Musical pairing – The Sellout by Macy Gray
Have you heard about this new movie coming out, ‘The Greatest Movie Ever Sold‘? We came across it on Twitter, because POM Wonderful is a major sponsor and we follow their tweets. This satirical documentary about branding and advertising was ironically funded entirely by brands, advertising and their product placement in the movie. The movie had a limited opening last weekend and we haven’t seen it yet, but audiences loved it at the Sundance Film Festival – might be worth checking out. But hold that thought for a moment . . .
We been trying to re-create these dreamy raspberry-coated truffles that we found at Rene’s Bakery in Broad Ripple. We’ve made truffles before, but had to do some experimentation to replicate the powdery, tart and fruity coating that really made these truffles memorable; we decided that the coating must be similar to freeze-dried fruit which we had seen at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods so set out to go that route . . . until all we could find was dried pomegranates. We brought a package home, gave them a whir in the blender, rolled half a batch of truffles and tasted . . . the tartness was definitely there but so was the crunch of the seeds that would not grind . . . a definite ‘no-go’ in terms of the silky-smooth texture we longed for.
Life is pretty crazy at the moment with The Professor’s busy end-of-the-school-year schedule and a run to Indy is about an hour and 20 minutes roundtrip . . . but in his infinite wisdom (read: desire to please the Mrs. . .), The Professor came through. Because on his way home from campus, he picked up a box of cereal with dehydrated berries . . . you know, the one with the big “K” on the box . . . of course all he said was that he thought he had something that might work and by the time I hit the kitchen, the dehydrated berries had been separated and ready to go. A quick blitz in the blender and we had the powdery, tart and fruity coating we had been looking for. Is it identical to the one we enjoyed from Rene’s Bakery? No. But it’s a good close second and one that we’re please with until we can score ourselves some raspberries . . .
Which brings us back to the movie mentioned at the beginning of this post . . . Hey! We could be just like the movie and have product placement in our blog . . . say, like the photo below . . .
But seriously, for a colorful, tart, sweet and chocolatey Mother’s Day gift (or really, anytime you’re craving chocolate truffles . . .) you can’t go wrong with these Strawberry Truffles . . .
And what in the heck am I going to do with this box of cereal that is now sans its berries???
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STRAWBERRY-COATED CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES
Slightly adapted from Ina Garten
INGREDIENTS:
- 1 pound good bittersweet bar chocolate – I used Scharffen Berger 70% Bittersweet
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons Grand Marnier or other liqueur (optional)
- 1 tablespoon prepared espresso
- 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Dehydrated Strawberries or Raspberries, blended to powder
- Cocoa powder
METHOD:
- Chop the chocolate finely with a sharp knife or chocolate chipper. Place in a heat-proof mixing bowl.
- Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it just boils.
- Turn off the heat and allow the cream to sit for 20 seconds.
- Pour the cream through a fine-meshed sieve into the bowl with chocolate (don’t skip this step – it removes any cream ‘film’).
- With a wire whisk, slowly stir the cream and chocolates together until the chocolate is completely melted. If the chocolate doesn’t completely melt once the cream is whisked in, you can microwave for 10 seconds, whisk again until chocolate is smooth.
- Whisk in the Grand Marnier or other liqueur, if using, espresso, and vanilla.
- Refrigerate for 1 hour.
8. With 2 teaspoons, spoon round balls of the chocolate mixture onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. SMITH BITES NOTE: I used a small cookie scoop roughly the same size as I would get as two spoons. As you can see from the photos above, my chocolate didn’t set up well and were more ‘disk-shape’ than ‘rounds’.
9. If truffles are soft, refrigerate for another 30 minutes, until firm. Roll each dollop of chocolate in your hands to roughly make a round ball. Make a mental note to NOT open the windows when it’s 70+ degrees outside with high humidity – or it gets messy like the photo above!! Once set up in the refrigerator, I formed the truffles into a rounder shape and then rolled some into the strawberry powder and others in the cocoa powder. Don’t worry if they’re not perfectly round – truffles you find in nature aren’t perfectly round either – yet taste wonderful!
