Mexican Chocolate Truffles

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Happy love day everyone! As much as I like challenging myself and my writing skills (which need a lot of attention and practice), the following words are a re-post from an article I found online. It is a beautiful summary of pretty much everything that has been going in my head lately, and over the past few years, yet someone had expressed it better than I ever could. These words are not intended to be the obsolete truth, but rather to serve as a reminder, to myself, that love and relationships are the flowers of life. If we choose to tend to them and have them in our gardens, we need to care for them, water, protect and nourish them so they can bloom and flourish. That people’s hearts are not to be taken for granted because as the Fox said to the Little Prince “It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye”. So lets start inviting in only the people who can see us with their hearts and not solely with their heads or eyes.  

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Why are relationships so hard today? Why do we fail at love every time, despite trying so hard? Why have humans suddenly become so inept at making relationships last? Have we forgotten how to love? Or worse, forgotten what love is?

We’re not prepared. We’re not prepared for the sacrifices, for the compromises, for the unconditional love. We’re not ready to invest all that it takes to make a relationship work. We want everything easy. We’re quitters. All it takes is a single hurdle to make us crumble to our feet. We don’t let our love grow, we let go before time.

It’s not love we’re looking for, only excitement and thrill in life. We want someone to watch movies and party with, not someone who understands us even in our deepest silences. We spend time together, we don’t make memories. We don’t want the boring life. We don’t want a partner for life, just someone who can make us feel alive right now, this very instant. When the excitement fades, we discover nobody ever prepared us for the mundane. We don’t believe in the beauty of predictability because we’re too blinded by the thrill of adventure.

We immerse ourselves in the inconsequentials of the city life, leaving no space for love. We don’t have time to love, we don’t have the patience to deal with relationships. We’re busy people chasing materialistic dreams and there’s no scope to love. Relationships are nothing more than convenience.

We look for instant gratification in everything we do – the things we post online, the careers we choose, and the people we fall in love with. We want the maturity in a relationship that comes with time, the emotional connect that develops over years, that sense of belonging when we barely even know the other person. Apparently, nothing’s worth our time and patience – not even love.

We’d rather spend an hour each with a hundred people than spending a day with one. We believe in having ‘options’. We’re ‘social’ people. We believe more in meeting people than getting to know them. We’re greedy. We want to have everything. We get into relationships at the slightest attraction and step out, the moment we find someone better. We don’t want to bring out the best in that one person. We want them to be perfect. We date a lot of people but rarely give any of them a real chance. We’re disappointed in everyone.

Technology has brought us closer, so close that it’s impossible to breathe. Our physical presence has been replaced by texts, voice messages, snapchats and video calls. We don’t feel the need to spend time together anymore. We have too much of each other already. There’s nothing left to talk about.

We’re a generation of ‘wanderers’ who wouldn’t stay at one place for too long. Everyone is commitment phobic. We believe we’re not meant for relationships. We don’t want to settle down. Even the thought of it is scary. We cannot imagine being with one person for the rest of our lives. We walk away. We despise permanence like its some social evil. We like to believe we’re ‘different’ than the rest. We like to believe we don’t conform to social norms.

We’re a generation that calls itself ‘sexually liberated’. We can tell sex apart from love, or so we think. We’re the hook-up-break-up generation. We have sex first and then decide if we want to love someone. Sex comes easy, loyalty doesn’t. Getting laid has become the new getting drunk. You do it not because you love the other person, but because you want to feel good. It’s all the temporary fulfillment we need. Sex outside relationships isn’t a taboo anymore. Relationships aren’t that simple anymore. There are open relationships, friends with benefits, causal flings, one-night stands, no strings attached – we’ve left very little exclusivity for love in our lives.

We’re the practical generation who runs by logic alone. We don’t know how to love madly anymore. We wouldn’t take a flight to a far-off land just to see someone we love. We’d break up because, long distance. We’re too sensible for love. Too sensible for our own good.

We’re a scared generation – scared to fall in love, scared to commit, scared to fall, scared to get hurt, scared to get our hearts broken. We don’t allow anyone in, nor do we step out and love anyone unconditionally. We lurk from behind walls we’ve created ourselves, looking for love and running away the moment we really find it. We suddenly ‘cannot handle it’. We don’t want to be vulnerable. We don’t want to bare our soul to anyone. We’re too guarded.

