tahini, I would recommend making a filling with cookie crumbs to help minimize the mess when you eat the chocolate sesame butter cups. Food52 has another way, using cold water, which causes the tahini to cease. This is another option if you don't want to use cookie crumbs to thicken the filling
• On the other hand, for thicker nut butters like peanut butter, you could get away mixing in a little maple syrup or icing sugar to make the filling for chocolate peanut butter cups without running into any problems. I've done this a few times quite successfully. Or for a crunchy texture, add in some cookie crumbs. It's really up to you!

If you need to be peanut-free treat, use almond butter or sesame butter to make peanut-free peanut butter cups. If you have to go nut-free, use sesame butter.

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Homemade Chocolate Sesame Butter Cups

A stack of homemade chocolate sesame butter cups, just like peanut butter cups but with tahini instead of peanut butter. This recipe yields crunchy nut butter filled chocolate cups. 

Course Dessert, Snack

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 18

Calories 153kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Silicone liners
• Muffin pan
• Paper muffin liners

Ingredients

• 80 mL tahini (sesame butter)
• 45 mL icing sugar
• 1 generous pinch Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 50 grams cookie crumbs
• 375 grams milk chocolate (41 % cocoa content)

Optional garnishes

• Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• Toasted sesame seeds

Metric - US

Instructions

• Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners or use 18 silicone muffin cups.

  In a medium bowl, mix the tahini (sesame butter) to make sure it's smooth. Sift in the icing sugar. Add a pinch of salt and the cookie crumbs. Mix well to form the sesame butter filling. Set aside in the refrigerator.
• Meanwhile, melt the chocolate either in the microwave at power level 5 or over a double boiler. You want to be gentle to avoid burning the chocolate and you want to stir often, especially if you are melting chocolate in the microwave. 
• When the chocolate is melted and smooth, pour a spoonful into each prepared cup, making sure to tilt and coat the sides with chocolate (about ¼ inch to ½ inch max up the sides. 
• When all 18 cups are coated with a layer of chocolate, add a dollop (about 2 tsp) of the sesame butter filling
• Put the chocolate cups in the freezer and let them chill for a good 10 minutes to set.
  
• Top each cup with a layer of melted chocolate so that the filling is completely covered and sealed inside. Sprinkle with flaky sea salt or sesame seeds, if using. Return the chocolate cups to the freezer to set.
• Transfer to a container and store in the fridge.

Notes

• This recipe calls for Diamond Crystal fine Kosher salt. If using regular table salt, add half the amount or the recipe may be too salty!
• For the cookie crumbs, stick to cookies that are pretty neutral tasting like vanilla wafer crumbs or even chocolate wafer crumbs (Oreo type). Graham cracker crumbs and gingersnap crumbs would work as well, but remember these would impart a cinnamon and spice to your nut butter filling.
• This recipe works with peanut butter or any nut butter or sesame butter to make peanut butter cups with a crunchy filling.
• For this recipe, I used Alunga chocolate, which is a 41% milk chocolate produced by Cacao Barry. You can find it at many IGA grocery stores in Quebec or you can order it online from Vanilla Food Company in 1 kilo resealable bags.
• Because we don't temper the chocolate, the chocolate melts faster when you hold these chocolate nut butter cups in your hands. Store them in the fridge to keep them cool and don't hold onto them for too long if you have hot hands.
• Tahini and "natural" nut butters tend to separate as they sit, with the solids sticking to the bottom of the container and the oil floating to the top. Make sure to scrape, stir, and shake well before measuring to ensure a good mix of both components.
   

Nutrition

Calories: 153kcal

This post is sponsored by Cacao Barry. I was compensated monetarily and with product. Thanks for supporting the companies that allow me to create content for Kitchen Heals Soul. As always, please know that I wouldn’t work with a sponsor nor recommend a product if it wasn’t worth it.
Please note this post contains affiliate links to Amazon. If you buy a product I recommend, I will get a small commission, and the price you have to pay will not change in any way.

The post Homemade chocolate peanut butter cups with any nut (or seed) appeared first on The Bake School.

When I was making salted caramel sauce the other day, I didn't caramelize the sugar enough and my caramel sauce was much too blond and light, so the flavour wasn't great. I made another batch, storing the blonder caramel in the fridge for later. The blond caramel sauce got me thinking if caramel sauce and soft caramel candies are made from the same recipe. So that's what I set out to investigate.

What You Need To Make Homemade Caramel Candies

If you can make salted caramel sauce, then you can make salted butter caramels. To make salted caramels, you are just taking the salted caramel sauce one step further by cooking it a second time.

Like caramel sauce, salty caramels are made from a lot of sugar, but also butter and whipping cream (35 %) and those two last ingredients play an important role in the texture of the final product, making it more taffy like and soft than if the caramels were made from straight sugar. The combination of cooking temperature and ingredients turns the hot sugar mixture into something that is soft, pliable, and stretchy, yet still firm enough to cut, hold its shape, and provide a chewy texture.

Homemade caramels are usually made from the same very basic ingredients: water, sugar, salted butter, and cream. Even though at their core, most soft caramels are made from the same components, there can be some variations and substitutions possible. 

• Some recipes may use unsalted butter, instead of salted butter, in which case salt is added to the caramel mixture, as well as a garnish 
• Some recipes may call for a mixture of brown sugar and granulated sugar instead of just granulated sugar. I don't do this because I find the brown sugar can cause confusion when it comes time to visually determining if your caramel has, well, caramelized. It's hard to make a judgment on the colour change if the mixture starts out tinted with brown sugar
• Some recipes may add honey, glucose, invert sugar, or corn syrup to the pot to make the caramel: these are added to prevent the sugar and caramel from crystallizing: we want smooth, soft, chewy caramels, not dry, gritty, or crystallized caramels. Florentine cookies are made with honey for this reason (and also for flavour)

Please see the recipe card for the exact ingredients and quantities.

