Truffles

For all you Valentine’s Day haters, this is not a Valentine’s post! It’s really more of a Christmas/birthday post, so go ahead and read without spite for superfluous, romantic holidays that have the propensity to make you either feel like shit if you're out of a relationship, or inadequate if you're in a relationship.

For a while there I was making truffles for Christmas gifts, but then I moved far away from my family (the truffle recipients), and the idea of busting out truffles the day before traveling home for Christmas did not appeal. My Dad still requests homemade truffles every year, but I haven’t obliged in the past four or so years. Pretty cruel of me.

The dead of winter is a slower time for me, so is a better time for making truffles. It just so happens that my Dad’s birthday is in the middle of February…and he’s getting truffles this year!! (Dad, I don’t think you read this blog that regularly, but if you see this before you get a box in the mail, you got truffles!)

I’m gonna be ballsy and just go ahead and say… these are the best truffles I’ve made so far!

I follow the Joy of Cooking’s recipe for truffles ( ½ cup heavy cream and 8 ounces of bittersweet chocolate) to make the truffle part, and I live by the philosophy of “mo’ chocolate, mo’ better,” so prefer my truffles enrobed in chocolate instead of rolled in cocoa, nuts, or other ingredients.

Colored Fiestaware helped keep the flavors straight, especially when the cream was mixed into the chocolate.

I made four types of truffles by adding ingredients to the cream, or infusing the cream with flavors before adding chocolate to make the ganache that gets rolled into truffle balls. This is what I made:

Port Truffle
I didn’t think I’d like the port truffles, but once they were coated in chocolate, the flavor was subtle and enhanced by the bittersweet chocolate shell. Very classic!

Basil Truffle
I loved the basil ice cream I made last summer so much, I had to try making a basil truffle. These truffles have the same unexpected, mysterious, herbal flavor of the basil ice cream. For the adventurer, not weenies! Bittersweet chocolate enrobes the magic flavors.

Curry Truffle
Curry was made for chocolate! My favorite chocolate bar is the Naga bar from Vosges – so aromatic, spicy, and sweet. These truffles are a close replica. I like a milk chocolate casing on these truffles.

Earl Grey Tea Truffle
I’m torn between honoring the curry or the Earl Grey Tea truffle as my favorite. The Earl Grey is sweetly floral, and reminds me fondly of my Granddad’s tall glasses of cold sweet tea mixed liberally with evaporated milk. Milk chocolate covers these tea truffles!

Basic Truffle
makes about 35 truffles

8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
½ cup heavy cream

• Scald heavy cream in a small saucepan on the stove.
• Add hot cream to chopped chocolate, and stir until chocolate is melted and thoroughly incorporated.
• Store in refrigerator until chilled (1-2 hours).
• Scoop out a small portion of chilled chocolate ganache, and, with your hands, roll into balls about the size of…a truffle!

8 ounces chocolate (your choice), chopped

• Melt 2/3 of chopped chocolate in a double boiler, stirring constantly.
• To temper, use a candy thermometer and bring chocolate to 110-113°.
  
• Remove from heat, and add remaining 1/3 chocolate, stirring constantly for about 8-10 minutes, or until the chocolate cools to 79-80°.
• Re-heat chocolate to 90°, and dip truffles quickly in chocolate.
  
• Place on wax paper-covered tray to cool.

This truffle dipper was fashioned out of a wire coat hanger. Very helpful!

Port Truffle
Instead of ½ cup heavy cream, use 1/3 cup heavy cream, then add port to heavy cream until the liquid reaches the ½-cup mark.

Basil Truffle
Tear about 10 large basil leaves into pieces, and add to hot, heavy cream. Set aside to steep for about 30 minutes. Remove basil before adding to chocolate.

Curry Truffle
Add 1 teaspoon curry powder and about 15 cardamom seeds to hot, heavy cream. Set aside to steep for about 30 minutes. Remove cardamom seeds before adding to chocolate. Add 2 teaspoons curry powder to melted chocolate used to enrobe truffles. Dust finished truffles with curry powder when chocolate shell is completely cooled.

Earl Grey Tea Truffle
Steep two or three Earl Grey tea bags in hot, heavy cream for 30 minutes. Squeeze out tea bags, and remove.

Basil Ice Cream With Chocolate Chunks

Never before have I made more ice cream in my life than I did this summer. It's all because I found a steal of a deal on a Cuisinart ice cream machine at a garage sale earlier this spring. I cannot speak highly enough about this little machine. If you’re still using a machine (electric or hand crank) that requires rock salt and bags of ice, you’re either someone's grandma or insane.

I posted a handful of the yummier ice cream varieties I made, and then put a stop to the ice cream posts to spare you from boredom, and a stop to the ice cream making (for the most part) to spare me the pounds.

I have to get one last post in (no promises). How could I not? I made this ice cream four times this summer!

This ice cream is basil ice cream with dark chocolate chunks. For now, basil ice cream has surpassed green tea as my favorite ice cream flavor. That’s saying a lot. Last year I was hoarding green tea ice cream from Trader Joe’s so that no one else could have any.

The sweet cream is the blank canvas for the sublimely herbal flavor (like a bag of weed cut with basil), and the dark chocolate chips playfully distract with a bitter crunch. The first bite is the one that hits hard, as tasters unknowing of the ingredients try to figure out just what flavor the ice cream is. It’s good. You know you like it. You can’t stop. What is it? It’s the best ice cream flavor... ever!

FYI, don’t try this with yogurt. I did, and it’s not good. I’m convinced that homemade frozen yogurt’s tang can only stand up to fruit flavors.