We don’t even value relationships anymore. We let go of the most wonderful people for ‘the other fishes in the sea.’ We don’t consider them sacred anymore.

There’s nothing we couldn’t conquer in this world, and yet, here we are ham-fisted at the game of love – the most basic of human instincts. Evolution, they call it.

By Ankush Bahuguna

Find original source here.

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And now back to my usual blog content. Hope you didn’t think I will forget to include a recipe. This one for Mexican Truffles and it comes with a slight kick and lots of chocolate, so I hope you are ready for it.

xo xo

Mexican Chocolate Truffles

Ingredients:
Makes about 50 (1/2-inch) truffles

• 16 oz. (450 gr) good quality bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 3/4 cup (180 ml) heavy cream
• 1 vanilla bean
• 5 tbsp (70 gr) unsalted butter at a room temperature
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cardamom
• 1 tsp chipotle pepper, divided in half
• 1/2 cup Dutch cocoa powder

Directions:

Place the cream in a small saucepan. Scrape the vanilla bean and add it to the saucepan. Heat over meduim-high heat and bring to a gentle boil. 

Place the chocolate and the butter in a medium heatproof bowl and top with the hot cream. Let it sit for 1 minute to allow the chocolate to melt. Stir with rubber spatula until smooth. If chocolate chunks are still present, place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and stir until all chocolate has melted. 

Add cinnamon, cardamom and 1/2 of the chipotle pepper. Taste and add the remaining 1/2 tsp of chipotle pepper if desired.

Allow mixture to stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Refrigerate for 2–3 hours or until just firm. 

Roll teaspoonfuls of the truffle mixture into balls and place on a large baking tray. Roll truffles in the cocoa powder until it is coated evenly. Keep refrigerated until ready to be enjoyed.

Gingerbread Cookies

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There in the forest lived a bear. He was a small but a very good bear whose name nobody knew so everyone called him Bear. He had a small, but a cozy house in the middle of the woods with a comfy fluffy bed, nice big table with many chairs and a big pantry room where he stocked all of his provisions for the winter. The Bear’s busiest seasons were summer and fall, though armed with two big baskets, he would walk around the forest and gather many yummy things such as berries, fruits and honey. Winter was his favorite season. Everything was white and the soft fluffy snow was everywhere, making the forest look like a dreamy, puffy cloud. The other reason why the Bear liked winter so much were his long walks in the woods where he would visit his friends – the Fox, the Squirrel, the Hedgehog and the Snail. 

The Fox’s house was on the other side of the forest from where the Bear lived and the Bear liked going to the Fox’s house at least two times a week, not because she was most hospitable of all of his friends, but because she was rarely at home. And the Bear liked guessing and eagerly waiting to find if the Fox was home or not. The Fox also was an avid discoverer, traveler and a gatherer of all interesting things and the Bear loved listening the Fox’s stories about unfamiliar places and going though, touching and smelling all the Fox’s treasures from her trips.

Another house that the Bear liked to visit was Mr. Squirrel’s house. Mr. Squirrel was a small creature with a big puffy tail and the energy of a hundred squirrels. He was always on the run, always carrying something and always in the state of panic that he didn’t fill his den with enough food for the winter. When, in fact, he had so much stored food that often it would take up his entire house, even his bed and then he had to stay with the Bear. The Bear actually loved when Mr. Squirrel stayed with him because it meant that there will be a food party with all of their friends in order to free up space in Mr. Squirrel’s house. 

So on the day when the Snail and the Hedgehog informed the Bear that they couldn’t come to the annual Christmas and New Year’s parties because they had lost most of their food in the fall’s flood, the Bear knew what to do. He convinced Mr. Squirrel, though it was not easy, to bring some of his food to the Bear’s house. Then, on Christmas Eve, The Bear, the Fox and Mr. Squirrel armed with a wagon cart and many blankets sneaked into the Snail’s and the Hedgehog’s houses while they were sleeping. Then, very gently – not to wake them up, placed the Snail and the Hedgehog into the cart and covered them with warm blankets. After that they carefully wheeled their sleeping friends to the Bear’s house and waited...

