Chocolate Blinis

This month's Chocolate with Francois recipe is chocolate blinis, selected for us by Linda of Diva Weigh. I had never made blinis, but was struck by their semblance to pancakes. And chocolate pancakes?  What's not to love?

They were a little more work than a traditional pancake (separating some of the eggs and beating the egg whites and folding in at the end reminds me more of waffles than pancakes). Since there were only two of us, I made one-fourth of the recipe. It starts with 72% chocolate, which I had exactly enough of to make these. I also happened to have hazelnut flour in the freezer.  Linda has the recipe for you here, and you'll find these really aren't that hard to make. In that respect, they reminded me of the cannelés, simple yet spectacular.

These didn't flip so well, but were still delicious

I served the blinis with dollops of mascarpone cheese and homemade strawberry jam. They were delicious--deeply chocolate and fluffy, perfect for breakfast. That is, if you're going to follow breakfast with a good long walk. Each serving has two tablespoons of butter and an ounce of chocolate!

Thanks, Linda, for picking a recipe I probably wouldn't have tried otherwise.

Chocolate Coconut Ice Cream Pie

The amazing Spike of Spike Bakes chose this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Banana Coconut Ice Cream Pie (she has the recipe for you here). In continuing the trend of insanity that I was struck with for last week's bread pudding (for which I made brioche), I made Dorie's chocolate ganache ice cream instead of buying ice cream. It's the very best chocolate ice cream, period. If I brought some inferior store-bought chocolate ice cream into this house, M. would go on strike and I'd have to carry the garbage out myself. No siree. Not on my watch.

I came *this close* (gesturing, fingers almost together) to adding bananas. I bought them. I thought about them. I monitored their ripeness with the pie in mind.

Then, I read the part of the recipe where Dorie instructs us to puree the bananas in the food processor before adding the chocolate ice cream. I heard brakes screeching, train whistles, sirens and all manner of DANGER! STOP! DON'T DO IT! warnings. I put down the bananas, took a deep breath, and went on without them. Paired with Dorie's chocolate ganache ice cream, this pie didn't need bananas competing with its sublime flavor.

This pie has an interesting crust that was fun to make. You saute coconut in melted butter until browned and then add crushed shortbread cookies. It made a delicious pie crust. I pressed it in a buttered pie plate and froze it while we went to San Francisco for a fun midweek play day.

When we came home, relaxed but exhausted, I put the ice cream in the crust while M. jumped on a conference call. And then we each had a slice for dinner. I quizzed M. relentlessly: Do you think it would have been good with the pureed bananas (wish I had a photo of the "Are you kidding me" look he gave me). Do you think the chocolate ice cream dominates the crust ("Isn't that the point of a filling?"). What do you think of it with the pecans? ("Really good.") How could it be better? ("It can't. It's perfect.")

With that, I sat back and savored every bite, in complete agreement with his assessment. He is a great, appreciative audience for my baking, but he's also a very thoughtful and helpful taster.

I hope you have someone special to share this with, someone who appreciates everything you do but gives you feedback in a positive, supportive way. That, my friends, is even sweeter than pie.

Ina's Spring Green Risotto and CEiMB (finally!)

This photo proves you can almost completely disregard the ingredients for a recipe and end up with something that is delicious and easy.

I planned to make last week's Barefoot Bloggers recipe with only two changes: No fennel (hate it) or wine (no alcohol here). But after my memory failed me at the grocery store, I had to leave out the peas and chives. And then my pantry failed me: the arborio rice I knew was in there had mysteriously disappeared. But I had white rice and Ina's chicken stock in the freezer, so I made a go of it.

I sauteed the leeks for a few minutes and then tossed in several minced cloves of garlic, then the rice and 3/4 cup of hot chicken broth. I treated the rice a lot like arborio, and I cooked the asparagus with the rice to save work.

The end result was not a typical risotto, but it was still delicious. Rich and filling, it was a welcome lunch on a busy day.

