3 Ingredient Tahini Chocolate Truffles

Valentine’s Day is upon us, which means chocolate is very much top of mind for this little lady.  For moi, the darker the better.  I love the deep, rich flavors of cacao, mixed with as little sugar as possible to keep that rich, teetering-on-bitter flavor. So when I came upon this 3 Ingredient Tahini Chocolate Truffle recipe—two-thirds of which are 70% pure cocoa or greater—I was hooked. When I discovered the third ingredient was tahini, I was sold.

The recipe is really just two ingredients, dark chocolate and tahini. The third, unsweetened cocoa powder, serves a predominantly aesthetic role, reserved for dusting at the end to make the chocolates pretty.



Might so few ingredients in a truffle make it bland, or lacking in flavor? Truth be told, just the opposite. The two ingredients are so wonderfully complex, they almost make a mockery of the idea. The chocolate is sweet and rich, with undertones of vanilla, while the tahini is nutty and buttery; I would argue, the most flavor-nuanced fat source there is. Together, they are a gourmand delight, an unparalleled zenith of luxurious, silky flavor.

And while their taste is certainly fancy, the prep is anything but. It’s actually comical just how unfussy this recipe is. Even parts dark chocolate (melted) and tahini are stirred together, then poured into a baking sheet lined with plastic wrap. After an hour in the freezer, this truffle-block is ready to be cut into any shape you please. Mine naturally formed into mismatched rectangles, which after being rolled in the cocoa powder, managed to look awesomely cosmopolitan—like they belonged on an artisan chocolate shop shelf next to your most extravagant, hipster chocolate bar.

In reality, not so much. I used half a bar of Raaka dark chocolate (admittedly fancy, that was a gift) and half of the Nestle semi-sweet morsels I keep on hand for baking.  For the tahini, I used Seed + Mill brand—where this recipe hails from, and the only tahini I recommend. As I wrote about in a previous post, Seed + Mill sources their sesame seeds from a small town in Ethiopia, called Humera, where climatic conditions make their tahini wonderfully, naturally, sweet. (It's also the reason why no one will believe you when you tell them these truffles have zero added sugar).

If you like, feel free to experiment with using spices to dust in tandem with the cocoa powder, maybe a sprinkle of sea salt, cayenne, or cinnamon. That being said, this recipe is true to it's name, and I assure you that the 3 ingredients alone indeed yield perfection.


And health! Both the flavonoids in cocoa and phytosterols in sesame help lower cholesterol and contain anti-inflammatory properties. The ingredients are also mineral powerhouses, with significant sources of iron and zinc. They are even linked to healthy skin—flavonoids fight against skin damage and free radicals, while sesame's high zinc and copper content aid in collagen production.

Happy Valentine's Day!

3 Ingredient Tahini Chocolate Truffles
Makes 30 bite-sized truffles

Ingredients:
1 cup best quality 70% dark chocolate
1 cup Seed + Mill Pure Tahini
Cocoa powder for dusting

Directions:
1. Melt chocolate in a bowl, add tahini and stir to combine.
2. Line a loaf tin with plastic wrap and pour in the chocolate mix. Place tin in freezer for 1 hour.
3. Remove chocolate from plastic wrap and slice into squares, rectangles or any abstract shape you like.
4. Dust with best quality cocoa powder.

Soft Chocolate Almond Cherry Cookies

Never mind holiday shenanigans like twinkling street lamps and department store display windows, my euphoric Christmastime enthusiasm is reserved for just one thing: the Food52 Holiday Shop. Every year, my favorite recipe website puts together a real live holiday pop-up shop, teeming with unique, artisanal cooking gifts that whip me into a frenzy of want. I cannot afford anything, yet I must have everything. In the same way that people roam Ikea, playing house in the little model rooms, I covertly circle the Food52 Holiday Shop interior, picking up multi-hundred dollar cast iron skillets and vintage cocettes while pretending I'm minding my business in my own kitchen. On the oak wood farmhouse table next to me is my hand-crafted, organically glazed Portuguese porcelain dinnerware set, a casual eucalyptus and pine garland runner elegantly draping its midsection that I, you know, assembled on a whimsical winter garden walk in the woods outback while I was also gathering firewood and winterberries. I hope the staff doesn't notice that this is the 3rd day in a row I've visited to continue my make-pretend game.


In addition to this splendid array of dining and cooking delights, The Food52 pop up shop also exhibits exactly two edibles: the contenders for the year's best holiday cookie contest, an ongoing competition between the company's founders to determine who has procured the top holiday cookie recipe of 2015. (And, let's face it, the real reason I've come back 3 days in a row.) But I needed to try both cookies multiple times, you know, just to be sure of my vote!


OK but really—I knew at first bite that my vote was for Merrill's Soft Chocolate Almond Cherry Cookies.  Simply and unequivocally delicious, they were everything a holiday cookie should be. A glorious combination of chewy chocolate cookie—or is it an impossibly soft brownie?—dotted with rich chocolate chunks, sweet dried cherries, and a glorious nutty, buttery undertone. I swooned. And swooned so much that I knew this would be the cookie recipe to accompany my will-you-be-my-bridesmaid gifts, because if you didn't know, I'm getting married. Introducing: Kvell in the Kitchen, Wedding Edition!


Now, I was very excited to embark on this baking adventure because a) I am, you know, a blushing bride-to-be b) have not yet started any type of wedding diet and c) like all arts and crafts projects. But let me tell you, these cookies were not easy breezy. After hours of hand-removing every stage of batter from my immersion blender (no, I don't have a stand mixer, yes, I can confirm you do need one for this recipe) I finally was able to create a little assembly line of dough and sugar to coat my cookies—1.5 inch diameter balls, 2 inches apart, just like the recipe called for—and they came out as one giant, puddled, cookie lump. Or a birds-eye view of a ski mountain covered with brown moguls. Suddenly, I am no longer a blushing bride, but an on-the-verge-of-tears totally frustrated bride. I almost gave up (not before making a mental note to add standing mixer to my registry).

