Cinnamon Cognac Truffles - Vegan
I had enough time in hand and good cheer during the long festival weekend which translated itself into a good many desserts, a 'theatre' outing and lots of 'DVD' time! It is what I would call an ideal weekend. So as to not be too lazy I compensated by watching a Carmen Electra workout session giving helpful suggestions to my daughter as she tried the routine:D. The desserts had a wonderful effect on my person - I haven't been able to reach my toes since then!
I picked up two bookmarked recipes from 'My2Penn'orth' by Thorsten. Encouraged by the huge success of the Mandelspritzegeback I tried a second recipe, Cinnamon Cognac Truffles from the same blog (chosen because cinnamon always works for me!). Both were hits!
My son as always had a say in the matter - he felt I should not have rolled the truffles in cocoa powder but just dipped them in chocolate, cooled and piped strings of white chocolate around them. I think I will do that the next time I make these. My daughter wished and wished I stuck to the original recipe which has all her favourite ingredients - white chocolate especially! Mine is a vegan version. This is a recipe that I know I will repeat often as it offers plenty of flexibility and retains a rich taste even after going vegan.
I used cognac as suggested in the recipe but I am sure any other flavoured liqueur such as Kahlua, Tia Maria or Bailey's Irish Cream would have been as good here.
Dessert: Cinnamon Cognac Truffles (Vegan, Eggless)
Yield: I did not check but I think we got nearly 25-30 truffles, a size larger than marbles
Ingredients: - (Measurements are approximate and close to original recipe)
Cashew butter - 1/2 cup
(Soak about 15-20 big cashews in just enough soymilk for 1-2 hours and grind to a thick butter)
Ground Sugar - 4tbsp. approx.
(I tasted and added till it felt right as I don't fancy very sweet things but had to compensate as I was using dark chocolate)
1tbsp. - ground cinnamon
2tbsp. - cognac
Dark chocolate - 250g. + 1 tbsp oil
Cocoa powder - to roll
Method:
Once you have ground the cashews to almost smooth butter, add sugar and cinnamon and give a few turns to blend.
Scrape into a bowl and mix well.
Melt the dark chocolate with oil in spurts of 20s at low power in m/w till melted.
Remove, add cognac and blend. Add this to the cashew mix. Mix well to blend everything. Refrigerate for about 2hours so that the mixture is firm.
Remove and use a melon baller to make uniform balls with your palm.
Roll over sieved cocoa powder and store in an airtight container in the fridge. Since this vegan version does not have butter to hold the truffles firm, I preferred not to serve them at room temperature but straight out of the fridge. The last few remained outside for about half an hour and I found that the cocoa covering had melted into the truffles.
These taste great and make nice bite sized kiddy snacks too provided you add a bit of icing sugar to the cocoa before dusting. The covering is a little bitter but works well for adults.
Would you like some?
I watched
Three Godfather series (I liked only the first and second)
Tootsie (I loved Dustin Hoffman as a lady) and
Mamma Mia(I would love to be 60 if I could look as good Meryl Streep in this one!)
I loved '3 Idiots'(Hindi) better than 'Paa'(Hindi). Madhavan, Sharman Joshi, Kareena Kapoor and Aamir Khan have all done a great job. Boman Irani's role was a cliched one - in fact irritating. Amitabh Bachchan as always was wonderful in Paa. For once even Abhishek acted! Vidya Balan was excellent as the positive parent.
The Carmen Electra workout routine is great too - it will have better effects if you choose to do the moves instead of watching your daughter do it! I did join her in some bits and enjoyed it.
The recipe for eggless Mandelspritzgeback, also made from the same blog is on 'Beyond Curries'.
Thanks a lot for the wishes that came my way and hope all of you had a great start this year. Happy New Year!Labels: Cinnamon, Cinnamon Cognac Truffles, Cognac, Sunshienmom, Truffles, Vegan Desserts, Vegan Truffles