We were hosted this week by Kimberly of Indulge and Enjoy. Risotto is one of Kimberly's favorite foods and like us, she really enjoyed it. You can find the original recipe here, or here is my streamlined take on it:

Printable recipe

Spring Green Risotto - liberally adapted from Ina Garten

1 1/2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
3 leeks, well cleaned, white and light green parts chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
6-7 cups of chicken broth, hot
1 3/4 cups white rice
1 pound asparagus, trimmed and cut in 1" pieces
1/3 cup mascarpone cheese
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

Combine the butter and olive oil in a medium saucepan and melt over medium heat. When melted, add the leeks and garlic and saute until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the rice and mix to get the grains coated with the butter and oil. Add 3/4 cup of chicken broth, stir, and allow the rice to absorb the broth, stirring occasionally.

When the broth is almost absorbed, add another 1/2 cup of broth, let the rice absorb it, then another 1/2 cup, and then enough broth to cover the rice. Cover the pot, lower the heat to medium-low and cook the rice until the broth is almost absorbed. Test the rice; if it's still crunchy add another cup of broth. Once the broth is absorbed and the rice is almost cooked, add the raw asparagus and another 1/2 cup of broth and cook it until the asparagus is crisp-tender. Remove from the heat and add the mascarpone and parmesan cheese. Taste for seasoning and add salt and peeper if desired. Serve hot. Serves 6.

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Craving Ellie in My Belly - Chocolate Egg Cream

I have been absent from Craving Ellie in My Belly for months. If you had asked me which recipe would get me back into the rotation, I would have never thought it would be this one. See, I always thought egg creams had eggs, cream and seltzer water, and fizzy, watery eggs don't sound appealing to me.

Chaya at Chaya's Comfy Cook chose this one for us. I don't visit Chaya as often as I'd like because she has music on one of her blogs (and I can never remember which one), which on more than one occasion has blared out of my speakers at work and made everyone realize I was goofing off.

Once I saw there were no eggs in this one, I was relieved. Once I saw how easy it was, I was overjoyed. So I gave it a try.

After mixing sugar, cocoa and boiling water, you add the mixture to milk and seltzer water, then stir. Mine isn't as two-toned as it's supposed to be, but it was chocolaty. It wasn't something that I will crave, but I'm glad Chaya picked it for us so now I can say I've tried it.

If you'd like to try it, you'll find the recipe here. And I'm going to try to keep up with the CEiMB weekly picks.

Apple Apple Bread Pudding

For this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe, Liz of Cake or Death? chose Dorie's Apple Apple Bread Pudding. This is another of those recipes I never stopped on in the cookbook because there is no photo and I'm not a bread pudding fan.

Wait a minute...when we made Dorie's Four Star Chocolate Bread Pudding it was one of our all time favorite desserts. We loved, loved, loved it. And this one starts with brioche, adds caramelized apples and some apple butter. Liz, a trained pastry chef and hilarious blogger, has the imagination to know this one would be great.

Because I'm insanely busy and, well, insane, I had to make my own brioche. I hadn't made Dorie's brioche before and this was a good chance to try her technique (we flipped for Peter Reinhart's recipe when I made brioche for The Bread Baker's Apprentice challenge). I won't go into the brioche recipe here, but it was delicious buttery perfection. I gave one loaf to a neighbor and used most of the other for this recipe.

Dorie has us caramelizing apples for the bread pudding, and that's exactly how I make my candy apple pie, except I really caramelize them. After I caramelized the apples, I put them on a plate along with the puddle of goo in the bottom of the pan.

Here's where that tiny doubting voice in the back of my head kicked in. I wasn't sure if I'd cut the brioche too thick or too thin, if I was spreading too much or too little apple butter, etc. But I moved along and made the custard. While pouring it in to the dish, I poured quite a bit of it on the counter, over the edge and down the front of the cabinets and onto the floor. Sugary, sticky custard. In the drawers, all over the drawer pulls, on some of the "stuff" on the counter, the floor...it was a fun clean up for a Sunday night. Not.

Even without the spilled custard there seemed to be way too much custard for the amount of bread. Fearing the dreaded egginess that has taken over the group from time to time, I held back on about a cup of custard.

