Truffles & Chocolate Treats for Valentines Day! - Around the Kitchen Table

Everyone, I'm Chef Dennis Littley and welcome to Around the Kitchen Table. And today I have my co-host Susan Sarah with me. And last week it was my problem, not hers. I couldn't, I couldn't hear her. I had had to reboot my computer from factory settings and I missed a little setting on it. So today I'm so happy Susan is on because I felt like I was talking to myself most of the show and I missed her greatly. So how you doing?

I'm doing good. I'm doing good. And last week, too, I was sick and I got dressed and everything. And the show must go on and everything. And today I'm still a little under the weather, but going to the doctor later finally after a week and a half. But otherwise terrific. Here I am. And what a fun show we're going to have today. I mean, do we love Valentine's Day?

We have to love Valentine's Day. I mean, it's—

Men do.

Yeah, well, women, we love our women, we love Valentine's Day, or we love our significant others because there are a lot of other relationships out there that should celebrate Valentine's Day. But yeah, it's a holiday I think that was created pretty much by the greeting card company.

I was just going to say the greeting card company. And my husband and I have this joke. We've always had this joke that we hate Valentine's Day kind of because we felt pressure to, you know, if we're fighting or if we're whatever, we feel pressure to do what society tells us to do. So we've always said we hated it. You know, I mean, now I think you were married long enough, we're, you know, over that. But Grandparents Day, you know, who, you know, yeah, I know.

I know there's, there's holidays to celebrate everything. It's just insane. But you know, it is what it is. And a reminder about your relationships for some people is sometimes a good thing. And celebrating love, you know, if you want to look at it that way, isn't a bad thing at all.

But you know, you know what I mean? Food is love. I mean, you know, the Italians will tell you that everyone anywhere will tell you that food is love. So, so, you know, it's a good thing to celebrate. Who needs a gift? Buy food to make, to make together with love, enjoy together, share it, right?

Absolutely. In fact, one of the best Valentine's Days that went over, rather than going out— I'm a chef. I can cook at home, but going out to fancy restaurants and having— it's really an excuse to dress up more than anything for the women and taking them out to that. One of the best Valentine's Days I think my wife ever enjoyed was one year I went and got her crabs because she loves crabs, and they sell them all year round in Jersey. So I went and got hard shell crabs and a 6-pack of her favorite beer, and the Philly girl in her came out that day because she had her crabs and beer, eating in her t-shirt, loving life.

So that's so great. Where do they— they bring— get them up from down south? Yeah, like Maryland and around that area.

During, during the wintertime, they were coming from Louisiana and from Gulfwater. It was hard to see Maryland crabs. Usually are kind of selected for certain places. Getting those is not always easy. It was funny because I'd always say, "I'm going to Camden," which you wouldn't think you'd go to Camden to get crabs, but there was this guy that had a stand year-round right on the outskirts of that town. You'd take one of the highways down there and he'd be there and he'd have live crabs all year round. I said, "You know, I don't want to make anything too fancy. I'm going to surprise her." I went down there and I got 2 dozen crabs. That was a good day.

That sounds terrific, and I've done that too where you have a big brown paper tablecloth and you have the tools and you just go at it. Yep, yep. You have the old basic, you just go at it.

That's generally in fall or August, July when the crabs really start running. Kind of a thing. And real quick before we go, I'm gonna share a link with Susan for the comment tracker because we're trying to get that up and running. Again, I forgot that, but I do have it now, so I'm gonna put that— and I got the link for it.

Oh yes, there we go.

Okay, we'll get that running. And while Susan is hooking that up, I'm gonna come back and say hi to a couple people.. And Ray Miller is in the house. He's saying, I hope you have the taste feature turned on today. Thanks for the invitation, Ray. We're waiting for that. That and the smell-o-vision, although the Apple version, iSmell, was not a real good name for it. So we're hoping Google comes up with one. And MJ is here and he's waiting to learn some new things today, especially from Susan Sarah. Best wishes to both of you.

Aww, how nice. Thank you.

Elena is here, and we have a few other folks wandering in now. So hi to Elena, and hi everyone, and we'll get started. Susan, you all set with the comment tracker?

Yes, I think I am.