Tools To Make Perfect Soft Caramels

Whether you are making soft caramels or caramel sauce, technically, you don't need a thermometer to make it. Still, I highly recommend you use an instant-read thermometer that registers changes in temperature quickly so that you can act fast and at the right moment. Takes a lot of the guesswork out of the cooking.

Soft caramels are caramel sauce that has been cooked to 121 °C (250 °F), which in terms of cooked sugar stages, the mixture is right in between firm ball and hard ball. The temperature is very important to achieve the right texture, but the temperature isn't the only factor in achieving a good set: the ingredients in the soft caramel also play a role.

Here is a list of the special equipment you might want to invest in if you plan on making caramels:

• a medium saucepan that is the right size! Avoid using a small saucepan even if when you start, you think there’s plenty of room. There isn’t. You need a bigger pot than you think to make caramel sauce and caramels or else the boiling sugar mixture will boil over and make a real mess of your stove. Aim to use a pan that is at least 2 L (or 1.9 Qt). Obviously, a spaghetti pot would be overkill here, but you get my point. Don’t use a small saucepan.
• a wooden spoon or a heatproof silicone spatula
• a candy thermometer, preferably an instant-read thermometer: though a cheap glass candy thermometer on Amazon can work, I prefer using an instant-read probe thermometer like the ChefAlarm from Thermoworks. While both types will have no problem measuring the temperature of the caramel mixture as it boils, the analog glass thermometer will be slower to display the change in temperature. If you are going to use a thermometer to follow the temperature fluctuations in this caramel recipe, use a digital probe thermometer that is fast-reading.
• an 8×8-inch brownie pan with straight edges and right-angle “square” corners: a square pan with straight edges will make cutting the caramel into even pieces easier. A square glass pan will also work, but I prefer metal pans with sharper edges, like this one.
• a metal bench scraper to cut the caramels into squares is the best tool for this job. Truly, if you don't have a metal bench scraper, I highly encourage you to invest in one now. I will never use a chef's knife for this cutting job now that I've discovered how easy it is with the bench scraper. I love the Nordic Ware and OXO bench scrapers because they have graduated measurements marked on the blade that you can use as a ruler/cutting guide—the OXO bench scraper is available on Amazon.
• 4x4-inch squares of parchment paper, which you can find on Amazon. You could cut your own from parchment paper, but I feel like cutting 49 squares of parchment paper is a big waste of time and I lack the patience. If you have a local restaurant supply store, call them to see if they sell 4x4 squares of parchment or burger patty papers would work too! Note that not all papers are greaseproof so if the paper you buy isn't, the paper will absorb some of the fat from the surface of the caramels. It's not very pretty but also not a big deal!

Making Caramels Without A Thermometer

In pastry school, we weren't allowed to use thermometers and we boiled a lot of sugar syrups to make many recipes, like Italian meringue buttercream, which requires you to boil sugar to the soft ball stage (around 115 ºC). To check the temperature without a thermometer, we used ice water. We took a small sample of the boiling syrup and dropped it in ice water. If the syrup formed a soft ball, it was at the soft ball stage. If the syrup just disintegrated in the water, it wasn't hot enough. If the syrup formed a hard ball, you'd gone too far.

If you don't have a thermometer but you still want to make soft caramels, I think the same technique would be your best bet. Set up an ice bath next to your stove and then periodically drop a small amount of the boiling caramel in the bath. If it forms a ball that's between firm to hard, then you've cooked it enough. If the ball is too soft or disintegrates in the water, you haven't cooked it enough. 

I highly recommend you buy a thermometer and the thermometer is your best tool to check if you've cooked your caramel enough. But if you are really in a bind, try the ice bath technique. Let me know how it goes because I've never tried it for caramels.

Ingredients and substitutions

Do you actually need corn syrup?

When you are making boiled sugar recipes, like caramel sauces, you may see recipes recommend adding corn syrup to the mixture of sugar and water. The corn syrup is added to stop the sugar (sucrose) from crystallizing. Remember, as you heat water and sugar, you form a syrup of dissolved sugar. As the dilute mixture heats up more and more, some of the water will evaporate: the syrup becomes more concentrated. When sucrose is concentrated in a syrup, it may "crash out of solution" meaning it crystallizes because you have a highly pure, highly concentrated syrup of sucrose and those sucrose molecules want to pile up and crystallize.

Adding in corn syrup (glucose, or another invert sugar) is the equivalent of adding an impurity to sucrose because glucose and sucrose are not the same thing. And when the sugar syrup has an impurity like corn syrup in it, the sucrose is less likely to want to crystallize.

Florentine cookies are made with honey, adding flavour but also preventing crystallization!

When I make salted caramel sauce and when I make soft caramels like this, I don't add any corn syrup, but I am very careful to make sure the sugar dissolves properly from the beginning. Once the butter and the cream are added to the mixture, it's much less likely the mixture will crystallize at that point.

On the other hand, with quick caramel sauces made from brown sugar: those do have a tendency to crystallize and so in that case, a little corn syrup can help! But for salted caramels, like this recipe, I don't think it's necessary.

Caramel Troubleshooting And FAQs

Homemade caramels are too soft

One of the reasons your caramels might end up too soft is that your caramel was undercooked and that the caramel mixture wasn’t cooked to a high enough temperature of 121 °C (250 °F). You need to boil the caramel mixture long enough so it reaches 121 °C (250 °F). At 121 ºC:

• most of the water has boiled off
• the sugar is concentrated
• the sugar has cooked to a stage somewhere between firm ball and hard ball

While some recipes will recommend a timeframe for how long to boil the sugar mixture, I don’t think this is a reliable method for making soft caramels because your stove is different than my stove. It might take me 20 minutes to reach 121 ºC but it could take you less time (or more time). This is why it’s important to use a candy thermometer to make soft caramels and to monitor the temperature. The same goes for making maple fudge.