This baked for about an hour and 20 minutes. It cooled for about 5 minutes before I dug in (I couldn't help it!) It was rich, complex, buttery and loaded with apple flavor. I should have used all of the custard because the top got a little too brown, but it was delicious.

Once again, Dorie proved that her bread pudding is not your run of the mill bread pudding. I'll definitely make this one again. Many thanks to Liz for hosting this week and choosing a delicious and unusual recipe for us to try. If you'd like the recipe, Liz has it here. And while you're at it, check out what the other TWD bakers did with this one. You'll find them here.

Portobello Mushroom Lasagna

If you're like me, making a big meal on the weekend that reheats well helps you go into a busy week breathing easier. This lasagna makes an impressive main dish for company or a comforting creamy, cheesy dish for you and the hubs to eat in front of the fireplace in winter or on the patio in summer.

I first made this dish years ago when my boss, his wife and daughter came to dinner. I asked if anyone had food allergies or aversions, and he said they were able to eat anything (except his teenage daughter, who only ate pasta with butter and cheese). I didn't learn until we were eating the salad that his wife was lactose intolerant, which he hadn't mentioned because he thought it was all in her head. This lasagna, with its béchamel and cheese, just wouldn't do for her. I pulled some tomato basil soup from the freezer, steamed some asparagus and served it all with grissini. I bring this up because while this was all going on, I had no worries about dinner for the rest of my guests. This lasagna was in the oven, bubbling away and making the house smell terrific.

While this is yummy made with fresh pasta, I usually make it with dried, boiling the noodles for 6-7 minutes and letting them soak up the béchamel and mushroom juices. Speaking of the mushrooms, I usually mix portobello and cremini. When preparing portobello mushrooms, I  scrape the gills off before sautéing them. It's mostly an aesthetic preference.

If you wanted to, you could assemble this one evening and bake it the next, making it an even easier party dish.

If you'd like the recipe, you can find it here.

Orange-Scented Scones, a Sweet Melissa Sundays Rewind

This week's Sweet Melissa Sundays recipe is Pumpkin Bread Pudding, and it was chosen for us by Carmen of Baking is My Zen. I wasn't feeling the recipe (sorry, Carmen!) so I decided to skip this week. But then I visited my friend Tracey at Tracey's Culinary Adventures. Tracey is also skipping this week but she did a rewind. What a great idea!

I quickly checked out the page of completed recipes (you can find it here). I just joined the group a few months ago, so I've missed a lot of yummy things from the book. I decided on the orange-scented scones for several reasons:

1.  They're easy and fast
2.  I had all the ingredients the recipe calls for
3.  M. flipped for the last scones I made (you can find them here)
4.  The recipe only makes 6 scones

Well, I said I had everything the recipe called for and that's mostly true. Melissa calls for oat flour but gives instructions on how to make your own. I didn't have oat flour but made some in the food processor. The recipe then has you add the rest of the dry ingredients and pulse before adding cubed butter and pulsing until you reach the pea-sized pieces stage. But then Melissa tells us to finish the recipe in a bowl by adding the food processor ingredients to the wet ingredients.

I don't think so. Easy, lazy Sunday morning recipes don't require dirtying a bowl unnecessarily. So I measured out the cream and added the egg right into the measuring cup, gave it a few whirls with a fork and added it to the food processor. Pulse a few times and you're done!

I found the dough a tiny bit dry, so I'd add a little more cream next time, maybe another tablespoon. I cut mine out with my favorite cutter, a stylized heart that I bought on one of our trips to Paris. I finished them up with cream and a sprinkle of turbinado sugar.

The scones were terrific. Light and flaky with delicate orange flavor and nice crunch from the sugar on top. I bet you have the ingredients in your kitchen if you want to make them right now!

Orange-Scented Scones (adapted from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book)

Printable Recipe

2/3 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/12 tablespoons sugar
Zest of 2 oranges (or 1 if it's really big)
8 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, diced
2/3 cup cold heavy cream
1 egg
2 tablespoons heavy cream (for brushing)
1 tablespoons turbinado sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a sheet pan or cookie sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat. Set aside.