Okay, so what we're gonna make today is truffles, and I will tell you a little story about where the modern truffle came from. When I first started my baking career, I mean, I was not a trained baker at all. I have absolutely no knowledge of that, and I started teaching myself pretty much how to do. And I stumbled across a book early on from Alice Medric, and it was called Bittersweet. And you can see I have little tags in here for some of my favorite recipes. And Alice Medric lived in France, lived in Paris for a while, and when she was there as a young, young girl studying and refining her skills, her landlord finally shared the recipe for truffles with her that France had been making, and France was the capital of truffles. Well, she relates a story where she came home and tried them, and they came out— she did it, she screwed up the recipe completely, and they actually came out better than what she had learned. And from that, the, the truffle recipe changed, and that's pretty much what we use for truffles nowadays, is her adaptation, or the mistake that led to a better a better product. So I've always referred to her as the Queen of Chocolate, and I've lately bestowed the Goddess of Baking on her when she came out with a new book called Flavor Flours, since I'm gluten-free now with different flours. But that being said, there's a few different kinds of truffles. There is a classic truffle, which takes a little more work. You have to add eggs into it, you have to heat the eggs up because you gotta kill the bacteria, fold them in. And then there's a cold truffle that works really, really well too, but it's a little bit more work. So I'm going to show you the easiest variation of truffle, which is a ganache truffle. Okay, and a ganache truffle is silken and smooth and delicious and can be flavored with different things. So we're going to make that today. And so what we're going to start with— and let me change cameras real quick— and then is we're going to start with the heater on, and we're gonna melt some chocolate. And this is about— and I will put the recipe in later, I didn't get to do it yet— but this is 11 ounces of a bittersweet chocolate. And in this pan, I'm creating a double boiler. I have a little water, so I have my chocolate here in a bowl. And I like bowls rather than conventional double boilers because you can get into the corners of a bowl. With a pan that's got those edges, you can never really get into them, and things will burn. So with this, you can get in very easily and work with it. So this is going to take a little while to melt. We're going to let it come up to temperature. I'm going to let the steam come up, and I'm going to turn the heat down on it. And as I turn the heat down on it, I'm going to melt the chocolate gently. And when it's almost all melted, it's gonna come off the heat altogether, and I'm just gonna continue to let it melt by itself. Few things to remember when you're using chocolate. All right, people tell you use a wooden spoon. I like a metal spoon simply because they're easier to keep dry and keep free of other things. You want to be careful to stir it while it's melting so the bottom doesn't burn at all, and if it gets too hot, it can always come off the water and move to the side.

And you know, and isn't the induction cooktop really good for that too? Because don't they go to a super low setting?

Yeah, you can control the heat on induction just like you could on gas. And if this was a gas burner, once I got my water to a simmer— I see it's, it's kind of bubbling right now. I'm just going to turn it down a little bit because I don't want a real hard boil. I just want some heat under it so the chocolate melts slowly.. And that again is the whole trick to it. I was going to try and do some white chocolate for today, but my white chocolate I think is too old. And chocolate will get old and it won't melt properly. So it's too old and it just wouldn't give you that nice smooth melting. So we're going to stick with the bittersweet today. And while this is melting, I'm going to do this and then I'm going to heat up some cream. Susan has got a slideshow for us.

Yes, we're going to have some fun. Okay, Chef, so you do your magic.

All right.