How to salvage soft caramels that are too soft and don't set

You can salvage undercooked, soft caramels that are too soft and don't set. Put the mixture back in a saucepan. Heat the mixture on medium–low to dissolve/melt everything. Once you have a smooth consistency, then you can bring the mixture up to a boil and make sure to continue to heat the mixture until your thermometer reads 121 °C (250 °F), at which point you can pour the mixture back into the prepared pan.

Homemade Caramels Set Too Hard

If your soft caramels end up too hard, it could mean you've overcooked the mixture. You've boiled the caramel sauce to too high a temperature, above 121 ºC (250 ºF). Remember that at this temperature, the caramel is on the cusp of hard ball. If you boil the mixture above this temperature, the cooled mixture will be firmer and harder the higher you go. This means you may end up with hard caramels instead of soft caramels. This popcorn brittle was made by boiling the sugar to the "hard crack" stage and so, as you would expect, the brittle is very hard. It's unlikely your soft caramels will end up as hard as brittle, given the cream and butter in the recipe, but they can end up harder than you anticipated.

If it happens that your caramel sets too hard, you can still eat them, but be careful not to break a tooth! You could try breaking the caramel up into a pot, redissolving it in water, and heating the mixture back up to 121 ºC (250 ºF). Then go through the process of pouring into a greased pan and letting the caramels set. But honestly, you may have a hard time completely dissolving the hard caramel in water. The process won't be easy...

Caramels Too Dark

The key to soft caramels that are golden brown and aren't too dark is to start with a caramel sauce made from light-coloured caramel. I've made a lot of batches of soft caramels, and it turns out that a caramel sauce that is the perfect colour for serving as a sauce (more brown than golden) makes very dark, almost mahogany caramels. When you make caramels, you start by making a caramel sauce, which you then put on the stove to cook again. That extra cooking leads to browning, probably Maillard browning, as opposed to caramelization. 

Maillard browning happens when the sugar is exposed to heat, a higher pH, and protein. Since salted caramel sauce is made with butter and cream, we've added protein to the mixture, and then heating it up on the stove again means the sugars will brown. This is the same browning that is caused by baking soda in baked goods.

The good news is that darker caramels are still VERY yummy. But if you want lighter coloured caramels, consider stopping your caramel by deglazing with cream when it's a lighter colour, more of a golden yellow on the verge of amber, rather than an amber colour.

Recipes With Caramel

If you love salted caramels and any dessert with caramel, try these recipes:

• apple tarte tatin starts with a dry caramel
• apple bundt cake is topped with caramel sauce
• dulce de leche is a variant of caramel and you can use it to make alfajores cookies

If you tried this recipe for the best sea salt caramels (or any other recipe on my website), please leave a ⭐ star rating and let me know how it went in the comments below. I love hearing from you!

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Sea Salt Caramels

Soft chewy caramel are easy to make with this recipe, made fancy with flaky sea salt to finish them. These make an awesome homemade gift during the holidays!

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Set time 12 hours hours

Total Time 12 hours hours 25 minutes minutes

Servings 49

Calories 66kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• Pastry brush
• 8x8-inch pan
• Bench scraper
• ChefAlarm thermometer
• 4x4 wrappers

Ingredients

• 125 mL water plus more for brushing sides of pan
• 400 grams granulated sugar
• 115 grams salted butter cut into cubes
• 250 mL whipping cream (35 % fat)
• Flaky sea salt

Metric - US

Instructions

• Measure all your ingredients before beginning and have them ready. This is very important.
• Prepare your baking pan by brushing the pan all over the inside and inner walls with canola oil. Line the pan with two sheets of parchment leaving overhangs. These will serve as slings for you to pull the caramels out of the pan later. You can use mini binder clips to fasten the parchment slings in place.
• In a deep 3 quart saucepan, pour the water, and then the sugar. Don’t stir it.
• Bring the mixture to a boil over medium heat. If there’s sugar stuck on the sides of the pan, carefully brush it with a heat-resistant silicone brush dipped in a little water. Feel free to swirl the pan to give the mixture a stir, but when you set it back on the burner, brush the edges of the pan with water to dissolve the sugar crystals from the walls of the pot.
• Once the sugar is completely dissolved and the mixture starts to bubble, you can increase the heat on the stove to medium–high, or you can leave it on medium. The only difference is that on medium, it will take longer for the mixture to caramelize.
• Continue to boil the caramel until it turns light amber in colour (don't let it get too dark!). As soon as the caramel has reached the desired colour, slide the pan off the heat, and turn the burner off.
• Slowly and carefully drop in the cubed butter (it will bubble and erupt so be careful!). Pour in the cream, slowly and carefully.
• When the bubbling has calmed down, begin to gently whisk the caramel until it is smooth and homogeneous.
• Return the pan to the burner and turn it back on to medium–high. Bring the mixture back to the boil and cook the caramel until it reaches 121 ºC (250 ºF) on an instant read thermometer.
• Once the caramel has reached the desired temperature, turn the burner off and carefully pour the hot caramel into the prepared pan.
• Let the caramel set for 30 minutes, then sprinkle generously with flaky sea salt. Let the caramels set overnight.
• When the caramels have set, remove the slab from the pan using the parchment sling to lift it out of the pan. Set it on a cutting board.
• Brush a metal bench scraper with a little oil, then cut the slab of caramel into 49 pieces (so 7 rows x 7 columns). Individually wrap each caramel in a 4x4 inch square of parchment or wax paper, twisting the ends to secure the wrapper in place.

Nutrition

Calories: 66kcal | Carbohydrates: 8g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 12mg | Sodium: 19mg | Potassium: 4mg | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 134IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 1mg

The post How To Make Sea Salt Caramels appeared first on The Bake School.

