Walnut Chocolate Butter

中文菜谱： 核桃巧克力酱

I stock up nuts and chocolate lately.  Someday it just occurred to me why not make a batch of chocolate nut butter?  It would be awesome for breakfast or a quick nutritious afternoon snack. 

Ingredients：

2 cups of raw walnuts
1/3 to 1/2 cup dark chocolate
1/4 to 1/3 cup honey / syrup

*****Tips:  

·         The darker chocolate is, the more smoothly it will melt.  I use 85% cacao chocolate.  They are available at Whole foods, Sprouts and Texas local Central Market.  The one I am using here is bought from Sprouts. 

·         If you don’t want to roast raw walnut at home, buy the dry roasted walnuts.  And make sure they are not salted or seasoned.  *****

Directions：

Preheat a toaster oven to 375F/ 191C

Bake the raw walnuts for 8 to 10 minutes, or just until they turn slightly golden brown. 

Add roasted walnut, honey and dark chocolate in a vitamix blender.

  I use a dry container instead of regular container because it is more convenient this way.

Turn on the machine and grind at medium low speed.  

In a few minutes, walnuts are crushed and chocolate melts. 

You would need to pause several times in between to stir the mixture with a wooden spoon. 

Keep grinding at low medium speed. 

It is getting silkier and smoother.

It is kind of shiny now.

Continue grinding for another couple minutes.

Wo-la, it is done!

Transfer the walnut chocolate butter to a glass jar.  Seal and store at room temperature. 

It goes great with a lot of things: bread, cookies, crackers, fruits, crepes, and even salad! O(∩_∩)O~

Chocolate Soufflé Cookies

中文菜谱： 巧克力舒芙蕾饼干

These chocolate soufflé cookies are pretty much my favorite cookies.  They are so simple, made with just a few ingredients and yet have such deep rich delicate flavors.  It is like eating brownies, chocolate macaroons and cookies all at the same time.  Isn’t that amazing?

A big plus benefit for these cookies is that they don’t require any flour, which means they are gluten free! 

If you frequent a coffee shop or bakery, you might have noticed there are always “flourless chocolate cookies” displayed on the shelves, which look so fancy and delicate, and of course, so expensive too. 

Yep, they are the chocolate soufflé cookies we are making here today.  Let’s get started!

The recipe is adapted from：https://www.finecooking.com/recipe/chocolate-souffle-cookies.  Many thanks and appreciation to the original author!

Ingredients ：

1 cup dark chocolate chips/ pieces
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 egg whites
a few drops of lemon juice / white vinegar
3/4 cup finely chopped walnut

****Tip：Chocolate is the most important ingredient in this recipe.  Chocolate determines the finished cookies’ flavor and texture.  The better quality the chocolate is, the better taste the cookies will be. 

I use 90% cacao chocolate.  If you prefer sweeter taste, 70% to 80% will be great too.  ****

Directions：

Preheat the oven to 350F/ 176C

Melt the chocolate in a double boiler.  It might seem lumpy at first.

In a few minutes, the chocolate will become silky and smooth.

With a sharp knife, finely chop the walnut.

Add a few drops of lemon juice or vinegar to the egg whites.  With a hand mixer, beat the egg whites at low speed for a couple minutes.  Add 1/3 of the sugar, continue to whisk at medium speed for a minute.  Repeat the process until all the sugar is added and egg white is stiff.

With a silicone spatula, fold the chopped walnuts into chocolate mixture.

Fold in 1/3 of the egg whites.

It might be a bit dry and hard at first. 

This is what it looks like after I fold in the first 1/3 egg whites.

Add another 1/3 egg whites, and fold in very gently.

Continue folding the remaining egg whites, along with vanilla extract. 

The batter should be smooth and shiny.

Transfer the batter to a large piping bag.

Pipe the cookie dough to a cookie pan lined with silicone baking mat.  Each drop of cookie dough is about 3 tablespoons and 1 1/2 inches apart from each other.

Bake in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes.

Wait for the cookies to cool on the cookie pan.  Carefully remove them with a spatula.

And now go make yourself a fresh pot of black coffee and enjoy these heavenly chocolate soufflé cookies!  O(∩_∩)O~

Chocolate Marshmallows

中文菜谱： 巧克力棉花糖

When we were living in Michigan, we went camping a lot in the summer time.  And we always built a camp fire by the lake.  It was for fun, but also for cooking and grilling too. O(∩_∩)O~

Camp fires in summer night were really beautiful.  Firewood we bought was mostly pinewood.  It gave out a very pleasant aroma when burning. 

Michigan has some of the purest lakes I have ever seen.  Many lakes in northern Michigan are crystal clear.  We were lucky to have seen some peaceful and sparkling night sky like this. 

We built camp fires in day time too, mostly for cooking and grilling. 

（For one of detailed camping trip journals, go to：Interlochen camping & boating：https://www.yankitchen.com/english-blog/camping5）

I learn from our many camping trips that camp fire is very essential to a successful camping trip.  The fire provides warmth and light during long nights and also good for cooking and grilling in the daytime.  And s’more is the most perfect dessert by the fire.  Any camping trips with camping fire and fire-roasted marshmallows cannot be considered perfect. O(∩_∩)O~

It takes patience and experience to roast the marshmallows.  These cute tiny fluffy candies are very easy to burn.  If not roasted enough, the chocolate in the s’more would not melt. 