And I'll do my magic. And here we go. So I'm going to— I put together a little little slideshow of— here we go— you know, putting some romance into the kitchen. You can do it in so many different ways. And of course, first we begin with flowers. Flowers is a no-brainer, you know, red warm colors, even white for purity. And you know, flowers is just a no-brainer. Roses is an even more no-brainer. So flowers are a must in the kitchen for Valentine's Day. Let me— are we going this way? Yep. Lights, stringing lights, you know, little Christmasy lights in different parts of the kitchen, in the breakfast room, the dining area. It's festive, it's romantic. Lighting is so important and could be so— it's so much romance. Now, this is a picture, this is a fun, cute picture of beautiful colors, but you know what I think is romantic? I think it's the black dish. I think it adds drama. I think it adds romance. It adds intrigue. It certainly adds emotion. I think it adds emotion to a whole lot of dishes when you serve food on a black plate. Imagine something red on a black plate. I mean, come on, that's great for Valentine's Day. Anywhere you could put any sort of sweet little bouquets in water, it's good. Beautiful abundant plants. Here we have a couple of rugs which add texture and warmth. This happens to be from my collection. I import rugs and they just add such beauty and warmth to the kitchen. Another shot of abundant plantings and really organic shapes with the lighting and, you know, rich warm, the rich warm rug and the flooring, you know, very natural. It's a very natural sort of, you know, kind of like a little bit of that country modern romance. And here we go, here's the old school rich, flowing, you know, antique, traditional sort of romantic piece. Now this is a piece that can be in any part of the kitchen. It's perfect in the breakfast room, a buffet somewhere, and look at the mirror that's over it. So I see romance all over this piece. Now here we go, look at this. I don't know what it is, I took a picture of it, I ate it, I think it's some sort of amazing red dessert, probably with plums, and I see raspberries, and I don't know what else, but you know, red is the color for Valentine's Day, isn't it? So anything with red. Yep. And now what about organic shapes in modern design? You know, this is something you can live with every day. You have useful, little useful items in just kind of rounded organic shapes that are imperfect, and it just really touches our soul. Lighting. Now look at this. This has wax melted all over it, but we need candles. Gotta have candles on Valentine's Day. Any kind of candles will do, but you need candles. A beautiful print. Now, this is a modern kitchen, yes, but a place to sit, a place to sit, green, beautiful sort of pattern and rounded, you know, sexy, beautiful shapes in the furniture. Use nice furniture, use good chairs in your kitchen, a fireplace. Here's a wonderful really nice warmth, so much warmth. You have the skins, you have the fireplace, a faucet that just has an organic feel to it. You just put your hands right around it and, you know, organic shapes that go in different directions. Likewise, a sink, and this is a sink from Blanco where you have some beautiful waves of texture and line. And how about a soft rounded cabinetry and have those shapes with you all year round. Nature, nature is one of the most wonderful romantic feelings. Red, here we have red, we have natural elements, we have the organic shape, skins, the warmth, their texture, and, you know, play with your dishes. Put little, I don't know, you know, get companion sort of foods to kind of, you know, make a design around it. Here, I love this because of the chairs. I love the natural leather, the warmth of the color, again, the bright color, the greens, Pillows, bring pillows into the kitchen, bring pillows into the breakfast room, pillows, pillows, beautiful organic shapes against a modern setting. Here we go, I mean, this is a fireplace, a big bold print, reflective surfaces in rich warm colors. How about this? I mean, this is romantic, is this You know, you want to go over the top. And beautiful lighting, lighting that is crystal, but that is so popular now. It began its popularity quite a while ago. And here's sort of a mix, modern but texture, but green and industrial flair. Again, what is it with the skins? I keep showing you the skins and the crystals, and aren't you just getting all excited with this romance in the kitchen? And more textures, and we cannot forget the wine. And the wine shows, you know, appliance refrigerators or any sort of wine storage. How about some fire on the table, Chef? Absolutely. Fire on the table. I mean, doesn't—

go ahead. Fire is very romantic.

I mean, doesn't everyone have fire on the table like this? But it's really something. And you know, here's a more old school school tradition. You know, this is interesting. It's in a kitchen, it's old book pages. How about love notes? How about love notes on the wall? Just do a whole pattern of them. I mean, come on, is this romantic? Red velvet, here we go. Hearts aflutter, hearts all aflutter. This is a chair and a big piece of marble. Again, marble and lighting everywhere and green and just— now here we go. This is what everyone needs, right? Wow. You want over the top? Here you go. Romance over the top, including pink flowers and undulating shapes and black chandeliers and gold. And you know, I mean, you can do any of these, you can do all of these. Here's a peekaboo kitchen. Here is a gold lamé peekaboo kitchen. Lace, what's romance without lace? You need lace, so, and red roses. It's just, you know, an abundance of ideas. You can put them all together and then live in Vegas and, you know, put your kitchen in Vegas, or you can have little pieces here and there. This I love, I love the drama, I love the black for romance. Ireland is all about, you know, 50 Shades of Grey. And here's a little country Europe romance. I mean, this is where you make amazing food and abundance. Just an abundance of food is really where it's at. A big shock of red for this French kitchen, which is where I stayed. Big shock of red. Why not? Why not? And, you know, a collection of little teacups and old utensils, and that's romance. So there you have it. Very well, it's in the kitchen.