Most of us don't make candy confections very often. So far, I've made popcorn brittle, vanilla marshmallows, and maple fudge. With most of these recipes, the ratio of ingredients is key. However, let's face it, I may have a Ph.D. in Chemistry, but I am still the queen of math errors. In grad school, I was often "off" by a factor of 10, meaning my decimal point got placed at the wrong spot. Brilliant. I cannot stress how colossally annoying it is to make careless math errors only to realize it at the end of an experiment. And of course, last week, I made a doozy in my first batch of blood orange pâte de fruit that I carried through 3 subsequent batches until I realized what I had done. It took me 4 batches of pâte de fruit, and much swearing until it dawned on me that the amount of sugar I had calculated was half what it should be.

Reminds me of that famous Latin quote "Errare humanum est"—to err is human. (Yes, I took Latin for 5 years in school and that's pretty much all I remember).

Since I put so much effort into my study in accidentally-reduced sugar pâte de fruit, I figured I might share it with you. My first batch did not set. At the time, I blamed the fact that my instructions said to "boil for 5 minutes" and I blamed the lack of set on my low final cooking temperature of 216ºF. I took this "failure" as an opportunity to do some experimenting and optimizing. I went through bags and bags of blood oranges, as I tested two different cooking temperatures and if adding an acid to the recipe impacted the set (in case the juice of the blood oranges wasn't enough). At the end of 4 batches, I had a pretty decent recipe for pâte de fruit, though it was a bit firmer/more pectin-y than I would have liked, and also it took almost 2 days to set (and not the 3 hours that many recipes claimed).

I suppose a clumsy math error led me to develop a way of reducing the sugar in pâte de fruit, didn't it? The sugar is pivotal to getting the jelly to set, but the other important factors are temperature and pH. However, in this case, increasing the cooking temperature (from 216ºF to 220ºF) was not enough, and adding a little lemon juice to the recipe didn't help either. So far, the best way I found to achieve a set reduced-sugar pâte de fruit was to cook it to 224ºF before adding the pectin.

To measure the temperature while making candy, use a probe thermometer with a longer cable like the ChefAlarm so that you can leave the probe in the pot and keep your hands away from the hot sugar!

This pâte de fruit is more intensely orange and less sweet than the usual pâtisserie kind. And, I cannot stress how important it is to note that this pâte de fruit with half the sugar recipe takes significantly longer to set than traditional full-sugar pâte de fruit, which can set within hours of making it. This recipe took a couple of days to set all the way through. It took so long that I thought it was a failure after it sat out overnight and remained soft. The only reason I realized it worked was because I was so angry at my supposed failed recipe attempts that I had rejected the batches to my dining table for two days because I just didn't want to deal with them. This post also proves that failures and mistakes are an opportunity to learn (even if your first instinct is to throw everything in the garbage).

As with the grapefruit pâte de fruit, it is best to not store these for prolonged periods because some water can separate out, unless you store them with a desiccant of some kind (as suggested by Pastry Chef Online). And if you want more reduced-sugar inspiration, check out this review of Baking with less sugar by Joanne Change, a baking book dedicated to the different ways of using less sugar in baking recipes.

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Reduced-sugar Blood Orange Pâte de Fruit

This pâte de fruit is more intensely orange and less sweet than the usual pâtisserie kind. It's made with half the sugar so it takes significantly longer to set than traditional pâte de fruit recipes.

Course Confection

Cuisine French

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 40 minutes minutes

Servings 64

Calories 12kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• ChefAlarm thermometer
• 8x8-inch pan
• Food processor

Ingredients

• 1 whole blood orange ~160 grams, washed
• 166 grams freshly squeezed blood orange juice
• 150 grams granulated sugar
• 7 grams unsalted butter
• 85 mL liquid pectin I used 1 pouch of Certo brand liquid pectin
• granulated sugar to coat the squares of pâte de fruit

Metric - US

Instructions

• Grease and line an 8x8-inch square pan with parchment, making sure that the parchment runs up the sides. I like to use metal 8x8-inch square pans like this one on Amazon. Open the liquid pectin packet and stand it up in a mug or a glass by the stove for later.
• Bring a medium pot of water to boil, and boil the whole orange for about 10 minutes to soften the peel. Let cool slightly, then cut the boiled orange in half. You will only need one half for a batch of pâte de fruit—I suggest you make a quick jam with the other half.
• Cut the boiled blood orange half in large chunks, removing any pits along the way. Place the grapefruit in a food processor and blend for at least a full minute to completely purée the fruit and to chop all the fibers/skin. You may need to add a little of the fruit juice to the processor to really finely grind the fruit.
• Transfer the fruit purée to a large pot, along with the juice, and granulated sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil on high, stirring constantly. Monitor the temperature with a digital candy thermometer (like this probe thermometer from Thermoworks).
• When the mixture hits 118ºF (48ºC), add the butter, and continue to stir and cook the mixture until it hits 223—224ºF (106ºC).
• When you reach the final cooking temperature, immediately take the pot off the stove and dump in the liquid pectin. Stir well to make sure it gets evenly mixed in, then transfer the hot mixture to the prepared pan.
• Let the pâte de fruit set overnight, uncovered, until it is completely set throughout. Unmold the pâte de fruit, and cut it into 1-inch squares with a large, oiled kitchen knife and, just before serving, toss the cubes in granulated sugar to coat them. Store the uncoated pâte de fruit between parchment sheets.

Nutrition

Calories: 12kcal

The post Reduced-sugar blood orange pâte de fruit appeared first on The Bake School.

Many of us get through the cold winter months with citrus fruit, be it with a batch of homemade 3 fruit marmalade or simply a bright pink grapefruit drizzled with honey. It's fresh, bright, and sweet. Sometimes, I have it as a snack and sometimes, it's breakfast. It's that good. With that in mind, I developed this grapefruit pâte de fruit recipe sweetened with honey.

I guess you could say pâte de fruit is a jelly-like candy made from fresh fruit juice, and in this case, even the fruit pulp and peel. Pâte de fruit recipes require quite a lot of sugar (after all, it is candy), and it's set with pectin which gives pâte de fruit its signature gelled texture that is not too firm.

