White chocolate and coffee truffles with dried strawberries

I’ll first allow myself a few words to excuse my great absence.
Not been ill nor lost my passion for cooking, nothing of that sort.
Something worse.
:O

The last six months I’ve actually lived in Chile as an exchange student, on the oooother far side of the Earth from my sweet home Estonia. And with a lot of, well, experiences to experience, not much time is left for cooking and less for experimenting, especially with all those chileans around me shouting „haznos algo estoniano porfa!“

But after my first six months here I finally made something worth writing about. I expect to have a lot more to write during the almost six more months that are still left to live on this hemisphere! (Gosh, I’ve totally forgotten my English, couldn’t I just write in Spanish mejor?)



White chocolate and coffee truffles with dried strawberries
(30)

200g + 160g white chocolate

½ dl heavy cream1

½ tsp instant coffee powder (or espresso powder, or experiemnt with coffee extract)

1 tbsp hot water

about 20 g dried strawberries

(toasted) coconut flakes

1. Chop 200g of white chocolate in little pieces.
2. Bring cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate, mixing well until the chocolate is melted.
3. Mix instant coffee powder with hot water and add the mixture bit by bit to the chocolate, tasting to have just as much coffee taste as you like (adding it all makes the coffe taste quite strong, but good;))
4. Chop the dried straberries in small pieces and add to the mixture. Let the mixture stay in the fridge for a half an hour.
5. While the chocolate is in the fridge, toast the coconut on a pan over low heat (I used the minimum heat of a gas stove) until golden and leave to chill.
6. Form little balls of the chocolate mixture and return to the fridge to harden.
7. Melt the rest of the chocolate over a waterbath or in the microwave and put the toasted coconut in a small bowl (if you melt the chocoalte in the microwave, you’ll have to melt it again halfway through the truffle making process as it will begin to harden)
8. Dip the truffles first into the chocolate, then roll them in the coconut and leave them onto parchment paper or aluminium foil (I use a teaspoon to roll a truffle in the chocolate, drop it over the toasted coconut and then with a fork roll it over in the coconut, without letting the chocolate touch the bowl nor the fork to keep the coconut free of clumps).
9. Let the truffles harden in the fridge and keep in the fridge or at room temperature.

The bitterness of the coffee (and coconut toasted without sugar!) balances well the overly sweet white chocolate, enough to allow to use sweet dried strawberries that give a summery and jolly touch to an otherwise kind of adult version of white chocolate truffles. Would be nice to wrap this chocolate mixture around a whole dried strawberry and make bigger truffles, this way the strawberry taste would come out clearer too, because these truffles don’t scream „strawberry!“, rather „coffee! Yum! Bittersweetsweet! One more!“

Overdose of sweet from coconut honey

When I take home a can of coconut milk, it's almost always with the thought 'I have no idea where it's going to take me this time'. Sorry if I'm making it sound like an adventure story, but guessing where the canful will eventually end up is like guessing where Indiana Jones will find himself after climbing down a suspicious ladder.

Poor coconut milk found itself in a jar this time, stuck in there together with some sticky good honey and vanilla seeds.

Never seen Indiana Jones in a sweet situation like that after climbing down any ladder, that's for sure...


Coconut honey with vanilla

3 dl coconut milk
1 dl honey
half a vanilla pod
1 tbsp butter

1. Measure coconut milk and honey into a saucepan. Cut the vanilla pod in half and add.
2. Boil the mixture without a lid over low heat until it turns thicker, about 15 minutes.
3. Add butter.
4. Pour the mixture into a jar, close it and leave to cool at room temperature. Store in the fridge.

So what does it taste like? Imagine the word pair 'coconut honey' melting on your tongue, sweet and gooey, girly from the touch of vanilla.

I had my first taste on a chocolate dessert with bilberries, but I imagine it being syrupy good on ice cream or just plain yoghurt. And I'd like to drizzle it onto a bowlful of fresh strawberries. How's that for adventurously good?

This recipe will also take part in the A Fruit A Month event hosted by Tasty Palettes, themed Coconut. Coconut's a fruit, my friends, a fruit:)

Coco-nutty prune candy

A few weeks ago I had cravings for ice cream with hot sauce. That's called a tooth-ache wish. I happened to have a bunch of prunes left over from my chocolate-y meat sauce and decided to boil them in some coconut milk. The coconut milk thickened and adopted the fruity sweetness of the prunes, which turned soft and velvety, being rich in creamy coconut milk.

I didn't eat it all, no matter how serious my cravings were.
I discovered the left-overs later when they had already cooled down. Instead of a sauce there were soft coconut-flavoured prunes. Ding! An idea! I would have walked..well...a mile to have got hold on to some white chocolate to dip these prunes into. It took me a week to get the chocolate, though...


Coco-nutty prune candy
(about 30)

2 dl prunes
2 dl coconut milk
about 120 g white chocolate
about 2 dl coconut flakes

1. Boil prunes with coconut milk for 10-15 minutes (don't cover).
   
2. Remove from heat and let the prunes cool. If there is too much coconut milk left, you can just pick the prunes out.
3. Melt chocolate over a waterbath. Prepare a small bowl with coconut flakes to roll the candy in and parchment paper/foil/silicone sheet to place the candy on for cooling.
4. Dip each prune into white chocolate, let excessive chocolate drip off, roll the candy in coconut flakes and place onto parchment paper/foil/silicone sheet to cool. (I used 2 teaspoons - one for dipping and one for covering so I didn't get a chocolate-coconut flake mess)

The candies can be stored in the fridge and taken out only some time before serving - that way it's better to eat them in several bites. If they're kept at room temperature, it's better to eat them in just one bite - or pieces might fall off them and...that's just not that comfortable.