Absolutely. You know, I love the idea of those little notes, Susan. I may do that. I may get one of those Post-it notes that comes in different colors. And you know, you can write on them and just keep writing on them and don't detach them. And then time for Valentine's Day, just go and stick them on the refrigerator or stick them on the mirror, all around the house.

Make a pattern, make a whole collection, say 2 foot by 2 foot or whatever.

Yep, that's an excellent idea. Good.

So where are you up to?

Well, I am ready with my chocolate is melted. Okay, so let's move on to this. I have the chocolate melted here and I'm going to get— I have cream and I did heat up my cream. So at this point the chocolate It was almost melted. I took it off the heat and I just finished stirring it around so we get everything. Now I'm going to add in the cream, and I heated it to a boil and now I let it cool for a few minutes. So this is going to go in, heavy cream. And then I'm also going to add some liqueur in. You don't have to, you can add, you don't have to, but this is a nice way to flavor it. Now I'm going to put in some Kahlúa. Because for me, coffee and chocolate is just the perfect marriage. So then we're going to take a wire whip, and I'm going to slowly, with the whip never leaving the bottom of the pan, I'm going to keep it there so I don't splash. I'm going to go to the sides, I'm going to go to the center, and I'm just going to work this cream into the chocolate without really whipping it too hard because I don't want to get air in it. I just want to fully incorporate this heated cream with my heated chocolate, and I'm just trying to get it all mixed in. And it's going to start to form like a silky, glossy, pudding-like texture. And this is really a ganache, and you could use this ganache not only for truffles, you can pretty much use this for cake centers, for a really heavy-duty frosting. Now that's all I've got it enough in here just to get it all incorporated. I'm going to use this just to go around it a little bit and make sure I've gotten everything in.

That looks great. Looks so romantic.

Now, I've got a brownie pan. You can use anything about this size, and I've lined it with a film wrap going one way and then the other way with overhangs. Now I'm just gonna pour this in here because it's gonna have to cool. And the best way to cool ganache is really to do it, let it sit overnight, and let it set back up. Once it has cooled properly, once it has set, it can be refrigerated without any damage. The only thing about leaving a ganache like this to get too cold too fast is it changes that silky smooth texture that we want. So I actually have mine in the fridge now just to firm it up a little bit more, but I'm not gonna leave it in that long. So this I'm gonna set to the side, not disturb it, and after it cools a little, I'm gonna cover the plastic over completely and then just leave it out overnight to cool. And that's that. So that is— The ganache for the truffles. And now I'm going to take out of my refrigerator the same container that I had done for chocolate, and it has firmed up. Now you can also use a pastry bag to pipe it. Oh, this is nice.

Oh.

This is beautiful. This is chocolate.

Wow, that does look— oh my gosh. I mean, you know, I would just tear it off and eat it.

I know. You know, one restaurant I worked at, we used to do a ganache frosting. And when I would have to go into the walk-in to get something, somehow or another I would find my way in there with a spoon and just grab a big spoonful of the ganache to eat on my way out.

Oh yeah, I mean, that's, that's, that's 10 levels up from, from cookie dough that I eat with a spoon.

Okay, so this is pretty much the finished product, and what you're going to do now is we're going to roll it into little balls, or we're going to make some little balls out of it. And you can use a little cookie scoop, ice cream scoop, melon baller, depending on how big you want to make them. And I'm gonna make a real mess, so I'm gonna throw some gloves on for a couple reasons. One, because I don't want to make as much of a mess, and two, because your body temperature is going to melt the chocolate a little bit. So in handling it, you want to be a little careful that you don't get it too warm with your body temperature. I was telling you earlier, Susan, I had had my girls make it First of all, I'm going to do a few of these and I'm going to set them off to the side so that I don't make too big of a mess.

Well, I mean, it looks like you're working fairly quickly.

Yeah, it's— yeah, it's going pretty good. And it's not too hot today. So what I'm going to do now is I'm just going to roll it a little bit in my hand. And I've got some cocoa here. Just going to drop it in the cocoa. Nice. And we're going to— and they don't have to be this big. This is actually a pretty good-sized truffle, but it's nice to have. I mean, they'll look really nice in these little foil cupcake pan liners.