Remember Jell-O and jelly candies are usually set with gelatin (sometimes agar-agar for a vegan version), while pâte de fruit is set with pectin, which means pâte de fruit is a vegetarian- and vegan-friendly candy recipe. The cooking process to make pâte de fruit concentrates the fruit juice, so every bite is bursting with intense fruit flavour. It's a real treat. If you want to make pâte de fruit with less sugar, that's tricky and you should check out my blood orange pâte de fruit with half the sugar.

I did a lot of experimenting and testing when I was working on this grapefruit pâte de fruit, and while many recipes will suggest how long you should boil the candy before pouring it in the mould to set, I  find the boiling times are too imprecise and lead to a lot of variation in the finished candy. A cook time is entirely dependent on the size/material of your pot, the volume of liquid, the concentration of sugar, the amount of water, and the settings on your stove.

A boiling time could lead to any number of results, and unfortunately many failures. Nobody wants to eat under-gelled pâte de fruit which is runny. So, for this recipe, I urge you to get a good instant-read thermometer. I measured the temperature with a Thermapen which is very fast at registering temperatures and temperature changes, but a probe thermometer with a longer cable like the ChefAlarm would be better because then you don't have to hold it with your hands, which would be much less dangerous to use than my hand-held setup.

Candy-making is a fairly precise art, so use a thermometer. Rather than give you a cook time in the directions, I am giving you the final temperature of your boiling fruit syrup so that you will have better results. Using a thermometer is more exact and will yield consistency from batch to batch, and less failures.

Pâte de fruit storage, weeping, and shelf life

Pâte de fruit has a very high sugar content and therefore is quite stable, even at room temperature. In fact, pâte de fruit doesn't require any refrigeration and humidity is the enemy, causing the coating of sugar to liquify and making pâte de fruit sticky.

I have noticed that sometimes pâte de fruit weep upon storage, and I haven't quite found a solution for that yet. Weeping will shorten the shelf life of pâte de fruit. How can you prevent pâte de fruit from weeping:

• air drying the cubes for longer before storing them might help,
• preparing them the day before you want to serve them, and only toss in sugar when you are ready to serve them
• cooking the pâte de fruit to a higher temperature: cook pâte de fruit to 113°C (235°F), instead of  106ºC (223ºF), and you will have a denser pâte de fruit but that is also more shelf-stable candy. If storage is an issue for you, you might want to consider a higher cooking temperature
• increasing the pectin in the recipe might also be a good option for you to consider for longer term storage

Some will store pâte de fruit with a desiccant to absorb excess moisture, like a little closed packet of silica desiccant that you find in some foods to absorb humidity and ensure they stay relatively dry.

Honey grapefruit pâte de fruit recipe

This grapefruit honey pâte de fruit might be the best thing that has come out of my kitchen so far this year. They are bite-sized homemade grapefruit candies that are intensely grapefruit and the flavour of honey is just right, not overwhelming.

The recipe is adapted from Gaston Lenôtre's pâte de fruit recipe, but I added in a few extra weights and a final cooking temperature to make this recipe more foolproof.

Note that this pâte de fruit recipe calls for liquid pectin, not pectin powder. I used Certo brand liquid pectin which is readily available on Amazon and also in grocery stores in Canada. In the US, you may have more luck finding Ball liquid pectin, which you can also order from Amazon.

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Honey Grapefruit Pâte de Fruit

These grapefruit pâte de fruit are bite-sized homemade candies with an intensely grapefruit taste and honey flavor

Course Confection

Cuisine French

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Servings 64

Calories 39kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Ingredients

• 1 whole grapefruit ~330 grams, washed
• 333 grams freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice
• 200 grams honey
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup because I was concerned about crystallization since my honey was crystallized in the jar
• 400 grams granulated sugar
• 14 grams unsalted butter
• 170 mL liquid pectin I used 2 pouches of Certo brand liquid pectin
• granulated sugar to coat the squares of pâte de fruit

Metric - US

Instructions

• Grease and line an 8×8-inch square pan with parchment, making sure that the parchment runs up the sides. I like to use metal 8x8-inch square pans like this one on Amazon. Open the liquid pectin packets and stand them up in a mug or a glass by the stove for later.
• Bring a medium pot of water to boil, and boil the whole grapefruit for about an hour to ensure the peel has softened. Let cool slightly, then cut the boiled grapefruit in half. You will only need one half for a batch of pâte de fruit—I suggest you make a quick jam with the other half.
• Cut the boiled grapefruit half in large chunks, removing any pits along the way. Place the grapefruit in a food processor and blend for at least a full minute to completely purée the fruit and to chop all the fibers/skin.
• Transfer the fruit purée to a large pot, along with the juice, honey, and granulated sugar. Bring the mixture to a boil on high, stirring constantly. Monitor the temperature with a digital candy thermometer (see notes).
• When the mixture hits 118ºF (48ºC), add the butter, and continue to stir and cook the mixture until it hits 223—224ºF (106ºC).
• When you reach the final cooking temperature, immediately take the pot off the stove and dump in the liquid pectin. Stir well to make sure it gets evenly mixed in, then transfer the hot mixture to the prepared pan.
• Let the pâte de fruit set overnight, uncovered, until it is completely set throughout. Unmold the pâte de fruit, and cut it into 1-inch squares with a large, oiled kitchen knife and, just before serving, toss the cubes in granulated sugar to coat them. Store the uncoated pâte de fruit between parchment sheets.

Notes

Note that this pâte de fruit recipe calls for liquid pectin, not pectin powder. I used Certo brand liquid pectin that is readily available on Amazon and also in grocery stores in Canada. In the US, you may have more luck finding Ball liquid pectin, which you can also order from Amazon.

Use a probe thermometer like the Thermapen or ChefAlarm to help you monitor the temperature.

Nutrition

Calories: 39kcal | Carbohydrates: 9g | Potassium: 15mg | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 50IU | Vitamin C: 2.6mg | Calcium: 1mg

The post Grapefruit honey pâte de fruit appeared first on The Bake School.

They say that the shorter the ingredient list, the harder it is to master. It's true.

