Double shot "Orange Cupcakes"

I made these orange cupcakes for my anniversary and loved the color, texture. They were light and tasted like real orange. I used whipped cream infused with orange juice and zest, because I like strong orange flavor, but these cupcakes can also be frosted with other flavors like chocolate ganache or buttercream. Also I have not added any artificial flavors to these cupcakes, but one can add if desired.

 

Ingredients -
For cupcakes-
1 cup flour
1/2 cup caster sugar
50 gm unsalted butter
1 large egg
1tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt ( You can skip this, if using salted butter)
Zest of 1 orange
1/2 cup fresh orange juice

for icing -
1/2 cup whipped cream (I used Richs)
50gm icing sugar
zest of 1 orange
2 tsp fresh orange juice

yield - 6 cupcakes

Recipe -

Cupcakes-

1. Preheat your oven at 190 degree C. Line your muffin tray with liners and keep aside.
2. Cream butter and sugar in a bowl. Add egg and mix throughly.
3. In a separate bowl sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
4. Add these dry ingredients to the creamed mixture slowly, little at a time. Add orange juice and zest lastly and make sure it's nicely incorporated in the mixture.
5. Pour this mixture into the liners with the help of spoon. Make sure not to fill them beyond 2/3rd of the capacity.
6. Put the tray in the oven for 18-20 mins.
7. After they are done, Insert the toothpick in the center of a cupcake and see if it come out clean. If not, they need to be popped back in oven for another 2-3 mins.
8. Once they are done, take out cupcakes from the tray and let them cool. Icing should be done only after cupcakes have cooled down, else icing will not stay.

Icing -

1. I use my hand mixer for this step, but it can also be done in stand mixer or by hand.
2. keep your whisks and bowl in fridge for about 20 mins.
3. Pour about half of cream, sugar zest and juice in the bowl. Whisk it together. You can taste it at this point and adjust the flavors/sweetness. 
4. Add rest of the cream and whip it again. Eventually the cream will double in volume and will become stiff enough to hold peaks. Make sure not to overwhip it.
5. You can decorate your cupcakes the way you like, either with a dollop or with the help of a piping bag.

 Enjoy!!

Key Lime Truffle

This is the first time I tried lime flavor with chocolate and the first thought that came to my mind when I tasted it was, " Its really good". I had not expected lime flavor to go that well with white chocolate. Its an unbelievable combination of creamy white chocolate with a hint of freshness in every bite that comes with lemon zest and keylime flavor. Loved the addition of salt and black pepper in this recipe, coz it enhances the flavor of these truffles.

Ingredients -

White chocolate - 110 gms
Heavy cream - 30 gms
Unsalted butter - 10 gms
Salt - 1 tbs
Black pepper - pinch
Lemon zest of 1 fresh lemon
Keylime essence - few drops

Recipe -

1. Heat butter and cream in a heavy pan. Do not boil your cream
2. Pour this cream onto your chocolate.
3. Stir cream and chocolate slowly with a spatula or spoon. Your chocolate will melt and form a mixture.
4. Add essence, zest, pepper and salt into this mixture.
5. Cover the bowl with a cling film and refrigerate it for 7-8 hours.
6. White chocolate melts easily when touched with hands. Roll this mixture into balls with help of your fingers.
7. You can cover these truffles with a layer of dark chocolate and decorate them with candied lemon peel or any other coating of your choice. I prefer to leave them just like that.
8. Store them in a air tight container and serve at room temperature.

Double Berry Truffle!

Yes, I love all kind of berries - Strawberry, Cranberry, Blueberry, Raspberry etc. My "Double berry Truffle" has dried cranberry and blueberry. I love these little tangy bites in my truffle. I know a few people like their truffles to be clean, just pure chocolate, but for me, I love the combination of chocolate and berries.

Ingredients -

Dark Chocolate & Milk Chocolate - 50 gms each
Heavy cream- 40 gms
Salted butter- 10 gms
Blueberry essence - few drops ( I use LorAnn oils )
Dried Blueberry n Cranberry - 25 gms
little rum/ warm water
Coating of your choice


Recipe -

1. Pour water onto your berries and leave it for 10 mins. Take them out and dry them on a paper towel.
2. I use Berry callebaut coverture for my truffles. I have taken an equal amount of dark and milk chocolate for this recipe. You can adjust the ratio of dark and milk chocolate as per your taste preferences.
3. Bring your cream and butter to simmer and pour it over chocolate.
4. I have used salted butter for this recipe, since I like the taste of chocolate with a little salt. It can also be replaced by unsalted butter.
5. Stir cream and chocolate until chocolate is completely melted.
6. Add few drops of blueberry essence into it.
7. Add berries to this mixture, cover the bowl with cling film and refrigerate it for 6-8hrs.
8. Once the mixture is completely cooled and can be rolled into balls, make balls out of this mixture.
9. You can dip these truffles in chocolate or roll them in a coating of your choice. Decorate them with berries and eat them to your heart content.
10. Store these truffles in fridze in an air tight container and serve them at room temperature.

