So tragic

In light of the tragedy in Connecticut, Kitcheninspirations is not posting today. My heartfelt condolences go to the families.

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Christmas Baking 2012: Nanaimo Truffles a new take on an old Canadian favourite!

I posted a quick picture of this recipe on Facebook and Pinterest and received overwhelming response so instead of putting it in-line with my Christmas 2012 baking, I thought I would interrupt regular programming and post the recipe today. I did a search and found that I might indeed be the first person to make these all-time Canadian favourites into a truffle instead of their normal bar form. Every year JT asks me to make this bar, which personally I find just too sweet. I got to thinking a smaller, bite sized version might be the answer I was looking for so I came up with this idea and only had to marginally modify an existing recipe. I hope you enjoy it. And if you make them, please do let me know how it worked out.

Not nearly as teeth tingly as regular Nanaimo Bars

Nanaimo Truffles

For the original recipe, please click here.

Makes about 36 truffles

Inside Layer Ingredients:

• ¼ cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1 tbsp vanilla custard powder
• 1 cup icing sugar

Inside Layer Directions:

1. Cream butter, custard powder and icing sugar together well. Scoop out about 1 tsp and roll into a ball. Freeze for 30 minutes.

Second Layer Ingredients:

• ½ cup unsalted butter
• ¼ cup sugar
• 5 tbsp cocoa
• 1 egg beaten
• 1 ¼ c graham wafer crumbs
• ½ c finely ground almond flour
• 1 cup coconut
• 1/4 cup corn syrup (spray your measuring cup with non-stick spray and it will slide right out)

Second Layer Directions:

• Melt first 3 ingredients in top of double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat.
• Stir in graham crumbs, coconut, almond flour and the corn syrup. Set aside.

Assembly Directions:

1. Take about 1 packed tbsp of the second layer (crumb layer) in the palm of your hand and press to flatten to a large circle about 2mm thick.
2. Put one custard ball into the centre and wrap the circle around the custard so that it totally covers it. Squeeze the crumb layer to form a tidy ball. Repeat until you have made all of the balls. Freeze for 30-60 minutes.

Chocolate Layer Ingredients:

• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter

Chocolate Layer Directions:

1. Melt chocolate and butter over low heat and mix well. Without allowing the chocolate mixture to cool down, take a frozen ball and carefully stick a toothpick or skewer into it and dip into the melted chocolate to cover. Remove the stick and allow the chocolate to set on parchment paper (you could dip a finger into the chocolate to hide the hole, or not). The frozen balls will help set the chocolate faster. Store in refrigerator. Allow the balls to come back up to room temperature to serve.

The centre is creamy and smooth which is a nice texture to the outside

Yum.

;

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Rocket and Spinach Pesto with Hazelnuts

Good day everyone, I’m still in Lyon (figuratively speaking, of course) and cooking with Chef Villard and his lovely recipes. This is a condiment that he paired with lightly cooked snow peas and a little goats cheese and boy was it good. I particularly loved the colour, unfortunately when you add the goats cheese it lightens up quite a bit, but by then you’re starving for having enjoyed the aromas of the meal all afternoon long!

That sure is green

To be honest, JT wasn’t in love with the pesto which was originally Rocket (arugula), pine nuts and Parmesan cheese so I decided to be inspired by Chef Villard and not follow the recipe 100% (of course you did, says JT). The rocket tends to get a touch bitter when processed, although I do enjoy the peppery taste I wanted to temper the bitterness so I used the same amount of spinach as the rocket. Then I was thinking of the entire meal and wanted to repeat some flavours for consistency, so instead of pine nuts, I used roasted hazelnuts (the pumpkin soup has a drizzle of hazelnut oil to finish it). So in the essence of our meal in Lyon, here is the pesto recipe.

Rocket and Spinach Pesto with Hazelnuts (on Snow Peas with Goats Cheese — not shown)

Serves 6 (I had enough pesto left over for some hors d’œuvres the next day),

Ingredients:

• 35 g roasted hazelnuts
• 35 g combined baby rocket (arugula) and baby spinach
• 1 clove garlic, finely minced
• 1 tbsp parmesan cheese
• 2-4 tbsp EVOO
• Salt to taste
• 60 g snow peas
• 20 g goats cheese

Directions:

1. In a small food processor add the hazelnuts, rocket, spinach, finely minced garlic and Parmesan cheese and drizzle a small amount of EVOO to get the chopping going adding a little bit to allow the purée to happen with ease (you don’t want this too runny). Taste and salt as desired.
2. When you have achieved the consistency desired set aside (this is actually quite good if you make it in advance and the flavours have time to really develop).
3. Cook the snap peas and as soon as they are done, immerse them into ice cold water to stop the cooking quickly. Simmer water on the stove to reheat just prior to serving.
4. To serve, add a few tablespoons of the pesto to the hot, drained snow peas and crumble the goats cheese into it, stir lightly to distribute evenly.
5. Enjoy warm.

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Don’t forget about the great Giveaway. It’s so easy to enter!

Click here to link back to the very easy giveaway. It’s a shame not to enter!

Do you need a pinch?

Also wanted to mention that my photographer friend Edward Pond is down in Nicaragua teaching underprivileged kids camera skills; he took over 20 donated cameras with him. Check out his story, it’s pretty cool, and there’s drama too!

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