So I have been thinking what if I can add chocolate into the marshmallows?  By doing so, the marshmallows and chocolate would be roasted at the same time, so that they should both melt perfectly. 

The marshmallow recipe is adapted from Atlon Brown from Foodnetwork (https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/homemade-marshmallows-recipe-1953933).  I use 2/3 of all ingredients from original recipe, and make a little bit change.

Ingredients：

2 packages of plain gelatin (7g / package)
2/3 cold water
8 oz granulated sugar（about 227g）
2/3 light corn syrup
a pinch salt
2/3 teaspoon coffee rum
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup corn starch
1 cup 60% cocoa chocolate chips

Directions：

Add 1/3 cup cold water to stand mixer’s mixing bowl.  Sprinkle the gelatin on top.  Let it stand for 5 minutes.

Shift both corn starch and powdered sugar together.

 Grease a glass container on bottom and sides.  And then coat with starch sugar mixture. 

Add the remaining 1/3 cup cold water to a small pot, along with sugar, corn syrup and salt. 

Cook over medium heat.

Cook until the candy thermometer shows syrup reaches 240F/ 115.5C. Remove from heat.  

Turn the stand mixer on low speed.  Gradually add sugar syrup down the side of bowl.  Be sure not to pour the syrup on the moving whisk.  The hot syrup could be very dangerous to anyone standing nearby. 

When all the syrup is added to stand mixer bowl, turn the speed to its highest to whisk for 12 to 15 minutes.  The longer it whisks, the firmer marshmallows would be. 

Add chocolate chips in the last minute.

With a greased spatula, scrape marshmallow mixture to prepared container.  Level the top with spatula and then sprinkle a thin layer of starch sugar mixture.

Let the marshmallow mixture cool for a few hours or overnight before cut it with a sharp knife.

It has been very fun to make marshmallows from scratch.

Roast chocolate over charcoal fire.  Guess what?  It turns out awesome!  Both marshmallow and chocolate chips are roasted and melt perfectly!   

How good does that look? O(∩_∩)O~

Chocolate Covered Figs with Chocolate Ganache

中文菜谱：

香醇甜糯的巧克力无花果

I was inspired by an episode of Unique Sweets on Cooking Channel to make these chocolate covered figs.  I had never thought about pairing figs and chocolate together before until I saw that episode about chocolate.  Figs and chocolate make such a great couple in flavors and texture!

Figs are very sweet and a tiny bit chewy and gooey while dark chocolate is fruity, earthy, bitter and nutty.  They complete each other in such a perfect way that makes each bit like an explosion of flavors in your mouth. 

Ingredients：

1/4 cup chopped 100% cacao chocolate (for chocolate ganache filling)
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon coffee rum liqueur
8 to 10 dried but soft figs
1/2 cup chopped 100% cacao chocolate (for dipping)
3 to 4 tablespoons honey (use more if you like sweeter taste)

Directions：

Try to pick soft and large dried figs for this dessert.  Otherwise, it would be very difficult to fill figs with chocolate ganache.  

I bought mine from Central Market in Houston.  

Besides the golden soft figs, I also bought my 100% cacao chocolate there too.  They have Valrhona chocolate from 40% cacao all the way up to 100%.

Heat the heavy cream in a double boiler or in microwave oven until it gets very hot but not yet boiling.  Add to chopped chocolate.  Whisk until chocolate melts.  Add coffee liqueur and 1 to 2 tablespoons honey. 

Whisk until chocolate ganache is silky and smooth.  Cover with lid and refrigerate for a couple hours.

Spoon the chilled chocolate ganache to a piping bag.  Fill the figs with as much chocolate ganache as possible.

Melt the remaining chocolate along with 1 to 2 tablespoons honey together in a double boiler. 

Quickly dip each fig in melted chocolate.  Shake off excessive chocolate and set them on a board lined with plastic wrap.

Refrigerate for an hour until the chocolate inside and out are all set.

Bon Appetite！ O(∩_∩)O~

You don’t have to use 100% cacao dark chocolate here.  Any dark chocolate with more than 60% cacao would be perfect for figs. 

Coffee Cream Filling for Macarons

中文菜谱：马卡龙咖啡馅

I think this coffee cream filling for macarons is one of best fillings I have ever made so far O(∩_∩)O~

I replace 10g almond flour with super fine freshly ground coffee.  Instant French roast coffee and coffee rum are added to the filling for an enhanced coffee flavor.  Turns out to be so amazing!  The real trick here is to use real good dark chocolate.  It makes huge difference!

Ingredients：

1/4 cup dark chocolate (I use 90% cocoa.  Any dark chocolate between 60% to 100% should work just fine)
1/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons instant French roast coffee
1 tablespoon rum and coffee liqueur

Directions：

Add dark chocolate, heavy cream and instant coffee to a small ceramic bowl.

Melt the chocolate, heavy cream and instant coffee in a double boiler.  Whisk occasionally for smooth texture.

Add coffee rum.  Remove from heat.  Set it aside to chill.

When the coffee cream cools down, this is what it’s going to look like, with a smooth and silky texture.

Meanwhile, I bake some coffee marcarons.

When macarons cool down to room temperature, remove them from silicone mat.  Add 1 to 2 teaspoons coffee cream filling between every two macaron shells.

Store in air-tight container and refrigerate overnight.  By doing so, macarons and their fillings will combine better and their flavors will be maximized. 

Of course, you can always enjoy them anytime you want without the waiting.  They go very well with a cup of coffee or tea O(∩_∩)O~