French Truffles Obsession

That's it! I'm addicted to Trufettes de France. These are little pieces of heaven that comes in a box.

An opened box in hand and lounging like the great Cleopatra on the sofa, I’m off to lala-land as I engage myself in my personal ritual of chocolate solemnity. I give in to the marvelous scent and taste of this chocolate. I bite and let it melt in my mouth … until I swallow an enormous mouthfuls and dreams aplenty. A truffle is all it takes. And to experience this explosion of love in your mouth, there's a certain way on enjoying it according to what's written on the side of the box.

“How to taste these delicate truffles: place them at an ambient temperature of 19-20°C one hour in advance and savour them in the height of their aroma and smoothness.”

Yup! One hour in advance. But a girl like me can't wait that long for any chocolate. :) I admit that I sometimes eat these babies straight out my fridge while being so aware that I am cheating myself out of what is meant to be a “food-gasmic” experience.

Although it is now available in the country, the price is ridiculously expensive. I get mine from Canada where it is sold like half the price here.

Enjoying them as is, is one thing but using it to make a dessert is a whole different experience. Of course the sensual experience in the mouth is quite lost (okay, different) but flavorwise, it retains it's characteristics big time!

Sooo... how do I love thee? Let me count the ways...

I have melted and made these babies into a sinfully good cupcake, flourless cake, rich bittersweet mousse and cute little chocolate tarts.

My Grand Truffle Cupcake Tree

Flourless Chocolate-Kahlua Cake with Chocolate-Kahlua Icing

I have paired it with Kahlua, hazelnuts, coffee, cherry, lavender, mint, orange... it tastes even fantastic! I'm glad to say I never felt I wasted a good chocolate with it.

To conclude, Truffettes de France are not your-average-ordinary confections. Translated as Truffles of France, these rightfully called “food of the gods”.

Original.. My favorite!

How exquisite is that?!

Healthy Oatmeal Cookies with Belgian Chocolate Chips

I recently bought a big can of Quaker Oats for the sole reason that I was getting tired of bread that I’m always having for breakfast. I just pour hot milk over it, cover and top it with fresh fruits.

But now I noticed even though I have been eating it daily for the past 2 weeks, it doesn’t seem to run out. In a mission to use the oats left something other than for breakfast, I began browsing through magazines for a dessert recipe that I could easily make and be ready as my afternoon snack. I spotted the easy and simple Oatmeal Cookies recipe. The recipe turns out to be the The Ultimate Oatmeal Cookie recipe of Betty Crocker.

After reading the recipe, I found it very plain so I opened my pantry and scoured for anything good that I could zest up my cookies. The recipe calls for a cup of raisins (if desired) to be baked with the cookies. But I was never a fan of raisins so I decided to use chocolate chips instead. You can never go wrong with chocolate on cookies. Thank goodness I had some Callebaut Hard Chips left!

Betty Crocker’s recipe calls out also for brown sugar in the recipe but I decided to go with the all natural muscovado sugar instead to make my cookies a bit healthier.

Since I’m living and baking in a country that has terrible humidity, I learned a trick that got rid of my flat and ugly cookies. The trick that I learned is that after mixing the batter, let it rest first inside the refrigerator. I usually clean up a bit and prepare my trays while my batter is resting. This helps the butter solidify a bit and produces a nice texture on the cookie. To also control the spread of the cookie when baking is that after you scoop them on the tray, place back again the rest of the batter inside the refrigerator so that the butter won’t soften even before it hits the oven. I try to indent a little of my thumb on each cookie so that while it is baking; you’ll get a perfect shaped top on the cookie.

My cookies baked perfectly! I loved how the muscovado sugar and the chocolate chips gave the cookie an awesome balance of sweetness. After successfully baking a perfect batch, I christened thee… “Healthy Oatmeal Cookies with Belgian Chocolate Chips”.

Here’s my tweaked Betty Crocker recipe for you to try out. Happy Baking!

Healthy Oatmeal Cookies with Belgian Chocolate Chips
Yield: about 2 dozen cookies

1 ¼ cups packed light muscovado sugar
½ cup butter, softened
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
¼ teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 ½ cups of quick cooking oats
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 ¼ cups high quality chocolate such as Callebaut hard chips

Procedure:
Heat oven to 350F. Beat all ingredients except oats, flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and chocolate chips using a stand mixer on medium speed for about 30 seconds or until no lumps of butter are visible.

Then, using a spatula, stir just until blended the rest of the ingredients.

oats, flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and chocolate chips

Drop dough by rounded tablespoonfuls about 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 9 to 11 minutes or until light brown. Remove immediately from the cookie sheet to the wire rack.

perfect cookies

After cooling and eating a dozen, I packed the rest of the cookies and gave to a friend as a gift :)