Devin’s Red Velvet Cake Bites

A couple of weeks ago Devin went home. She promised that she would have some sort of surprise when she got back. The next day she was telling me that her hands were all red. I was, understandably, confused as to what in the world she could be making.

When she got back I was given a ball of chocolate and told to just eat it. Not one to turn down food, I of course did. It turns out she made chocolate truffles, or “cake bites” filled with red velvet cake. I love red velvet cake.

She had a few of the same problems I did when I made my Oreo truffles a few weeks back. Specifically, keeping the center cold and the chocolate hot. I made a second batch of Oreo truffles a week after I made my first batch. I took them out of the freezer five at a time instead of all at once, which kept the centers nice and solid. Devin and I both had to deal with horrible melting balls our first time around.

“My first batch that I started dipping was a small disaster and turned out pretty ugly looking. I had problems with the temperature of the cake; they weren’t cold enough. So even before half-way through the batch was dipped the cake started to get room temperature and began crumbling a little bit in the chocolate…”

Double boilers are a wonderful way to melt chocolate, sure. The problem is keeping the chocolate molten enough that it coats evenly but not so hot that it burns and double boilers use indirect heat. The chocolate (or cheese) sit about a pot of boiling water, meaning that the steam does all the work. It takes a bit of time for the water to get up to a high enough temperature to create steam. At the same time it is difficult to get the chocolate away from the heat, as the steam is going to keep rising for a while after the stove is turned off.

If the chocolate starts to burn your best bet is to just start over. Devin has more experience with chocolate than I do, so her chocolate came out much nicer than mine. The trick I learned is to just watch the chocolate. If it starts to get a bit lumpy as it dries or doesn’t stir smooth in the double boiler, get some heat back under it until it does. At the same time though the chocolate should not be so hot that it scalds you if you dip your finger in it.

Go take a look at Devin’s blog and give her cake bites a try. Devin has a better grasp of sweet treats than I do, so I’m thinking about outsourcing the chocolate making to her.

Tags: Chocolate, Food

Gallery Update: Oreo Truffles

For Valentine’s Day I made Oreo Truffles. I have made chocolates with my mom in the past over Christmas, but before this I had never attempted to make chocolates myself.

Unfortunately I did not have some of the nicer kitchen supplies that my mom has back home, such as a double boiler or a dipping spoon. I also had to sneak around a bit, as I didn’t actually want anyone to know that I was making any chocolates before I was done, Devin. It would be annoying if they were found half done and I had to explain what exactly I was making and why no, you can’t have any yet. Really ruins the surprise. Luckily the truffles are actually fairly quick. They’re really no more complex than Oreos and cream cheese frozen and dunked in liquid chocolate.

They came out tasting as expected; chocolate covered Oreos. I think they went over pretty well. Had I not hid them I’m sure they would be long gone by now.

I imagine after how well this chocolate making went I will probably try something similar again. Thanks to Amanda for finding the recipe I based mine off of. This is a fairly short update, but I have a few backed up updates from last week that didn’t go up. Last week was midterms, so I couldn’t find the time to post. I have some corn dogs and corned beef hash as well as some non-food related updates coming. One on organization and another on exercise. Hope your Valentine’s days went well. Mine was pretty satisfying, giant party that happened to find my apartment aside.

Tags: Chocolate, Food, Gallery, Holidays