....When the Snail and the Hedgehog woke up on Christmas morning, they were puzzled and surprised. They had no idea what had happened and how they ended up in the Bear’s house. The Bear, on other hand, was so happy and was eagerly handing them two small cups of honey chamomile tea. Then the door opened and there arrived the Fox and Mr. Squirrel carrying many baskets of the Squirrel’s provisions. After that they all gathered and cooked a lovely breakfast, drank some tea and sat around the Bear’s table. They chatted laughed, as all good friends do, for many days and nights until the new year arrived.

The end.

This project was a collaboration between me and the lovely and very talented Lindsay Schwartz. It is very rare in life when we have the chance to meet an exceptional human being that would not only magnetize us with their genuineness, kindness and humanity but with whom we would also work so well. To me, Lindsay is one of these people. And for various reasons that I can’t find words to describe, she makes me peaceful, aware on myself and my surroundings and open to the creativity that lies deep in me.

Thank you, Miss Linz, for being who you are and I look forward to many more shared moments and projects together.

Video Art Direction and Hand Lettering by Lindsay Schwartz.

Gingerbread Cookies

This recipe was modified from this Bon Appétit Magazine recipe.

Ingredients:

Makes about 40 3-inch cookies

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tbsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon*
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 8 tbsp (1 stick / 115 gr.) butter at room temperature
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 egg 
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbsp fresh orange juice
• 1 tsp orange zest

Simple Frosting:
• 2 cups of confectioners sugar
• 3 tbsp water

* I used Vietnamese cinnamon for my cookies because of its complex flavor. Feel free to use any cinnamon you like/have.

Directions:

1. Mix the flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, soda, and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.

2. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and the egg yolk. Then beat in the orange juice and orange peel (batter may look curdled). Blend in the flour-spice mixture and mix well with a spatula. Gather the dough together into a large ball.

3. Cut the dough ball in half and shape each half into a flat round disc. Take one of the discs and roll it out between 2 large sheets of parchment paper (this will prevent dough from sticking) to about 1/8-inch thickness. Carefully place the rolled dough with the parchment on a baking sheet. Chill in the refrigerator for about half an hour. Repeat with the other dough disk.

4. Preheat oven to 350 F.

5. Take one of the chilled and rolled out discs from the refrigerator and slide it from the baking sheet onto a table. Remove the top parchment paper and line the baking sheet with it. Working quickly, cut out cookies using cookie cutters. Using a spatula, transfer the cookies onto the lined baking sheet, spacing them 1 inch apart. Gather the dough scraps and re-roll to 1/8-inch thickness and cut out more cookies.

6. Bake the cookies until golden, for about 8 minutes. Let the cookies stand for 2 minutes. Transfer the cookies and the parchment paper to a cooling rack to cool completely.

7. Repeat with the remaining rolled and chilled dough.

8. Using a whisk, mix the icing ingredients in a medium mixing bowl until well blended. The mixture should be thick and not runny. Add more water or sugar in necessary. Place the mixture into a piping bag (or a ziplock bag) with a very small tip attached and decorate. Let the icing dry for at least 4 hours.

Store cookies in a plastic box lined with parchment paper.

Italian brioches

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So this year I completely forgot about Easter, maybe because it was so cold for so long that I somehow imagined that Easter would be in July, when the snow is finally gone. But no, it was in April, and I realized that a few days before the holiday, so I was completely unprepared.

For years my Easter bread has been a disaster so I really wanted to improve the recipe this year. But since it was too late to test, improve and post the recipe on time for Easter, so I decided to just go for Italian brioches.

For those of you who don’t know, brioches are sweet pastry treats which in Italy are as widely spread as the croissants in France. They are made of sweet dough, which is also used to make Easter bread in eastern Europe and Greece. In Italy, brioches are enjoyed all year around and they are sold in cafes and pastry shops. Italians have them with their morning espresso and the brioche filling can be anything from almond paste to vanilla cream and jam. I thought, since I am doing it the Italian way, why not give the Italians the whole tribute and make my brioches with Nutella, the very Italian chocolaty spread, mixed with crushed roasted hazelnuts.

