Sparkly wine is pure gold for romance
Drew and I started a wine course last night, and one of the first four wines we tasted was a winner for eye appeal: Peter Brum’s Gold Sparkler is a sparkling wine with real gold leaf floating in it—24 carat!
If you want to score a home run with your Sweetheart, this beautiful wine would be quite a way to celebrate an evening. At less than $20 a bottle, it also is quite a bargain. And BTW, you drink the gold speckles along with the vino. Wow.
Milk Chocolate Truffle Hearts for a smooth and creamy romantic evening
I’ve been collecting romantic recipes. You never know when you’ll feel the urge to spoil a Sweetheart or impress a date. Here’s my most recent effort, a first attempt at Milk Chocolate Truffle Hearts:
Recipe:
8 ounces milk chocolate, chopped fine
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1. Line a 9” baking pan with aluminum foil so that the foil covers the bottom and sides, overhanging the edge by about 1”.
2. Place chocolates and butter in a large heatproof bowl. Bring cream and sugar just to a boil in a small saucepan. Fold hot cream mixture into chocolate and butter until both are melted and the mixture is smooth. Scrape mixture into prepared pan, smooth and chill until set, at least one hour.
3. Using foil as handles, remove chocolate from pan and place on cutting board. If the chocolate surface is uneven, you can try smoothing it with a rolling pin. I used parchment between the chocolate and the rolling pin.
4. Use a small heart-shaped cutter to cut the chocolate int bite-sized pieces. I got over 4 dozen tiny candies out of this batch. Roll the scraps into balls. Sift cocoa powder over all, place candies between parchment paper and store in fridge for a week or more.
5. Serve simply on a pretty plate with perhaps some green leaves and a blossom or two.
Here’s some of the ingredients—I got really good chocolate and cream from the local organic food store:
And this is how I chopped the chocolate—without nibbling:
Stir in the cream and sugar ...
Stir…
Pour into the pan…
And smooth, then chill.
After chilling, remove from the pan…
Cut with heart-shaped cutter (this was the hardest part, getting the cut dough out of the cutter—I used my little finger and pushed)
Finished cutting, then dusted with cocoa powder (put powder through a sifter)...
For the final product…
These truffles are really easy and DELICIOUS!
Valentine’s Day Treat 2009
Everyone should have a few romantic, indulgent recipes for special occasions. I love simple and elegant food. Add the romance and you’ve got a sure winner. Martha Stewart has this one—Rose Water Panna Cotta—below in her current magazine, at least a version of it. I didn’t like the fruits she paired with it—canned lychees? And where do you find edible rose petals, fresh ones, at this time of year? Not in my Publix, for sure. She also suggests raspberries, which I think are a good idea, but the raspberries in our market are not so good right now and VERY expensive. Minding the budget, which we all have to do these days, I went with blackberries, strawberries, and blueberries which are all at bargain rates and in perfect shape. Here is the result:
Rose Water Panna Cotta
(adapted from Martha Stewart’s recipe)
1 cup heavy cream
2 T sugar
1 tsp unflavored gelatin
1 T cold water
1/3 cup mascarpone cheese
2 - 3 tsp rose water (or 1/2 tsp vanilla or 1/4 tsp almond flavoring)
1 drop red food coloring (optional)
fresh berries for decoration
1. MIx cream and sugar in a small saucepan, heat over medium heat until sugar dissolves and remove from heat. Do not allow cream to boil.
2. Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in a small bowl and allow to soften, about 2 minutes. Add to hot cream mixture and stir until dissolved.
3. Put mascarpone in a medium bowl and strain cream mixture over it. Straining twice may seem silly, but it will make the result silken smooth. Stir until mascarpone is thoroughly mixed in.
4. Add rose water and coloring, stir and strain again into measuring cup or bowl with a pour spout.
5. Pour mixture into 4 demitasse cups, decorative bowls, or pretty wine glasses. Chill at least 2 hours.
6. Just before serving, either unmold or leave in containers, decorate with berries, and serve.
Here’s the hardest part of this very easy recipe—the ingredients. Mascarpone is Italian cream cheese—milder than what we think of as cream cheese—don’t know if you could substitute. Rose water I happened to have in the cupboard, and it has been there for years and is still good. The cream I got was exceptionally thick and rich, which of course made the results even more so:
The rose water going in—you probably could use vanilla or almond flavoring, but the rose water was really lovely and unusual:
And now the dishes—Martha used demitasse cups and then unmolded the panna cotta after it chilled. Why go to that trouble? Use a pretty dish that shows it off, like wine glasses. Then decorate with berries. I finished off with a dusting of powdered sugar. Pretty or what? And really very easy.
Martha’s got lots more Valentine goodie ideas on her website: http://www.marthastewart.com/photogallery/valentines-day-treats. But this one (slightly revised) is in her February magazine with the gorgeous cupcakes on the cover.
Heart Cookies
You never can tell when you might need some heart-shaped cookies, right? These gorgeous morsels are tasty and really quite easy to make and decorate, and as you see, they can be very impressive!
Below you’ll find pictures that Drew took while I made these cookies so that you can see the technique I have invented that makes stunning cookies pretty easy to turn out, pretty fast. And I’ll even give you the recipe, with a bonus offer or two included: Just .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
to me ( .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
) and you will get it by return email.
Roll out the chilled dough and cut with heart-shaped cutters (I’ve got quite a collection—I pick them up through the year, but the pickings are particularly good around Valentine’s).
 
After baking and cooling completely, I make a frosting glaze with powdered sugar and milk or cream. Starting with plain white glaze, I brush it on the cookies with a pastry brush. I find I even like the brush marks, which make the cookies look even artier. I do about 1/3 of the cookies in white glaze, then tint some pink and do another 1/3, then finish up with more food coloring to make the glaze dark red. Bring on the red dye 2!
 
Colored sugars are the easiest decoration of all, and they come in lots of great colors and shapes. Put a few tablespoons of each in shallow dishes and dip the freshly glazed cookies in the sugars. Try different colored sugars over the different color glazes to get more color combinations.
 
I like to paint the larger cookies with zig zags and stripes, and I’ve figured out the easiest method imaginable. Spoon glaze in the corner of a plastic sandwich bag, twist the open top and squeeze, then take a tiny snip off the corner, and use it like a pastry decorating bag to paint free-form stripes and plaids. Again, use three colors of glaze for more variety and combinations.
 
 
Leave the finished cookies out until the glaze gets very hard. Store in an air-tight container. You can even make these way ahead and freeze them. How about having some on ice for when the Right Romantic Moment strikes?
Doesn’t this picture make you want a latte or a cup of hot tea?
P. S. Don’t forget to email me and get the recipe—and more! Send a blank email to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
|