• Chocolate ganache is deceptively simple with only two ingredients, yet to achieve that perfect emulsion can be quite challenging.
• Meringue is made from egg whites, sugar, and water, and it too is one of the more difficult recipes to master and get just right every time, especially if you want to make a very stable meringue for an Italian meringue buttercream.

I think marshmallows fall into this category as well.

I made these marshmallows from egg whites, gelatin, sugar, corn syrup, water, and vanilla. They worked, as you can see from the photos, but they weren't perfect (mine were a little wet on the bottom until I dumped them in icing sugar and cornstarch).

Can you make marshmallows without gelatin?

I have tried to replace the gelatin with agar agar. Turns out agar agar cannot be used to make proper marshmallows because it can't support their structure. My gelatin-free marshmallows looked, tasted, and smelled like marshmallows, but they were too fragile. They were not good marshmallows.

If you are anti-gelatin (which is understandable), I'll save you the trouble and disappointment: don't use agar agar. Just don't bother. Try something else. Apparently carrageenan is a good one to try (though I have yet to test it).

Flavouring with vanilla

While some bakers add vanilla bean to their marshmallow recipes, I prefer using pure vanilla extract and adding it at the end of the recipe to avoid damaging the flavour compounds. If you'd rather see the flecks of vanilla seeds, an alternative for the vanilla extract would be vanilla bean paste. Add the same amount!

When to serve them

Marshmallows are great in the winter to serve with mugs of hot chocolate or hot cocoa. You can toast them and garnish milk chocolate pots de crème or these s'more bars.

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Vanilla Marshmallows

Learn how to make vanilla bean marshmallows with this easy recipe. These marshmallows are a great way to use up leftover egg whites!

Course Confections

Cuisine American, French

Prep Time 35 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 60 marshmallows

Author Janice Lawandi

Ingredients

• 140 grams cornstarch
• 140 grams icing sugar
• 125 mL cold water
• 14 grams Knox unflavoured gelatin powder 2 packets
• 80 mL cold water
• 200 grams granulated sugar
• 100 grams light corn syrup
• 4 large egg white(s)
• 1 pinch Diamond Crystal fine kosher salt
• 10 mL pure vanilla extract

Metric - US

Instructions

• Sift together the cornstarch and icing sugar into a bowl and set aside for later.
• In a small cup, sprinkle the gelatin over 125 mL (½ cup) of water. Set aside.
• In a small saucepan, place the 80 mL (⅓ cup) of water, followed by the granulated sugar and corn syrup. Attach your candy thermometer to the saucepan, making sure that the tip of the probe is not touching the bottom of the pan. Begin heating the syrup over medium–high heat.
• Place the egg whites with a pinch of salt in the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat them on low til frothy.
• When the syrup boils, increase the mixer speed to high until the whites form stiff peaks.
• When the syrup reaches 250°F (121 °C), take the saucepan off the heat and remove the thermometer, and then slowly pour the syrup down the side of the mixer bowl and over the whites, with the mixer running on low, being sure to not hit the beaters with the syrup.
• When the syrup is all added, increase the mixer speed to medium–high. Meanwhile, add the bloomed gelatin mixture to the saucepan and melt it over very low heat til the solution is clear, then add the dissolved gelatin to the mixer bowl, along with the vanilla.
• Beat the marshmallow mixture until it is cold.
• Dust a parchment-lined rimmed quarter sheet pan with half the icing sugar mixture prepared earlier, then pour the marshmallow mixture on top and smooth it.
• Let the marshmallows dry for several hours before cutting them (with well oiled scissors or oiled cookie cutters). Immediately toss the marshmallows in the powdered sugar mixture before storing.

This recipe is adapted from David Lebovitz. 

The post Vanilla marshmallows appeared first on The Bake School.

What are cake truffles

Cake truffles are like the adult version of cake pops. Bits of cake are mixed with a little liquid (like milk and vanilla, or you could also mix in some booze). Use just enough liquid to moisten the cake scraps so that they can be shaped into truffles. I've made Christmas cake balls (with leftover fruitcake), dipping them in either dark chocolate or white chocolate to finish them. This also helps them hold their shape so that you can give out the cake truffles as gifts!

Why Birthday cake truffles?

Christina Tosi made cake truffles cool by making birthday cake truffles, using scraps from her Milk Bar birthday cake. It's also a smart, money-saving business move to take the leftover scraps that would have been thrown out and to turn them into something else that you can sell. Birthday cake truffles are like bite-sized morsels of birthday cake, easy to make and super fun to eat.

To make birthday cake truffles, you will need:

• some leftover cake: for birthday cake truffles, use leftover sprinkle cake (funfetti cake)
• a binder: for birthday cake truffles, I used milk flavoured with a little vanilla, but you could also use booze, or even lemon curd, passion fruit curd, or grapefruit curd, or even a fudge sauce
• a coating or hard shell: for birthday cake truffles, I used white chocolate. I've also used dark chocolate or milk chocolate. The chocolate coating will seal the cake truffles and preserve them. Covering the truffles in melted chocolate also allows you to coat them in something crunchy 
•  a crunchy coat: for birthday cake truffles, use leftover Milk Bar birthday cake crumbs or milk crumbs, but you could also toast leftover cake to make cake crumbs, or chopped toasted nuts, coconut, sprinkles, ground buttered popcorn brittle, ground homemade graham crackers, etc.

For the sprinkle cake and birthday cake crumbs, I used leftovers from making the Milk Bar birthday cake. This recipe is inspired by the carrot cake truffle recipe from the Milk Bar book available on Amazon—I highly recommend ordering this book if you don't have it yet!