How long should you boil the prunes? I have boiled them at quite a high temperature. The first time I made the candies, I used a small pot - the prunes didn't fit in one layer. I boiled them for 15 minutes and the coconut milk was still quite light-coloured. The second time I used a saucepan - the prunes didn't fill one layer. After 10 minutes I removed the saucepan from heat, because the coconut milk was quite brown already. So I recommend using a pot that just holds one layer of prunes and keeping an eye on it - don't let the coconut milk turn that brown, the taste will be better.

The candies have a mild coconut taste and are very velvety inside. White chocolate adds additional sweetness and makes the overall impression quite sweet. If you're an extreme sweettooth, try adding dark syrup when boiling the prunes. Using toasted coconut flakes would make the nutty accent yummily overwhelming.
Do try this at home!

Back to when I was five years old ... a childhood dessert reconstructed

Waiting at the small kitchen table.
'Is it ready yet?'
-'Could you just wait a little more?'
And then, after some time, mom gives me a soup plate filled with white milk kissel with blasting vanilla flavour. The excitement! The sweet taste of a favourite dessert!

There was a time when milk kissel would have been my first (and last) choice for a dessert and this is the scene that come's to my mind whenever I'm remembered about it. But, unfortunately, my memories about the dessert end with that time. Milk kissel hasn't come around for - let me see - ages. It might be just that we've grown out of it, so I figured the dessert needed some reconstruction.


Here - renovated, all new, a modern milk kissel - here you go!

Coconut milk kissel
(adapted from '100 Magustoitu' by Lia Virkus and Pille Enden)
serves 4

1/2 l milk
1/2 l coconut milk
1 dl sugar
3/4 dl potato/corn starch
1 tsp vanilla sugar

1. Bring coconut milk and milk to a boil in a saucepan, add sugar
2. Dissolve starch in a bit of water and add to milk, stirring vigorously.
3. Let the kissel reach its boiling point, but don't let it boil, remove it from the heat
4. Flavour with vanilla
5. Let the kissel cool down, stirring occasionally to prevent the forming of 'kissel skin'
6. Serve with jam or with cinnamon sprinkled over the dessert.


To create the dish I just substituted half of the milk in the original recipe with coconut milk - the taste came through in perfect proportion with everything else. The dessert is silky, sweet and has a lovely scent of vanilla. I prefer eating it when it's still a bit warm, but it's also great when it has cooled down completely - especially on a hot day like this! And on a hot day like this it's essential to spend more time outside and enjoy quick meals - this dessert is one great example.

You know what? One day my kids are going to ask me for this milk kissel!:D

Brie cheese goes international

'Brie cheese visiting Estonia' is what I wanted to call this post. But I was so wrong. What you see here, is a true mixture of different cuisines - put together into one weird, but wonderful tasting dessert. Into one weird, but wonderful tasting quick dessert.


It's Brie cheese from France, Blackcurrant jam from my granny's garden here in Estonia and coconut flakes from...well, God only knows where.

Brie cheese fried with blackcurrant and coconut

A small Brie cheese (125 g)
Blackcurrant jam
Coconut flakes (not toasted)

1. Place the coconut flakes onto a saucer or into a small bowl
2. Slice the cheese into thin rounds
3. Spread some jam onto both sides of the rounds and then press them onto coconut flakes, so that they're well covered with them.
4. Heat some oil in a skillet and fry the cheese rounds until the coconut flakes have turned golden brown.



This dessert fits just great with some cold ice cream. The crispy edges of the cheese, the soft jam with its deep taste and the exoticness from coconut...I didn't know what to expect when I tried this idea, but was positively surprised.
Brie cheese has visited Estonia successfully:)

The reason why my post was so short this time is that I'm actually leaving for Norway in less than an hour. Don't forget to eat while I'm away for the next two weeks!

Christmas coming - time for candies!

This weekend I got to cook a lot. The main event was making gingerbread dough (of course following granny's magic recipe) together with family, but that I'm going to discuss later.

Christmas is no time for diet, so our kitchen table is already loaded with sweets. Although I went to sauna this evening, I believe I can still smell the scent of flowing dark chocolate on my fingers. Or perhaps it's the air. Christmasy. I prepared the filling for these candies yesterday and dipped them into chocolate this morning. I'm afraid this will lead to making my own better-than-ever (and chemistry-free) Bounty bars.


Coconut candies

150 g shredded coconut
50 g almonds (ground or chopped)
40 g butter
1 dl sugar
2 dl double cream
200 g chocolate

1. roast the coconut until golden
2. mix together butter, sugar and cream in a pot and boil the mixture for 5 minutes
3. add the coconut and almonds, blend well and spread the mixture onto foil, let cool
4. melt the chocolate (I used 100 g dark and 100 g milk chocolate, but I'm sure white chocolate would be wonderful here too), dip squares or balls of coconut mixture into it using a fork (I hid peeled whole almonds in some of the candies - makes me think of Rafaello) and let them cool on foil or parchment paper.