Basil Ice Cream With Chocolate Chunks
Adapted from this recipe over at Apartment Therapy

1 pint heavy whipping cream
1 can evaporated milk (Use any percentage regular milk if you like. I just can’t use a whole carton of milk before it goes bad, so use canned milk.)
1/2 cup sugar
2 big handfuls of basil leaves, coarsely chopped
3 egg yolks
3/4 cup dark chocolate, finely chopped

• Put cream, milk, sugar, and basil into a sauce pan, and scald over medium-high heat. Remove from heat and let sit for 20-30 minutes to cool a bit and infuse the cream with the basil.
• Strain cream to remove the basil.
• Beat the eggs in a separate bowl, then slowly temper half of the mixture into the eggs, stirring constantly.
• Add the egg/cream mixture and the other half of the cream mixture together in a pan over medium heat. Stir constantly for 5 minutes. (The mixture will not thicken much, but that’s because I didn’t use 6 or 7 egg yolks. Don’t worry; the end result will be rich and creamy.)
• Let cool, and add to the ice cream maker. Towards the end of churning add the chocolate.
• Store in a container in the freezer overnight for the best texture before serving.

Peeved About Basil

The plant that prompted this post.

I have my fair share of pet peeves – people who spit in public, wet sponges left in sinks, your dog's huge balls that should have been chopped off, cops that don’t use turn signals…the list truly go on and on.

I would like to take the time now to prevent future sighs and eye rolling at one of my pet peeves that is somewhat of culinary concern – improperly harvested basil! Trivial? Yes, but…

This post was prompted by a severely stripped basil plant sitting outside a Philly coffee shop that will remain unnamed. I wouldn’t have noticed the plant – ok, I would have – if not for an employee that came out to harvest some of the last few leaves remaining on the plant to construct their mozzarella, tomato, and basil sandwiches.

I engaged the employee in conversation, all the while hoping the conversation would lead to why the plant looked so poor. I could have just blurted out why the plant had almost no leaves, and I often do blurt out what is on my mind without thinking of tact, but I didn’t want to seem like a crass know-it-all. Pleasant guy, but he didn't seem concerned about the plant.

My opportunity to right this basil wrong escaped me. But that’s why I have a blog; I can blurt out anything I like here.

Don't do this.

So, here’s how to properly harvest basil and stop me from going ka-ra-zee...

When pinching basil leaves, don’t pinch off individual leaves, or grab a hunk and indiscriminately pull. If you do this, you will strip the plant of leaves without encouraging new growth. To harvest basil and encourage new growth, pinch the stem right above a set of leaves. You want to harvest the tips of the stems, not individual leaves.

And it's not just Joe Schmo who grabs and pulls, I know people who maintain beautiful gardens, yet terrorize their basil plants.

I have no computer graphics skills.

• Plants put on new growth from buds at the tips or tops of the plant. These buds are apical buds, and have apical dominance. These buds will always be dominant, and be the place of new growth, unless...
  

• If the apical bud is cut, pinched, or damaged, plants can also put on new growth from axillary buds at the base of leaves. These axillary buds stay dormant until the apical bud is cut, pinched, or damaged. (This is the basis of all pruning.)
  

• By pinching basil right above the node (leaf and axillary bud), you have removed the dominant apical (top) bud, and sent a message to the plant to push new growth from the axillary bud.

• Wrong Way - Pinch directly underneath a node or in the middle of the internode (stem between the leaves and buds), and the plant does not get as strong of a message that the axillary bud should kick into growth. This is the scenario that happens when you just grab and pull.

• Right Way - Pinch or cut basil directly above the node to encourage new growth. Once substantial new growth develops, pinch (harvest) the new tips to encourage further growth and branching. If you continue this, you will have a rounder, fuller plant...that actually has leaves on it!

See the pinched stem and the baby leaves at the top starting to get larger?

As the plant continues to grow, the once baby leaves and stems grow in size. What once was a dormant bud is now a large stem with leaves (out of the picture) all along it.

Freezing Basil

Winter is coming for my basil, so I better save it, too. Freeze or dry? Freezing preserves the flavor of basil well, while drying does basil no justice. Now the only problem is deciding how to freeze basil. What ever you do, know that frozen basil will never look like fresh basil. So, don’t even think about using it as a garnish or in a salad mix.

Blanching – Prevents basil from darkening when frozen. No matter what method you use, frozen basil will darken or blacken if you do not blanch it first. Drop fresh basil in boiling water for 10-15 seconds, drain, and shock with cold water. This sounds like a lot of trouble, but it only takes 5 minutes.

Not Blanching – What’s a little black basil in spaghetti sauce? Shouldn’t be a problem, unless presentation is a factor.

Whole - Stick whole leaves in a freezer bag or container in the freezer. Thaw and do as you please with them.

Chopped - Chop now, take it easy later.

Water - Another method is to freeze chopped basil covered with water in ice cube trays. Each cube yields easy to use portions of 1 to 2 tablespoons of basil. Freezing larger portions in larger containers is also an option.

Oil – Running basil through a food processor with a little oil, is another way to prepare basil for freezing in ice cube trays or larger containers.

Pesto – Don’t stop at oil, go ahead and make pesto to freeze. (Don’t add cheese until ready to use, as freezing changes the texture of cheese.)

My preferred method is freezing blanched, chopped basil in ice cube trays topped with water. (This may stain and impart flavors to the ice cube tray.) The cubes are handy when you don’t need a lot of basil, and basil without oil is more versatile and kinder to my ass.

• Wash basil and drain.
• Blanche and shock basil.
• Chop or run basil through a food processor.
• Pack ice cube trays with about 2 tablespoons chopped basil in each cube and top with water.
• Freeze.
• Pop frozen cubes out, and store in a container.