You know, I just thought of something. You know what might be fun is what about How about doing, you know, you have different types of truffles, how about doing different sizes just for the visual interest of on a plate you have all different sizes? What about that? That's the designer in me talking.

Absolutely. You can make some smaller ones, you know, and you see that in a lot of products where they have a variation in size.

Yeah, sort of a mix, and mixing them together, I think, make it interesting.

I think so, that's a great idea. And again, you can make them, you can take them out with a spoon, you don't have to use that. So this is pretty much done the way they're going to be, and you would want to let them set up a little. I'm going to see if I can do one for you as I've got it pretty much set. Let's see if I can get this in some chocolate. Coat it.

Hahaha.

Now I would let these truffles set a little while before I do this, actually, but I want to do these for you just so you can see how I'm doing it. Let it drip. Now I'm going to set this here for a minute because I don't have a pan, but I have my pan lined with parchment. Now you want to spray the pan with a pan release before you put anything on it because that'll make your life a whole lot easier when you go to take it off. At this point, I'm just going to slide it off, smooth it out, and let it sit. Okay, so that would be how to dip them. Let's do another one. If these were firmer, like if I refrigerated these— now that I can refrigerate them since I've made it— they would dip a whole lot easier and you wouldn't have to be quite as careful with it. But because they are still a little warm Take a little bit more patience and love. All right, and then this chocolate can be, can be cut away. A lot of times I'll do it on a wire rack so the chocolate drips through and it stays. I like the parchment paper instead. So that's our truffle. You can also take them and roll them in something other than cocoa. And here I'm going to do one in pistachio, even though it's still got the cocoa on it. That's fine.

Oh, nice. Are they salted pistachios?

They are.

Good.

Salty sweet.

Love that salty sweet.

Okay, and here I've got some coconut. And who doesn't like Mars Mounds bars or Almond Joys? And I love coconut and chocolate. So there are some different ways that you can do truffles. Now, I put Kahlúa in it. If you want to use something like Chambord, that would be wonderful. You can use whatever flavor that you really like.

Grand Marnier is a classic.

Oh my God, yeah. And now we've done this, and what you want to do, if you have this chocolate melted too, is let's do some strawberries.

Oh yeah.

All right.

Oh yeah.

And I like to leave the green stems on because I like the color. In fact, we would buy stem berries for Valentine's Day, and they were outrageously expensive.

Oh yes, I know. I know what you mean. I've seen those before. I don't have them that frequently, but that is just beautiful.

There's some beautiful berries out in the market, and they're huge. And they would cost you like $2, $3 apiece if you went and bought some chocolate covered.

Really?

So you can buy— like right now they have 2 flats or 2 quarts for $5 down here. So I mean, you can make a whole tray of them and take them out to your friends and neighbors. One of Lisa's favorites Get this mouse out of the way. Is pineapple.

Oh, and look at that, that's a pineapple popsicle.

Yes, it is. And she gets these when we go to Disney. And pretty much for the price of the pineapple, I can do, you know, for what it costs there.

Right, that's true.

I can make a few of these, have pineapple. For other things. You just want to get some of the chocolate off of it. And I always leave a little of the fruit showing because it gives you some color.

I love that. I have not seen that before.

Pineapple is wonderful.

I can even see putting some nuts on top of the chocolate on that one, right? What do you think?

I was gonna do it. That's what I was getting to next here. And I'm going to take some of these—

or coconut. Coconut.

Yeah, well, she's not a coconut fan, so I'm going to leave them off. But I am going to put the pistachios on. That's why Chef Dennis doesn't make a lot of coconut things, because Mama don't like coconut. So these will show very nicely. And if you don't want pistachios— I like pistachios, but if you want to use something other than pistachios, say almonds or pecans, you can choose what you like.

Yeah, and you know, you can add more color, like kiwi. You can use kiwi. I mean, why can't you use— oh, what are those little tangerine things called?

Mandarin oranges?

Yeah, I don't know, sections of that. I don't know, I don't usually see that, but You know, to add some color, to add a really colorful, you know, dish.

Oh, there's a lot, there's a lot you can do. I mean, you can dip pretzels if you like pretzels.

Oh, that's my favorite. Chocolate-covered pretzels.

Absolutely.

That's it for me.

