Shut the Front Door Lime Basil Milk Chocolate Truffles

So one of my new favorites to pick up at the Madison Farmers Market is lime basil.  It tastes like basil.  It tastes like lime.  It is amazing!  I’ve been infusing it into my sweet tea for a refreshing, light summer beverage.  But I’ve finally discovered the true calling for lime basil.  Lime Basil Milk Chocolate Truffles!  I’m firmly convinced that all lime basil was destined to wind up in a creamy, indulgent, delicious truffle.

I hit the market and was ready get started.  Lime basil-check.  Heavy cream-check.  100% pure cocoa butter milk chocolate-check.  Fresh lime-no check.  Ok so I did have a fresh lemon and decided that would suffice just fine. 

The final result was one kitchen experiment gone right!  No trifle would be made of these delicacies.  Super creamy and rich.  The lime hit my tongue first.  Then the basil.  All followed by the silky milk chocolate.  WHOA!  I thought they were amazing.  Since I never think I’m a good judge of my own creations, I did what I always do.  I found some victims.  When you are giving away food, especially chocolate, it’s not too hard to find some willing participants.

My friend Cathy was the first victim….I mean volunteer.  After getting one bite she yelled out, “Shut the front door!  These are amazing!”  She shared them with several other folks and they all agreed they were “shut the front door amazing”.  They all informed me they were coming home with me for the leftovers.  Um, leftovers?  Would we call that stash I’m hoarding all for myself leftovers?  Note to self:  never mention leftover lime basil truffles unless you are unless you are actually willing to give them up.   

Shut the Front Door Lime Basil Milk Chocolate Truffles

½ Cup Heavy Whipping Cream

24-36 Small to Medium Sized Fresh Lime Basil Leaves, Rinsed

1/8 Tsp. Lemon Zest

12 oz. Good Quality Milk Chocolate (I’m a little partial to Dove®)

Powdered Sugar

Bring cream, lime basil leaves and zest to a boil over medium low heat.  Remove from heat and allow to infuse for 1 hour.   Strain basil leaves from cream.  Chop chocolate into bits about the size of chocolate chips.  Bring cream to a boil over medium low heat a second time.  Pour over finely chopped chocolate and let sit for 5 minutes.  After 5 minutes stir until smooth.  Refrigerate for 1 hour or until firm but not hard.

Using a melon baller scoop the chocolate and roll into smooth balls.  I like using cotton gloves* for this part as it makes it a lot neater.  Roll balls in powdered sugar and enjoy!

*These can be found at candy supply stores or ordered online. 

Cookies and Cream Trifle

So my friend Jennifer recently had a birthday and as I typically do for a friend’s birthday, I created a special dessert for her-Cookies and Cream Trifle.  I love trifles because they are an easy 5 minute go-to dessert and you really can’t mess them up.  I’ve actually saved several dessert disasters from the garbage disposal by dumping them in a pretty bowl, layering in some real whipped cream and calling them a “trifle”.  For the record, Jennifer’s dessert had nothing to do with a dessert disaster and everything to do with the fact I wanted to make some white chocolate whipped cream and had some double dark chocolate chip cookies in the freezer.  I knew the combination would be a match made in....well, a match I couldn’t wait to get in my mouth!

Now traditionally trifle is made by soaking cake usually in some sort of liquor and layering it with custard, sometimes fruit and of course whipped cream.  I’ve created so many trifles from kitchen experiments gone awry that we now label anything that is layered in a bowl with whipped cream, a trifle.  When my husband sees a trifle in the fridge his first question is, “So what recipe went wrong this time?”

In making Jennifer’s trifle I was reminded of one of the better trifles I’ve made which was the direct result of a pretty large kitchen catastrophe.   Last Thanksgiving I was attempting a Cherpumple which is a cherry pie baked inside a white cake, stacked on a pumpkin pie baked into a yellow cake, stacked on an apple pie baked into a spice cake and then slathered with cream cheese icing.  Seriously, I’m not making this one up.

After watching a short video on this monstrosity, I decided I could do that but only I would make everything from scratch!  The man in the video used premade pies and boxed cake mixes.  I figured that if it looked that good all store-bought, it would be a masterpiece from scratch.  There’s one thing about me, I never take the easy way out but this was one of those times I wished I had. 

Since it looked like it would serve 100 I decided I needed a big group to try it out on.  My husband’s office was having their Thanksgiving lunch the following week and his co-workers had served as guinea pigs for many recipes in the past so why not wow them with what was sure to be the dessert of the year-maybe the decade.

Off I went measuring ingredients, slicing apples, rolling dough and all the other work that went into the 3 homemade pies.  Whew, 3 pies from scratch and I was only 50% of the way done.  I fell asleep that night with visions of frozen premade pies and boxed cake mixes.  I’m pretty sure I heard them laughing at me. 

The next night I was all set to finish the beauty.  I got the first pie and cake in the oven and baked them.  And baked them.  Did I mention that I baked them?  Toothpick test-still gooey.  Baked, baked, and baked some more.  Finally the toothpick came out clean enough that the center of the cake should be done.  I let it cool for a few minutes and just could hardly contain the excitement as I dumped the cake over onto the cooling rack.  One scrumptious layer down and two to go!  Boy was this going to be the talk of the office!  But this is where it all went really wrong.  My gorgeous perfect cake with the luscious homemade pie in the middle just dumped out into a crumbled mound of pumpkin pie and cake.  I was mortified.  Well at least nobody knew what I was bringing.  Or did they?  Had my husband shared with the whole office that they were going to be treated to a Cherpumple?  Surely he had just signed up for “dessert”.  Please don’t let him have signed up to bring Cherpumple!  I quickly rushed to ask him and, yes, he had shared with the office they were going to get to sample the granddaddy of all desserts.  Panic!