In the bowl of a food processor, process the oats to a coarse flour. Add the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and orange zest. Pulse several times to combine. Add the cold diced butter and pulse until the butter is the size of medium peas.

Measure the cream in a 1 cup measure and add the egg. Stir with a fork (or whisk) until combined. Add to the food processor. Pulse 5-6 times until almost combined.

Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface. Working with your hands, corral the ingredients together in a 7" circle. Cut into 6 wedges (or flour a decorative cutter and cut out shapes).

Place the scones on the prepared sheet pan and brush with the cream and sprinkle with the turbinado sugar.

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Scones are done when golden brown and set. Cool on a rack for a few minutes before serving. Makes 6 scones.

Coconut Chocolate Chip Cookies for National Chocolate Chip Day

National Chocolate Chip Day. Now that's a holiday I can get behind!

I've been wanting to try these chocolate chip cookies ever since I did my chocolate chip cookie tasting (if you missed it, you can read about it here). They were a runner up when I picked the three chocolate chip cookie recipes I would make for the tasting but I omitted them because they contain coconut, which is a polarizing ingredient. Sure enough, when I announced earlier this week that I would be bringing coconut chocolate chip cookies for our pot luck, many people were thrilled but a few were repulsed. A great reminder that taste is indeed subjective.

The recipe for these cookies comes from Pichet Ong and the technique is a little different. The recipe has you cream the butter, sugars and toasted coconut together instead of adding the coconut at the end. So the coconut didn't give flavor as much as it did a chewy texture in a cookie that might have been thin and crispy without it.

I'm sorry to say that although these were good, I didn't think they were great. It wasn't just me--they didn't garner the reverential feedback I usually get when I bring chocolate chip cookies to work. If I make them again, I'll definitely add more chocolate and maybe some pecans.

If you'd like the recipe, you can find it here.

Maple Oatmeal Scones

Scones have a reputation for being difficult to make like so many ethereal things that are really easy. The secret, just like pie crust, is not to handle them too much.

Like all Ina Garten recipes, this one makes a ton. I usually bake off half of them and freeze the rest. They're almost better when baked from the freezer.

Maple Oatmeal Scones (adapted from Ina Garten)

Printable recipe

For the scones:

3 1/2 cups/490 grams all-purpose flour

1 cup/140 grams whole wheat flour

1 cup/160 grams quick-cooking steel cut oats

2 tablespoons/30 grams baking powder

2 tablespoons/30 grams sugar

2 teaspoons salt

1 pound cold unsalted butter, diced

1/2 cup/120 grams buttermilk, cold

1/2 cup/175 grams maple syrup (preferably Grade B)

4 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon of milk or cream (for egg wash) (optional)

For the glaze:

1 1/4 cups/143 grams powdered sugar

1/2 cup/175 grams maple syrup (preferably Grade B)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flours, oats, baking powder, sugar and salt.

In a small mixing bowl or 2-cup measure, combine the buttermilk, maple syrup and eggs and beat with a fork to thoroughly combine.

With the mixer speed on low, add the cold diced butter to the dry ingredients and blend until the butter pieces are pea-sized and the mixture looks like wet sand. Stop the mixer occasionally to check the size of the butter pieces and don't be tempted to turn the speed higher. with the mixer on low speed, add the wet ingredients and mix until just combined. The dough will be sticky.

Turn the dough out on a well floured surface and pat it into a roundish shape. The dough will have pea-sized lumps of butter. Flour a rolling pin and lightly roll it until it's approximately 3/4" - 1" high for regular scones. I like my regular scones to be thicker and my minis to be thinner (1/2" - 3/4"), but that's totally up to you.

Flour a cutter (I use 2 1/2" for regular scones and 1 1/2" for minis) and cut out the scones by pushing the cutter straight through the dough without twisting and put the scones on the baking sheet. Brush with the egg wash and bake for 20-25 minutes (for regular scones) or 15-20 minutes for minis (depending on how thick they are). Scones are done when the tops are crisp and the insides are done. Let scones cool on a rack for at least 5 minutes before glazing.