Anything that you can think of to dip in the chocolate will come out pretty well. You know, if you just want to, if you have some cookies, your wife's favorite cookie, your husband's favorite cookie.. And while you're dipping, if you want to dip them in chocolate, you know, dip them in chocolate. One of the things I used to sell at school all the time was I would take these big chocolate chip cookies and I would dip them halfway in chocolate, and the girls would just go berserk for them. So here Susan said about an orange, orange and chocolate.

Yeah, I love orange and chocolate. Love, love.

And then I'm gonna go with some nuts on this too. And we'll see how that is. Little orange. So I mean, the sky— I mean, you saw how easy they don't look real pretty, but when you taste, when you bite into it, I'm sure it's good.

But when you put them on a platter, on a gorgeous platter, and you know, you arrange them perfectly, then I don't think there are many people who wouldn't have one.

No. Not at all. They are very, very tasty. And you know, marshmallows, if you want to chocolate dip marshmallows.

And you know what, how about adding some red, some red roses around the platter?

Absolutely.

How about that?

Anything to make it more romantic and make it prettier.

Yeah, lace, roses, chocolate. I mean, You know, a beautiful platter. That's it. Wow.

Try this way.

Yeah. Although me, I don't need that. The parchment paper is good for me. That, that looks good enough for me.

Ready to dive in, huh?

Yeah, I don't need, I don't need many more, you know, additions, embellishments. That looks great.

That was very nice. Yeah. And these are really, really good chocolate treats. You can, if you're into melting chocolate, and want to do some white, and I was going to do that for you today, you can either cross-dip them in the white after they've solidified up a bit, after they've hardened, or you can just take white and drizzle it. You can put it in a little pastry bag or in a little Ziploc bag, cut a tip off, and just kind of drizzle white chocolate on it.

So, you know, a couple of things here. MJJ on the Maldives is saying, are there apples too? And I'm not so sure apples would be great. What do you think about apples? Because of— what do you think?

Well, they're going to turn, so you'd have to do them fast. I have seen whole apples dipped, you know, like a caramel apple. So, you know, you probably could do an apple wedge. You could definitely do bananas.

But because they would turn brown.

Well, once it happens, they probably won't turn. So, you know, once you've got it dipped, you should be okay.

Okay, pears. I love pears. What do you think?

Yeah, chocolate pear, anything that'll hold up. Delicate berries like raspberries and blackberries won't work because they're going to break apart. There's too much moisture in them. Strawberries do just because they have an outer hull. Grapes, if you get your chocolate— you want to keep the chocolate warm enough, too, so you don't have an overabundance of chocolate on them too. So as the chocolate cools, it gets thicker, and it's going to coat these things a lot more than normal. So that's one thing to think about and to look at when you're doing them. Keep your chocolate warm. Like, I've got it sitting in the pot that still has the hot water, the warm water in it, so it's keeping it from cooling down too much.

Okay, well, as usual, it's up to your imagination whether it's the kitchen design or the cooking.

Yep, the sky is the limit. And just be creative, be expressive, enjoy Valentine's Day, you know. And these are things you can make up ahead of time too. I like the truffle, the chocolate, you can do and have it ready and roll them out the night before, the day before, finish them up, let them get— let them get— the whole trick is once the truffle mix is done, it can go into the refrigerator really well.. That's a good way to do it. Let it get nice and firm, and then work with it. Then you can finish these up, put them back in the fridge. Strawberries, be careful when you dip. You don't want to let them sit really more than a day. Same thing with the pineapple because what happens is the juice in the fruit is going to start to come out, and it'll make it— it won't be as tasty as it would have been. That's something you can do the night before.

Good tips. Good tips.

Alright, well, I think that's about it for this week, and I think next week we're talking about doing something for the Mardi Gras right now, so hopefully we'll come up with something happy for you.

We sure are.

And I hope everyone's enjoying this new day and time. It's working really well for me, and I think it's a little earlier in the day for a lot of people, so—

Yeah, me too. I think it's great. Midweek, you know, Good. A nice break in the midweek and, you know, more inspiration. I think it's perfect, actually.

So thank you for coming around our kitchen table and happy Valentine's Day, everyone. We'll see you next week before it, but get yourself ready. Start thinking now. In fact, I bought my cards yesterday, so get prepared. See you all later.

Bye-bye.