📖 Recipe

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Birthday Cake Truffles

A recipe for Momofuku Milk Bar birthday cake truffles made from cake scraps. You can make cake truffles from leftover cake

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 24

Calories 81kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• 5-quart KitchenAid Artisan mixer
• Sheet pan

Ingredients

• 55 grams whole milk (3.25 % fat)
• 4 grams pure vanilla extract
• 300 grams birthday cake scraps
• 90 grams white chocolate melted
• 140 grams birthday cake crumbs finely ground in a food processor

Metric - US

Instructions

• In a small cup, combine the milk and vanilla. This will be your binder for your truffles. Set aside.
• In the bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, dump in your cake scraps. With the mixer on low, pour in half the vanilla milk. Increase speed to thoroughly mix.
• Stop the mixer and test to see if you can squeeze a tablespoonful together and form a ball. If you can’t add a little more vanilla milk, and mix again.
• Form the truffle dough into about 24 equal balls, using your palms to shape them. Set them on a parchment-lined sheet. Place the sheet on the left side of your worktable.
• Transfer the melted chocolate to a shallow bowl (if it’s not already in one), and set it to the right of the sheet of truffles.
• Have the crumbs ready in a shallow bowl to the right of the melted chocolate. Now that your worktable is set up, you are ready to start dipping and coating the truffles.
• With gloved hands and working with a truffle or two at a time, dunk each truffle ball into the melted chocolate and rub it around between your gloved palms to thinly but evenly coat it with chocolate, then immediately drop the chocolate-coated truffle into the bowl with the crumbs, and toss it around the mixture with a spoon until it is completely coated with crumbs. Transfer it back to the parchment lined sheet while you dip and coat the others.
• Transfer the cake truffles to a container and refrigerate them to set the chocolate and store them.

Notes

For this recipe, you will need birthday cake scraps and birthday cake crumbs from the Milk bar birthday cake recipe.

Nutrition

Calories: 81kcal

The post Birthday cake truffles: what to make with leftover cake appeared first on The Bake School.

What is traditional fudge?

I love traditional maple fudge with walnuts. It's a classic candy treat that is usually made around the holidays (or just because). Fudge is mostly made of sugar and whipping cream. Some will make it with condensed milk or marshmallows, but for old-fashioned fudge, it's brown sugar, granulated sugar, a little maple syrup for flavour and whipping cream.

Maple fudge is quite sweet, but I love that fine granular texture that good fudge has. This is one time when you want the sugar to crystallize, as opposed to caramels or caramel sauces when you are trying to prevent caramel from crystallizing. But fudge has to crystallize just right, like for this maple butter recipe. Maple fudge, like maple butter, should have very fine crystals that give fudge the perfect amount of "grit", not dry or crumbly, which makes it utterly addictive, but still soft but not so soft that it has the texture of maple butter.

You can add chocolate to fudge. I have another recipe for white chocolate maple fudge from years ago that is made with maple cream and finished with white chocolate, which gives it a lovely creamy taste and texture but the recipe can be a little finicky, especially when it comes to adding the white chocolate. Do that wrong and the chocolate may burn...

How to make fudge

With some patience and the right tools, you can make perfect fudge at home without worrying too much about it. It's important to have the right tools to make fudge at home and it's also important to follow the steps and temperatures. Here's a list of the tools you need to make fudge at home and the steps to make fudge:

Tools to make perfect maple fudge

• a medium saucepan that is the right size! Avoid using a small saucepan even if when you start, you think there's plenty of room. There isn't. You need a bigger pot than you think to make fudge or else the boiling sugar mixture will boil over and make a real mess of your stove. Aim to use a pan that is at least 2 L (or 1.9 Qt). Obviously a spaghetti pot would be overkill here, but you get my point. Don't use a small saucepan.
• a wooden spoon or a heatproof silicone spatula
• a candy thermometer or an instant read thermometer: though a glass candy thermometer on Amazon, or a metal Taylor thermometer on Amazon will have no problem measuring the temperature of the fudge mixture as it boils, when it comes time to cool down the mixture, these analog thermometers may be too slow to read the changes in temperature. If you are going to use a thermometer to follow the temperature fluctuations in this fudge recipe, use a digital probe thermometer that is fast-reading if not, instant read, like this instant read thermometer pen on Amazon.
• an 8x8-inch brownie pan with straight edges and right angle "square" corners: a square pan with straight edges will make cutting the fudge into even pieces more easy. A square glass pan will also work

Steps to make fudge

1. Combine all the ingredients in a medium saucepan and heat on a lower setting to properly dissolve the sugars and form an even, homogenous mixture. You can stir the mixture with a wooden spoon as needed.
2. Once the sugars are dissolved and the mixture is smooth, remove the wooden spoon. You can also increase the heat to bring the fudge mixture to a boil (medium or medium–high is good for this step).
3. Boil the fudge mixture to 114–115 °C (237–239 °F), then immediately remove the saucepan from the heat and turn off the stove. Add the toasted nuts at this point if using.
4. Place the hot pan in a cold water bath. You can fill your kitchen sink partway with cold tap water, for example. Ice isn't necessary. You can let the mixture cool at room temperature but this will take longer and there is a risk that the fudge will continue to cook in the hot pan for a few minutes longer and to a higher temperature than desired. A cold water bath is ideal for this step. Make sure you don't get water in the fudge though!
5. Cool the fudge to 43–50 ºC (110–122 °F), basically around (113 ºF). 
6. Stir vigorously as soon as the fudge is below 50ºC until it loses it lightens in colour, becomes opaque, and begins to thicken. This takes about 3 minutes.
7. Immediately pour the fudge mixture into the prepared pan and spread it out. Use the parchment overhang to help you spread and smooth the fudge from edge to edge with your hands.
8. Let the fudge rest at room temperature for an hour or 2 until it's set. 
9. Cut and store.

Troubleshooting: Things that can go wrong when making fudge and fudge-making tips & tricks

Making fudge is really about controlling when and how the sugar crystallizes. If you make a mistake along the way, the texture could end up too dry or too soft.