To prepare the glaze, combine the powdered sugar, maple syrup and vanilla in a small bowl and combine well, making sure there are no lumps. Drizzle cooled scones with maple glaze and serve.

Quick Classic Berry Tart Version 2.0

One night last week, when we were both working a lot and under insane amounts of pressure, we ate this for dinner:

Let me back up. Last Wednesday a great dessert was discovered. We came home at about the same time.

"How was your day?"

"Crazy.  We discovered two errors totaling $7 million. People in my office, both phone lines ringing. You know. How about yours?"

"I did an international wire online that the bank turned into a completely different amount.  I was on the phone with customer service for hours and then I had to go to the bank to fix it. At least, I hope it's fixed."

You've heard of breakfast for dinner. At our house last Wednesday, it was dessert for dinner. And I owe it all to my fellow bloggers. Cristine at Cooking with Cristine chose Dorie's Quick Classic Berry Tart for this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. And my blogging friend Nancy has influenced me so much that I had both a mini tart shell and chocolate ganache in the freezer. And for an even more satisfying tart, I made this with organic berries from my CSA box:

Good

Better

Great

I had baked the tart shell the night before, so it only took 5 minutes to assemble the tart. 90 seconds in the microwave to melt the ganache, wash and slice a few berries, and assemble. Brushing it with jam was only for show. If I wasn't posting it, I would have skipped that.

We split it for dinner, and both felt much better. We each still had problems to deal with at work, but I think Cristine's pick made an awful day end on a very happy note. Thanks, Cristine! This is definitely in our top 5 Dorie desserts.

Orange Blueberry Muffins with Pecan Crumble

These muffins, selected by Chaya of My Sweet and Savory, sound perfect for a Mother's Day breakfast treat. I was cautious about making them as the Sweet Melissa Sundays P&Q had numerous comments from bakers who found them dense, dry, doughy and heavy, not good qualities for a muffin. I was making 1/4th of the recipe and I was determined that my muffins would be moist and light. Here's how I did it.

First of all, I decided that I would have to increase the moisture by the use of additional fat so that all of the flour would be adequately hydrated. To do this, I increased the butter and used all heavy cream (the recipe combines heavy cream and milk).

As blueberries are not in season yet, I used Trader Joe's frozen wild blueberries. They'd been in the freezer for several months and had a lot of ice crystals so I did something you're not supposed to do...I rinsed and dried my berries. I didn't want purple muffins and they were definitely going to be purple with all those ice crystals. I also used additional orange zest to boost the orange flavor.

The comments I read said that the pecan crumble really makes these muffins and I couldn't agree more. I doubled the amount of crumble for the number of muffins I made, and it made them even more delicious.

My muffins ended up moist and tender. The crumble gave them a great nutty flavor boost and terrific crunch. We enjoyed these a lot, and I'll definitely make them again because of the wonderful taste. And I'll be adding the pecan crumble to other muffins and baked goods...it's a keeper.

If you'd like the original recipe, you can find it here. Thanks, Chaya, for hosting us this week and choosing such a terrific recipe!

Orange Blueberry Muffins with Pecan Crumble (adapted from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book)

Printable recipe

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp plus 1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
11 Tbsp unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2/3 cup heavy cream, at room temperature
Freshly grated zest from 1 orange
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Pecan Crumble
3/4 cups pecan pieces
3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

Position a rack in the center of your oven. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard 12-cup muffin tin with muffin papers (or butter and flour the cups or spray with nonstick vegetable cooking spray).

Make the pecan crumble:
In a large bowl, stir together the pecans, flour, brown sugar, salt, and nutmeg. Stir in melted butter. If mixture seems dry, add a little more melted butter. Set aside.

Make the muffins:
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, granulated sugar, and salt. In a medium bowl, whisk together the melted butter, brown sugar, and eggs until smooth. Stir in the heavy cream.

Add the orange zest to the flour mixture and gently rub the mixture together with your fingers. Add the blueberries and gently combine. Pour the butter mixture over the dry ingredients and gently mix with a spoon until just combined. If the mixture seems dry, add additional heavy cream until it's the appropriate consistency for a muffin.

