Truffles

In the tradition of Valentines Day, I decided to make truffles today.  I found a recipe in one of the Food Network Cooking Magazines.  The yield on the recipe was 180 truffles.  Even though I am a choco-holic, I split the recipe in half because I don't think there is anyway I could have eaten that much. 

When I ordered the bittersweet chocolate (King Arthur Flour), I also ordered this funny looking chocolate chopper thing.  It was a waste of my money.  A chef's knife worked better. 

The recipe gave directions to either let the truffles sit out at room temperature or put in the refrigerator to set.  I found out that ganache really needs to be cold in order to hold its shape when it is dipped in the coating.  It was quite messy and out of several dozen truffles, I only had a few that were the "perfect" round shape. 

Even though they may not have been pretty, they kicked Hershey Kiss butt!

First Post

I had an Easy-Bake Oven when I was little. It was one of my favorite toys. I quickly ran out of the little mixes it came with so I experimented with ingredients I found in mom's kitchen. I think I ate what I made but only because I wasn't very discriminating. It was fun and those are my earliest memories of "cooking."
I'm not a professional chef but I'd love to be one. Since I have already done the career-change thing a few times, I don't think I'd get away with another. My itch to become a chef will have to be scratched at home with recipe challenges.
I'm new at blogging so this is a learning experience. I'm going to post my cooking experience and challenges. Wish me luck.