Hazelnut Truffle

Who doesn't like Ferrero Rocher? I got my first taste of hazelnut, when I ate this chocolate and since then, I am hooked to this flavor. Hazelnut coffee, nutella - yummyyy!!! Add this nut to a recipe and it becomes my favorite. Here is my recipe of Hazelnut truffle . Using the finest quality of chocolate and cream is important in this recipe, because then, you will be able to produce a sublime chocolate truffle, while is light and soft in texture -

Ingredients-

Good quality milk Chocolate - 100 gms
Heavy Cream - 40 gms
salted butter - 10 gms
Hazelnut essence - few drops
Hazelnut - 20 gms

Recipe-

1. Keep chocolate ready in a bowl.
2. Bring cream and butter to simmer in a heavy sauce pan( not boiled).
3. Pour this cream onto chocolate and stir cream into chocolate by hand with spatula.
4. Stir until all the chocolate is melted and it forms a uniform shiny mixture. This mixtue is called "ganache" .
5. Let the ganache cool down. Add few drops of hazelnut essence into it .Cover the bowl with a cling film and refrigerate it for 6-8 hrs.
6. After the mixture has completely cooled down and can hold its shape, roll it into small balls.
7. Use your fingers instead of palm to make balls and roll it quickly into finely choppped hazelnuts.
8. Store them in an air tight container and consume within 2 weeks.

Chocolate covered Strawberries!

In ancient times, Strawberry was considered a symbol of Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, because of its shape and red color. Even today, strawberry is considered a romantic fruit, perfect for a romantic after dinner dessert. Chocolate dipped strawberry is a tried and tasted recipe. All you need is some good quality chocolate and some really fresh strawberries.

Ingredients -

1. Strawberry- fresh and ripe ( with no soft spots)- 8-10 pcs
2. Good quality Dark or milk chocolate - 100 gms
3. Butter - 10 gms 
4. Chocolate flavor - optional
5. Parchment paper

Recipe-

1. Choose your strawberry carefully. They should be ripe but not over ripe, also they should be free of any soft spots.
2. Wash strawberries with water and then pet them dry with paper towel. This step is important, because even a single drop of water can cause the chocolate to seize.
3. Line a plate with parchment paper and keep it aside.
4. Melt your chocolate in a microwave or double boiler. At this point you can even add some oil based flavor to chocolate.
5. Add butter to chocolate and mix it thoroughly. Butter gives a nice shine to chocolate coating.
6. I prefer keeping the leaves of berries on while dipping them. You can dip them half way or full.
7. Place strawberries on parchment paper, after dipping them in chocolate.
8. You can use some sprinkles to decorate strawberries or leave them as it is.
9. Let the chocolate set at room temperature.
10. Keeping strawberries in fridge makes them sweat. They should ideally be kept at room temperature and should be consumed within 24 hours.
11. Place them in a pretty serving dish and serve with love to your loved ones.

Dried Fruits Chocolates

I know, its been very long since I have written something. I was missing blogging, sharing my work and recipes. In last few days, I have tried many new flavors, but lets talk about dried fruits first. I use to source my dried fruits from fabindia but got really hooked up to them on my visit to Kolkata. Their I visited Spencers, which has a array of dried fruits, kiwi, berries, mango, orange, plum etc.

I tried chocolate covered dried fruits and then made dried fruit mendiants. The recipe for dried fruits mendiant is same as of dry fruits. I only replaced dry fruit with dried fruits and the result came out very good. They look really tempting with little bites of chocolate decorated with colorful fruits. So far I have received very good reviews for this chocolate. A good quality chocolate and good quality fruit is all it takes to make this blissful chocolate.

Happy chocolate making!!

Green Tea Truffle

How many of you are fond of Green tea? It's loaded with antioxidants, is good for weight loss, helps in maintaining good oral health.  Green tea is considered to be one of the "MUST" food you should include in your diet. When I started making chocolates, I always wanted to try the combination of chocolate with green tea. I developed this recipe on my own, so it was more of an experiment, then a fool proof method. The result was not disappointing. I am not sure if traditional chocoholics will like this truffle because "Green tea truffle" has a hint of bitterness in it, but yet it's something worth trying if you are health conscious and like to have your chocolate with a twist.

The green tea that I have used in my recipe is " Tetley green tea" . You can replace it with any tea of your choice. I think the ideal green tea to be used, for this recipe would be " Japanese matcha" which is  a Japanese green tea and is used in cakes and other kind of desserts. I still have to lay my hands on this product as it is rarely available in India. Also I have used white chocolate in my recipe, since I wanted to balance the sweetness of chocolate with the bitterness of green tea.

Ingredients for Truffle-

White chocolate - 200 gm
Cream - 100 gm
Green tea bags ( tetley) - 4-5
Coating of your choice- colored chocolate vermicelli

Recipe-

1. Bring your cream just to boil, in a medium sauce pan, over medium heat.  Add Green tea to cream and let it simmer for 2 mins.
2. Take this mixture off heat and let it sit for a while. This will let cream absorb green tea flavor.
3. Take a sieve and pass this mixture through it. It will separate green tea particles from cream and leave a creamy potion to be used for chocolate.
4. Heat this cream again over medium flame and pour it over white chocolate, in a heat proof bowl.
5. Stir this mixture till your chocolate is smooth.
6. Cover this bowl with a cling film and keep it in fridge for the chocolate to be firm. The mixture should be very cold and set.
7. Use a spoon or melon baller to scoop balls of chocolate mixture and transfer them on a parchment paper
8. Use your hands, to quickly shape them into rough round. Remember, if you use too much of hand contact, your chocolate will melt due to body heat.
9. Roll these balls into a coating of your choice.
10. Store them in a fridge, in air tight container for upto 2 weeks.