Fudge is crumbly—sugar mixture was overcooked and boiled too much

When making fudge, the temperature you cook the sugar to has a direct impact on the texture of the fudge. You are aiming to bring the sugar mixture to 115 ºC (240 ºF), which is the soft ball stage. At this temperature, you have evaporated just enough water to make firm fudge, but not so much water that the fudge is dry and crumbly, or brittle. If your fudge ends up dry and crumbles or is super granular, the fudge was overcooked. If you boil fudge too long, your fudge will have a dry, crumbly texture

How to avoid overcooked fudge

One of the reasons your fudge might end up overcooked is you don't act fast enough when the fudge has reached the correct temperature of 114–115 °C (237–239 °F). As soon as it reaches this temperature, pull the pan off the stove immediately (before you even shut off the burner). And focus on getting it into a cold water bath fast because otherwise, the heat of the pot might continue to cook the fudge. If the fudge mixture gets just a few degrees to hot (like to 118 ºC, or 244 ºF), the fudge will be overcooked. It's best to be prepared with a water bath ready and to act fast.

How to salvage fudge that was overcooked

You can salvage overcooked, dry and crumbly fudge by breaking down the dry fudge and crumbling it, putting the fudge back in a saucepan with up to 60 ml (¼ cup of 35 % cream). Heat the mixture on medium–low and stir to melt/dissolve the fudge into a smooth mixture, then bring the mixture to a boil and heat it to 114–115 °C (237–239 °F). At that point you have to go through the steps of cooling the fudge and then stirring vigorously before pouring it out in a prepared pan to allow it to set. 

Fudge is too soft—sugar mixture was undercooked

Just like you can overcook fudge, you can also undercook fudge. Undercooked fudge has too much water in it, so it doesn't set properly and the sugar doesn't crystallize as the sugar isn't concentrated enough. Undercooked fudge is soft and doesn't hold its shape as well when cut into pieces.

How to avoid undercooked fudge

One of the reasons your fudge might end up undercooked is you that the fudge mixture wasn't cooked to a high enough temperature of 114–115 °C (237–239 °F). You need to boil the fudge mixture long enough so it reaches 114–115 °C (237–239 °F). At this temperature, much of the water has boiled off and the sugar is concentrated enough to crystallize and set properly when cooled. Some recipes will recommend a timeframe for how long to boil the sugar mixture, but I don't think this is a reliable method for making fudge because your stove is different than my stove. It might take me 20 minutes to reach 115 ºC but it could take you less time (or more time). This is why it's important to use a candy thermometer to make fudge and to monitor the temperature. 

How to salvage fudge that was undercooked

You can salvage undercooked, soft fudge that doesn't set by putting the fudge back in a saucepan with up to 30 ml (2 tablespoon of 35 % whipping cream). Heat the mixture on medium–low to dissolve/melt the sugar. Once you have a smooth consistency, then you can bring the mixture up to a boil and make sure to continue to heat the mixture until your thermometer reads 114–115 °C (237–239 °F), at which point you must cool the mixture back down before beating it.

Fudge is too gritty

If you notice that your fudge is much too gritty, it could mean that you didn't allow the fudge mixture to cool enough and therefore you beat it too soon. If you beat the fudge when it is too warm, the sugar will form bigger crystals and won't be smooth. It's important to wait until your fudge is below 50 ºC before stirring vigorously, just like when you are making homemade maple butter.

Maple versus brown sugar

I hope this traditional maple fudge recipe is simpler and satisfies your maple fudge cravings. Remember it's quite important to use a good, reliable candy thermometer preferably an instant-read thermometer, if possible, because cooking temperature is EVERYTHING when you are making fudge. If the temperature is off, your fudge may set too soft or end up too dry. All roads lead to something tasty, but getting the texture right is nice too!

You'll notice this recipe uses mostly brown sugar, with a little pure maple syrup added for flavour. The main reason is that maple syrup is expensive, and while you could make this recipe with only maple syrup, it's best to practice with affordable brown sugar and then once you've mastered the techniques, try to make the replace the brown sugar with maple syrup.

If you are looking for more to bake with maple, check out these maple syrup recipes.

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Maple Fudge

This maple fudge recipe isn't too difficult to make but it's important to follow the temperature guidelines for success!

Course Dessert

Cuisine Canadian

Prep Time 10 minutes minutes

Cook Time 10 minutes minutes

Total Time 20 minutes minutes

Servings 36 squares

Calories 111kcal

Author Janice Lawandi

Equipment

• ChefAlarm thermometer
• Wooden spoon
• 8x8-inch pan

Ingredients

• 250 mL whipping cream (35 % fat)
• 300 grams light brown sugar
• 50 grams granulated sugar
• 60 mL pure maple syrup
• 250 mL chopped toasted walnuts

Metric - US

Instructions

• Prepare an 8” x 8” pan by buttering it all over and then line it with parchment paper that hangs over two of the sides. Set aside.
• In a medium saucepan, heat the whipping cream, brown sugar, granulated sugar, and the maple syrup on medium-low, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. When the sugars have dissolved, stop stirring. Continue heating the mixture until it reaches 239ºF (115ºC), then take the pan off the heat.
• Pour the nuts over the hot fudge mixture and let rest at room temperature for another 20 minutes to cool slightly (alternatively, you can set the pan in a shallow bowl of cold water for 10 minutes). You want the fudge temperature to drop to below 50ºC and this is best measured with a probe thermometer which takes faster readings than older candy thermometers.
• Stir the fudge mixture for 3 minutes with a wooden spoon, until it becomes quite thick, opaque, light in colour, and has lost some of its shine. Quickly transfer the fudge mixture to the prepared 8” x 8” pan, pushing it into the corners and smoothing it out as fast as you can. Use the parchment overhang to press down and smooth the surface.
• Let the fudge set for 1 hour minimum at room temperature before cutting it into small pieces.

Nutrition

Calories: 111kcal | Carbohydrates: 12g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 7g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 10mg | Sodium: 5mg | Potassium: 51mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 11g | Vitamin A: 103IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 20mg | Iron: 1mg

The post Maple fudge appeared first on The Bake School.