SMS – Chocolate Peppermint Meringues

Me and meringues apparently don’t get along so well.

On pies, my meringue wants to either set on fire, smoke up my kitchen and become black as night in quite literally 5 seconds after placing it underneath the broiler.

It seems as if my meringue cookies are cursed as well. You see I believe that these were supposed to be chewy and semi-soft… mine were, well here let me show you:

Yah. I think that about says it all! They were HOLLOW! And crunchy. Almost inedible. Almost. And even if you dared to take a bite, you’d end up with crumbles all over the floor, your mouth, hands, shirt and the cat. Not that I’d know anything about that. I’m just assuming……

I think the culprit was that I must have whipped my egg whites for too long. It’s the only thing that I was unsure about. Also, my chocolate ‘powder’ was 50% tiny chocolate chips cus I was too chicken to let the processor stay on for too long for fear of ending up with a gritty form of ganache. So, in turn I have beautifully speckled, hollow meringues. And I’m ok with that.

My second batch did come out a tiiiiiny bit better. I refrigerated the meringue ‘dough’ for 24 hours and baked for a shorter time. They were a bit more chewy but not much different. If there’s a next time, I’d whip less and bake for MUCH less time in the oven.

But all hollowness (and bitterness) aside, they sure do take some pretty pictures.

A thank you goes out to Kelly of Sweetgrass Sensibilities for choosing this recipe, even if it didn’t want to work out for me. Head on over to her blog for the recipe and make sure to stop by the other bakers’ blogs to see what they are supposed to look and taste like.

Up next week: Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Torte.
If this is ANYTHING like the soft chocolate raspberry torte that I’ve already made, I KNOW I will love it. And you will too!

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TWD – Brrrr-ownies

I should probably title these ‘The Bane of My Existence’ brownies.

Mainly because I can’t stop eating them.

I would eat them in a box. And I would eat them with a fox. And I will eat them in a house. And I will eat them with a mouse. And I will eat them here and there…

Well, clearly you see where this is going. And I ASSURE you that I am not the only one who feels this way.

I usually have a LOT of trouble finding a brownie that is all around perfect and suitable to my tastes. Sure, my brownies have more than pleased many other taste testers… but let’s stick to what’s REALLY important here. 😉

I made these a while back with my sissy in a 9×9 pan with peppermint extract because we didn’t have the candies and they were thin and fudgy delights. See?

I made them this second time around because, well… why not? And I had the candy this time, baked in an 8×8 pan. And…

These are phenomenal. They are the perfect balance of dense, fudgy, crackly-topped minty studded goodness you will ever find in one brownie.

Or five. But who’s counting?

Thanks to Karen of Welcome to our Crazy Blessed Life for choosing these delights and giving me a go-to brownie recipe! Head on over to her blog for the recipe!!

Up next week: Lot’s of Ways of Banana Cake. I am totally adding mini chocolate chips to this. Or giant chocolate chunks. Or both. I’m a maniac, I know!

SMS – Truffles (4 different ways)

When I bake from a recipe I usually don’t take much creative license. I’m just too afraid that if I substitute anything or remove something that the concoction will just blow up in my face like a chemistry experiment gone awry.

But this has been bothering me a bit and I decided that I should just take the bull by the horns. I wanted to get creative! I wanted to take a written recipe and make it my own!

Forget baby steps. Psh, try leaps and bounds!! Ok, maybe its just leaps and bounds to ME but this took some creativity on my part and I think I fared quite well!! I took the base truffle recipe (made 1-1/2 times the recipe and separated into 4 batches) and nipped, tucked, sploshed, and rolled until I ended up with 4 different, tasty variations of these delightful truffles.

First up is the Almond truffle. I substituted chopped toasted almonds for the hazelnuts (mainly because I couldn’t find them) and almond extract for the hazelnut liquor and I rolled them in cocoa powder.

For the second variation I  added the zest of 1 orange and rolled it in chopped chocolate bits.

For the third variation I added Bailey’s Irish Cream liquor and rolled them chopped almonds.

For the last variation I added peppermint extract and rolled them in chopped white chocolate. I think I’ll be making these around Christmas. How cute would they be boxed and tied with a big red bow?

It says that these are best served room temperature but I find that they are on the mushy side so I prefer them chilled.

For the original recipe you can visit Annie from Living Life Foodcariously.

For more pics of these lovely truffles, click here.