Ok, well I have 2 pies left.  It will just be a 2 layer Cherpumple.  Baked the apple pie and the same thing-a big mound of apple pie and cake mess.  My husband found it a little funny and jokingly said, “Well, we’ll just tell everyone it’s a Cherdumple”.  I was not amused but decided I had to do something with it after all that work. 

So I did the only thing I knew to do.  I made a trifle.  It was creamy pumpkin pie with a flaky crust, mixed with moist homemade cake, layered with real whipped cream, drizzled with homemade caramel, and it was good.   Really good.  It got rave reviews at his office.  I was feeling pretty proud of myself for pulling it off……until someone asked for the recipe.  I simply smiled and said, “Do you bake a lot?  If you do, I’d be more than happy to share the recipe with you.  But it is quite involved.”  Luckily there was some comment from the co-worker how if it required much work, they were likely to mess it up.  Oh if they only knew! 

Here’s my recipe for Jennifer’s  Cookies and Cream trifle.  It’s sure not as much work as the Cherdumple, but it’s sure to get you some rave reviews and you won’t have to cringe when someone asks for the recipe!

Jennifer’s Cookies and Cream Birthday Trifle

4 oz. Good Quality White Chocolate (I’m a little partial to Dove®.)

1 Cup Heavy Cream

1 Tsp. Sugar

2 Cups Crumbled Double Dark Chocolate Chip Cookies*

Chocolate Shavings or Cocoa Powder for Garnish

Melt chocolate in the microwave at 20 second intervals until smooth.  Stir between intervals as the chocolate will begin to melt from the inside first.  Cool to room temperature.  Beat cream and sugar until stiff peaks forms.  Fold melted chocolate into the cream.  Add 1 cup cookie crumbs to a 2-quart glass dish.  Layer on ½ of the white chocolate cream.  Repeat.  Garnish top with chocolate shavings or cocoa powder.

*I used homemade double chocolate chip cookies to which I had added cocoa powder to the batter.  You can use any store-bought cookie just make sure they pack a big chocolate punch (as rich as a brownie).  That super rich chocolate goodness paired with the light, sweet white chocolate cream is amazing.

Homemade Fresh Fig Syrup

I started a new Saturday morning routine this summer and that is to head down to the Madison Farmers Market on Hughes Road.  It’s not big but there are always wonderful fresh fruits and vegetables and I love supporting the local farmers.   A lot of Saturdays I even ride my bike there.  Biking to the farmers market just feels really “green”. 

So for the last couple of weeks, I’ve been eyeing all the fresh figs.  I remember eating figs right from the tree as a kid from the fig tree in my grandparent’s back yard.  It grew right next to the brick well house.  They lived in the country and had well water.  Still remember the distinct taste of that too.

This past Saturday at the market I just couldn’t turn down the figs.....they were plump, ripe and ready to be devoured.  I bought some Turkey figs and some green skinned ones that I believe were Kadota figs.  Turkey figs are really sweet and just a wonderful explosion of sweetness the minute you bite into them.  The Kadota figs were less sweet and had a meatier texture.

I got the idea to make homemade fig syrup.  You’re probably thinking that you’ve never heard of fig syrup.  Well neither had I but decided I would create it.  At last an absolute original recipe that no one had ever thought of.  I would be the mother of invention (at least the mother of homemade fig syrup)!  Before I got too excited, I remembered a line from Rod Stewart’s “Every Picture Tells a Story”.  It goes something like, “I couldn’t quote you no Dickens, Shelley or Keats, ‘cause it’s all been said before”.  It’s the same in the food world.  Somebody, somewhere has already made fig syrup. 

It was everything I imagined.  Rich, delicious with a wonderful fig flavor-perfect for drizzling over ice cream, pound cake, French toast or just eating right from the bowl.  Wish I would’ve had it for the chocolate chip gingerbread waffles I made Saturday. 

Without further adieu, here it is.  The world premiere recipe for homemade fig syrup.  So I’m sure if you googled fig syrup you would find a ton of recipes.  But for now, I’m resisting the urge so I can relish in the fact that I just might’ve created the world’s first!

Homemade Fig Syrup

2 Cups Ripe, Fresh Turkey Figs

2 Cups Ripe, Kadota Figs

1 ½ Cups Sugar

2 Cups Water

1 tsp. Fresh Squeezed Lemon Juice

Rinse figs in cold water and remove any stems.  Add figs and remaining ingredients to a saucepot.  Bring to a boil and simmer covered for 35 minutes.  After 35 minutes use a large spoon and gently break the figs into pieces.  Bring to a boil and cook for 25 minutes or until reduced by ¼ and slightly thickened.

Serve warm over vanilla bean ice cream, waffles, French toast or pound cake.

Welcome to Huntsville Hot Chocolates

Welcome to the blog for Huntsville Hot Chocolates.....a cool place to read about hot trends in the world of CHOCOLATE!  And pretty much anything else related to food, travel or recreation that I want to write about.  But, a heads up, there will be a lot of chocolate chat here!

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"All you really need in life is a friend with chocolate.  I'm that friend."  ~ Anonymous