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups, filling each cup until full and top with pecan crumble. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until lightly golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove to a wire rack to cool.

Makes 12-14 muffins

TWD - Burnt Sugar Ice Cream

When this week's Tuesdays with Dorie recipe was announced not quite three weeks ago, I could hardly imagine wanting ice cream. It was still cool (for us) at night with below average highs (for us) during the day. Rainy days brought hope for the end of our three year drought, but made me crave hot tea more than ice cream. Fast forward to this past weekend...highs in the mid-70s made ice cream sound appealing again.

Becky of Project Domestication must have had the inside scoop (no pun intended!) on the weather because she had the foresight to select this one. I've loved both of Dorie's ice creams that I've made (incredible vanilla here and amazing chocolate here) but I still had mixed feelings about this recipe. I made the caramel ice cream from Ad Hoc at Home with Nancy and a few other Twitter buddies and it was the Best. Ice. Cream. Ever. I can't believe I didn't blog about it but I'll make it for you soon. Promise.

Keller's recipe used an interesting technique for melting the sugar and caramelizing it, but Dorie's is the more common sugar + water + saucepan + heat = caramel. It was uneventful. (For those of you who are new at making caramel, check out this post for detailed step-by-step instructions.)

This recipe made delicious ice cream, but alas it didn't unthrone the caramel ice cream from Ad Hoc at Home. I think it needed some hot fudge, but I also enjoyed it with chopped pecans (though macadamias or - gasp - salted Marcona almonds would also be great).

If you'd like the recipe, Becky has it for you here. And don't fear caramel...with a little practice you can master it and make this wonderful flavor your own.

Truly Insane Peanut Butter Truffles

If you stop by here regularly, you already know I belong to too many baking and cooking groups. Sometimes I bake ahead so I have plenty of time to write the posts, and sometimes I fall behind and make the recipe on the day it's supposed to be posted. Although I prefer the former, today I learned the latter has its appeal, too.

When I delay posting, I can benefit from the P&Qs (Problems and Questions) that other bakers discuss. This week's Sweet Melissa Sundays recipe, Peanut Butter Truffles, is a perfect example. The SMS bakers were disappointed by the laid back peanut butter flavor of these truffles.  Some of them doubled the peanut butter (and even commented they might even go for more next time).

So I went with 2 1/2 times the amount of peanut butter with an extra 20% chocolate.  When I combined the cream and the peanut butter and heated them, they emulsified easily but the mixture was so oily, and yes, almost broken, that I panicked and added more chocolate in an unnecessary attempt to get the chocolate and peanut butter mixture to come together harmoniously. Adding the softened butter helped, but in the end, the chilled mixture was fine for scooping and rolling in chopped nuts.

Melissa calls for chopped peanuts but I wanted to mix it up a little so I used honey roasted peanuts. Perfect! They aren't the loveliest truffles you'll ever see, but they are decadent and delicious.

I am so grateful to Mara of Love your Mother for selecting this delicious recipe! Please check out what she did with these, and then go visit the other SMS bakers. You can find them here. They are a truly amazing and inspiring group!

Peanut Butter Truffles - adapted from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book

Printable Recipe

5 ounces bittersweet (61%) chocolate, finely chopped (or use feves)
7/8 cup heavy cream
175 grams/6 ounces smooth peanut butter (not natural)
3 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1 cup chopped honey roasted peanuts

Put the chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl and set aside.

Place the cream and peanut butter in a 1 quart saucepan and heat over medium low heat, stirring occasionally with a heatproof spatula until quite warm (but not hot) and small bubbles form around the edge. The mixture will look oily.

Pour the peanut butter cream mixture over the chocolate and let sit for 2 minutes. Stir up from the bottom with your heat proof spatula and let sit for another minute or two. Stir up from the bottom again and stir in the butter in 4 pieces, mixing to combine. Refrigerate for at least two hours.

Using a teaspoon or small scooper, scoop out the truffles, gently shape into round balls and roll in the peanuts, pressing the peanuts onto the truffles. Refrigerate immediately. Serve chilled. Makes about 30 truffles.