I kind of love the title of this post. Is not the lyric of a song as I usually do, but this time I just really wanted to say how mean butterflies can be. Somehow the words work and are pretty together. Don’t listen to me, I’m a little quirky 🙂

Anyway, I in no way mean real butterflies, I mean the psychological and emotional kind that you feel in your stomach for various reasons. I love it when they show up for exciting good things. But when they strike in a state of anxiety, nervousness and fear is horrible. I have been feeling them all time lately and I hate it.  I specially hate that a person can cause you such things. It doesn’t let me sleep (I have at least 2 sleep disorders and this nervousness and anxiety might be the cause or the result, we’re not really sure) and is frightening for me not being able to sleep. I know this has NOTHING to do with the delicious truffles I’m going to show you, but I had to say it. Butterflies shouldn’t do that, they  should not be mean. And more importantly,

Tall skinny shadows with rough voices that once meant smiles, now shouldn’t cause mean butterflies.

Well, onto the chocolate. These things are DIVINE. Another word for them would be sinful. Totally sinful and of course, dead easy. You see, I was making the bittersweet chocolate and red wine cake for my aunt who had never tasted it (and in my family, has become my signature dessert, everyone talks about it, and I won’t argue. This in my top 3 favorite cakes ever. I can’t stress enough how GOOD this is and how you have to try it at least once before dying. Slightly warm…swoon…) and I had leftover ganache from the topping of the cake, so I decided to make truffles, but when I saw the tube of goat cheese in our fridge I knew I was on a good track.

I had added a little red wine in the ganache to enhance the flavor of it in the cake (a pair made in heaven as it is) so these had another layer of flavor and were amazing. I did have to add a little extra sweetener since the chocolate was 73% bittersweet, the goat cheese is salty and tart and the red wine is a little bitter and strong-tasting as well. I used honey because I didn’t want a gritty texture, but I’m thinking you could use powdered sugar instead with good results too. These were on the softer side since they already had a bit of heavy cream besides the goat cheese, but in the end they worked.

I should warn you that these are INTENSE. They have a very mature and grown up taste. Personally, I love them, and my little cousin did too (but he’d like ANYTHING with sugar) but these should be better received among adults, foodies and die-hard chocolate lovers, as well as those who like food adventures. I’m a sucker for weird flavor combination…

Goat Cheese and Wine Chocolate Truffles

Recipe by me

6 1/2 ounces bittersweet dark chocolate, chopped

5 ounces fresh goat cheese, brought to room temperature

3 tablespoons  heavy cream

2 tablespoons honey (or other sweetener you like)

2 tablespoons of red wine (I used a Cabernet Sauvignon which goes well with chocolate)

1/3 cup cocoa powder, for dusting.

Heat the heavy cream and chocolate together over a double boiler (or in the microwave, in 20 seconds intervals as I did) but don’t over heat, just enough to melt the chocolate. Add the goat cheese and honey at this point and turn off the heat (or, heat for 20 more seconds, might take a little more of the cheese is cold) and stir vigorously with a whisk, When everything is blended, take off the stove  and add the wine, whisk again until everything is smooth and shiny.

Let the ganache cool down before sticking it in the fridge for at least an hour and a half. You can also make this the night before and leave them overnight, covering it with plastic wrap.

When you are ready to make them, roll heaped teaspoons of the refrigerated mixture into small balls with your hands (yum, chocolate!), then roll the balls in the cocoa powder. Either eat right away or let chill on a sheet pan until ready to serve. Truffles will keep for 3 to 4 days in the refrigerator.

I likes these photos a lot! I only got to snap a few cause it was getting dark, But I think they turned out really good! I love truffles and hope you give these a try 😉

Hey, I’ve been featured in Food Porn Daily again! I love that site and I’m so happy they likes my picture, go check it out here.

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January 22, 2011

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