For those of you that know how to make sweet dough or Easter bread, I have used egg yolks only in this recipe. I have found that the higher fat content of the egg yolks keeps the dough from drying out, resulting in softer brioches for several days. 

Making the sweet dough can be a half day process since the dough needs to rise twice. I have shortened the process by making the dough in the evening, letting it rise once, leaving it overnight in the refrigerator to rise the second time, and baking in the morning. Easy peasy and less stressful!

Italian brioches

Ingredients:

Makes 16 brioches

• 3 tablespoons of lukewarm water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 3 egg yolks (at room temperature)
• 1 egg white (for egg wash) (at room temperature)
• 2 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 lemon, zested
• 1 orange, zested
• 1 Vanilla bean (or 1 teaspoon vanilla extract)
• 2/3 cup whole milk
• 1/4 cup oil (vegetable, canola or sunflower)
• 1/2 cup Nutella
• 1/3 cup whole hazelnuts, skins removed, roasted and coarsely chopped

Directions:

1. Place the warm water (a bit warmer than lukewarm, but not too hot to kill the yeast), in a medium bowl and mix in 1 teaspoon of sugar, sprinkle the yeast over the mixture. Let sit until yeast foams and almost doubles its size, about 10-15 minutes.

2. Combine the flour, salt and sugar in a large mixing bowl and mix with a whisk. Run a sharp knife over the vanilla bean, split it like butterfly and scrape out the seeds with the back of the knife. Add the vanilla beans to a small sauce pan and pour the milk. Heat the milk and vanilla mixture over low heat, mix regularly until the milk is lukewarm or a little bit warmer, about 1 minute. 

Hand method:
3. Make a well in the center on the flour mixture and add the milk, yeast mixture, egg yolks, lemon and orange zest. Mix with your hand starting from the center of the well and working your way out by adding flour from the sides of the bowl. While mixing, slowly incorporate the oil by adding a small amount each time. Form a soft bowl and transfer it to a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes by adding small amounts of flour if necessary. The dough should be soft and it should bounce back when pressed with your finger.

Stand mixer method:
3. Place the flour mixture, milk mixture, yeast, egg yolks, lemon and orange zest in the bowl of the mixer. Slowly add the oil, one teaspoon at the time, incorporating well between additions. Mix on medium speed for 1 minute and then knead on medium-high speed for 5 minutes. The dough should be soft and it should bounce back when pressed with your finger.

4. Transfer the formed ball into a large lightly oiled mixing bowl. Brush some oil on the top of the dough, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise in a warm draft-free place until it doubles its original volume, about 1-2 hours depending on the temperature at your home.

5. While the dough is rising, mix the Nutella with the crushed roasted hazelnuts. Leave at a room temperature until ready to use.

6. Punch the risen dough with your hand to remove some of the air, transfer it to a flat lightly floured surface, cut in half and form a ball with each half. Take one of the balls, sprinkle some more flour onto the surface and over the ball, and roll it with a rolling pin until the circle becomes 13” in diameter. Using a sharp knife cut the dough into 8 equal triangles, using sharp strokes without dragging the knife through the dough.

7. Take one of the triangles, stretch it a bit more, about 5x7.5”, place a teaspoon of the Nutella mixture in the center of the wide end of the triangle. Roll the triangle to form a brioche, starting from the wide end of the triangle and moving to the thin end. Do not squeeze or tighten the roll too much while rolling. Repeat the process with the rest of the triangles and the second ball of dough. 

8. Divide the brioches between two 14x16” baking trays lined with parchment paper. Cover well with plastic wrap. The wrap should not be too loose or too tight (the brioches will rise and they need some room but also they shouldn’t form a skin). If baking the same day, let the brioches rise until they double its size, about 1 hour. If baking the next day, place the trays in the refrigerator and take them out 30-40 minutes prior to baking.

9. Preheat the oven to 350˚F.

10. Make an egg wash by mixing the preserved egg white with 1 tablespoon of water. Brush each brioche with the egg white sprinkle it with raw crushed hazelnuts if desired.

11. Place one of the trays in the oven and bake for about 20-25 minutes (depending on your oven) while rotating the tray halfway through the baking. Repeat with the other tray (if you have a fancy schmancy oven you can bake them at once).

Let the brioches cool for at least 20 minutes before enjoying.