I'm making a mocksgiving dinner for Greenbird's family this weekend, since we're driving up to my family on the big day. I haven't decided how/if I'm going to work in cranberries for the meal, but I'll serve a bunch of cranberry candies with coffee after.
Here's the first:
<font color="red">Cranberry Truffles</font>
10 oz Semisweet chocolate
3 T Butter
1/2 C Whipping cream
1 T Corn syrup
3/4 C Cranberry juice
1 C Dried cranberries
1 C Sugar
1 C Dried cranberries
2 C Cocoa
2 C Powdered Sugar
8 oz Semisweet chopped fine
Chop the chocolate fine.
Melt it in the microwave, bring the cream & syrup to simmer, and mix with cranberry juice.
I experimented with the cranberry juice, trying to get enough cranberry flavor in the ganache. Eventually I added the third quarter-cup, as listed in the ingredients above, but I think that might have been a bit too much liquid. Pour the (too liquidy) ganache into a pan to cool evenly in the fridge.
Meanwhile, process the sugar with the dried cranberries.
The dried cranberries gave me a good idea of how to add more cranberry flavor to the ganache while also absorbing some liquid; process ANOTHER cup of dried cranberries, and whip that into the ganache. (Honestly, I think whipping the ganache was the biggest improvement for the texture, but letting the dried berries sit probably helped, too.)
Use two teaspoons to form into ~2teaspoon balls. Don't worry about roundness at first; just get them sized.
Afterwards, roll them into balls. Get your cranberry sugar, powdered sugar, and cocoa out, along with a final resting place for the truffles.
Chop the other pile of chocolate, and set it up in a double boiler to temper; you never want it to go much above melting point, so it'll solidify nicely when it cools.
Use an ice cream scoop to hold a bit of chocolate, roll a ganache ball in it, and then roll the ball in a powder. Eventually your ice cream scoop will look pretty awesome.
Mmm. Clumps of dirt.