10. Roll in strawberry powder or cocoa powder.
These will keep refrigerated for weeks, but serve at room temperature.
Oh yum! These look so delicious. I saw Morgan Spurlock (great name) talk about this movie on TED. Here’s the link: http://www.ted.com/talks/morgan_spurlock_the_greatest_ted_talk_ever_sold.html
Thanks for the pics and the recipe. Can’t wait to try these!
Wow, those are stunning! I’m happy that the Professor found a way to get you those dried strawberries. Isn’t that always the way, though? You see them all over until you actually need them. Glad it worked out!
Your photos are insane. How do you that? just gorgeous. xo
What a great truffle coating! I bet they were just as tasty as they are cute.
Oh my goodness, these look amazing and I can’t imagine how good they taste, I would never have thought of using the dried fruit.
Oh, I love this. They are so gorgeous in that red shade. I had never even considered using dehydrated fruit to cover rather than cocoa powder or dipping them.
Bravo on finding a great substitute coating for the truffles. I love the vibrant red of them. I can’t wait to see the raspberry version too!
I LOVE that you rolled these in the strawberry cereal pieces…I can’t believe that he took all that time to seperate them from the flakes!! lol Love it!!
Very pretty! I like the photo with the sticky hands. Gosh if I photoshopped it just a bit, it could pass for me rolling bourbon balls! Of course there is no red hat in the picture…Giggles. Have a great weekend, Deb. Giggle a lot!
Hey you won’t believe where I found freeze dried berries? At Mountain Equipment Co-op, our local hikers/sporting store. It’s considered an excellent hiking snack. Take a peek at your local outdoors shop and I bet you’ll find some. If not find an astronaut as they dine on them in space along with freezed dried ice cream! Loved the recipe but I’d have to substitue the cream with cashew cream but I think it would be nice!
FUN! I love them. I must try.
Fun to make and eat! Love these!
These look delightful!! I’m sad that Trader Joes didn’t save your day. They seem to have all kinds of great things like this. Maybe somewhere online? Anyway, the Strawberry version looks great to me!
The professor saves the day! What an unusual coating for truffles, I love the idea.
I might be in love with the Professor…and these truffles. Those must be delicious!
Your professor is INSPIRED! Very impressive! Now…. you need to make sure special K sees the versatility of their product and gives you a boost 🙂
Well. I would have *never* thought of sorting through a box of cereal for dehydrated strawberries! Ha! Your Professor is one enterprising fellow!
Ohhh strawberries & chocolate are so good together this is a fun way to do it. Great thinking for finding your strawberries
omg yum!
Oh my heavens are those dear. LOVE the red! Just beautiful!
Yum! Those look so delicious! I want to whip up a batch right now!
That Professor of yours sure has ingenuity! They look stunning, Deb. I’ll tell you what you’re going to do with that box of cereal. You’re going to go grab a bag of half off Easter Cadbury Mini Eggs, and then you’re going to make Mini Egg Nests like I just put up on my site. They’re basically cereal + butter + marshmallow, and that works with *any* cereal. Before I posted, I actually made them with Crispix and with Special K. They were both great, but the Crispix ones looked more “nesty” to me, so that’s what I used in the photo.
Very festive color for Mother’s Day! I hope yours is a happy one. 🙂
Clever Professor! I would never have thought of that!
These look lovely….I hate cereals so can’t give any advice on what to do with leftovers.
HA! I love that you used the dehydrated berries from the cereal to make these. It really is brilliant!
Oh I haven’t heard of that movie but I bet it would be so fascinating! Lovely truffles!
These look absolutely amazing! You are very creative. They are so pretty!
So clever! Love this – what a wonderful use of those dried strawberries (we love them, but I rarely buy them because it is so pricey)!
Oh my word …
So resourceful, I love it! And I’m really interested in seeing that movie, too!
You are so creative. My parents sell those dehydrated fruits at their health food store and I think raspberry with the chocolate truffle would be delicious. What a terrific idea!
-Brenda