But! No more kvetching in the kitchen, because despite the fact that my cookies looked like poo, they did in fact taste delicious, and after 10 minutes of cooling I was able to pick them apart and distribute them as originally planned. Below, I have gone at great lengths to amend the recipe (smaller cookie diameters, more space in between them) to make sure this doesn't happen to you. Its worth the fuss (and time commitment—note that the cookie dough needs to cool in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before baking). But seriously, they are dynamite. Wedding-worthy for sure!

Soft Chocolate Almond Cherry Cookies (from Food 52)
Makes about 36 cookies

Ingredients:

125 grams almond flour (~ 1 ⅛ cups)

50 grams all-purpose flour (~¼ + ⅛ cups)

⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 stick plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

⅔ cups packed light brown sugar

¼ cup granulated sugar, plus more for dusting

1 ¼ teaspoon flaky sea salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped (pieces should be ⅓ inch or smaller)

⅔ cups dried cherries, chopped

Directions:

1. Whisk together the almond flour, all-purpose flour, cocoa powder and baking soda.
2. Using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter on medium speed until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula once.
3. Add both sugars, the salt and vanilla extract and beat for 2 minutes more. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the dry ingredients, drape a kitchen towel over the mixer and pulse at low speed for 1 to 2 seconds, about 5 times. Remove the towel and keep beating at low speed for about 10 seconds more, until everything is just combined. Scrape down the bowl again.
4. Add the chopped chocolate and dried cherries and mix on low speed for another 5 seconds or so, just to incorporate. Transfer the dough to an airtight container and refrigerate for 30 to 60 minutes.
5. Center a rack in the oven and heat it to 325 °F. Line two baking sheets with parchment or silicone mats. Pour about ¾ cup sugar onto a large plate. Using your hands, form the dough into balls an inch in diameter. Roll the balls in the sugar and arrange them on the baking sheets, at least 3 inches apart.
6. Bake the cookies for 12 to 14 minutes; they should dome slightly in the middle, and they should look dry on the surface but still be soft to the touch. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets on racks for 5 minutes, then transfer the parchment to the racks to finish cooling.

Six Minute Vegan Chocolate Cake

What is not to love about this Six Minute Vegan Chocolate Cake? Just reading the title generates excitement: six minute = quick, vegan = low cholesterol and parve (hello Jewish holidays), and chocolate cake = immediate euphoria and giddiness, duh.



But that's just the icing on the cake. (Ha, ha.) Pantry item predominant, economical for your wallet, a one-pot wonder (can I even say, NO pot wonder? All the ingredients are mixed straight into the pan), and these superlatives don't even cover taste! Yes, this cake tastes as rich, decadent, and elegant as it looks. Dark as the night sky, it is moist and light, vivid and opulent, delicate yet powerful. It is going to become your go-to chocolate cake recipe, receiving ooo's and ahh's by all lucky enough to receive a slice. I'll leave it to you whether or not to reveal that this delectable dessert took less time to whip up than a pot of coffee.

I love the idea of spending all day in the kitchen creating a mastermind dessert that leaves you spent but wonderfully proud. But just like there is a time and place for complicated, multi- step aesthetic baking projects, there is also a time and place for the get-er-done quick fix dessert. This recipe is the latter. Messed up dessert #1 two hours before tonight's housewarming party but still need to bring something? Here is your cake. Made your first from-scratch Rosh Hashanah dinner, but realized you'd need to clone yourself three times to include dessert on the menu? Viva la vegan.

Now, to top the cake. Here is where things get tricky (and where my six minutes turned into over an hour.) The original recipe comes with a chocolate glaze, which I've included below, but the water/chocolate combo didn't work for me—it came out really liquidy and yuck. Next time, I will try adding the water slowly into the chocolate, rather than visa versa, to control the amount of liquid in the glaze.

My backup was a simple chocolate butter frosting (there goes the Vegan and the parve—whoops!) that worked wonders. However, the cake and the frosting were both so rich, that I think next time I'll try to make the glaze again to keep things simple. A simple dusting of confectioners sugar or whipped cream and sliced fruit would be great options, too.


Six Minute Vegan Chocolate Cake (from Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts)
Makes 1 Cake

Ingredients:

Cake Ingredients

1 ½ cups unbleached white flour

⅓ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 cup sugar

½ cup vegetable oil (I recommend coconut oil)

1 cup coffee

2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 tablespoons cider vinegar

Chocolate Glaze

½ pound semi-sweet chocolate

¾ cup hot water

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Chocolate Frosting

½ pound semi-sweet chocolate

1 stick butter at room temperature

Directions:

1. Sift together the flour, cocoa, soda, salt, and sugar directly into a 9-inch round or 8-inch square cake pan. (You can also do it in a mixing bowl to make sure nothing spills over.)

2. In a measuring cup or small bowl, mix together the oil, coffee, and vanilla.

3. Pour the liquid ingredients into the baking pan and mix the batter with a fork or a small whisk. When the batter is smooth, add the vinegar and stir quickly. There will be pale swirls in the batter as the baking soda and vinegar react. Stir just until the vinegar is evenly distributed throughout the batter.

4. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes and set aside to cool.

5. Make the glaze OR the frosting: To make the glaze, melt the chocolate in a double boiler or microwave. Stir in the hot water and vanilla into the melted chocolate until smooth. Spoon the glaze over the cooled cake.
6. To make the frosting, whip the butter until creamy. In a double broiler or microwave, melt the chocolate. Add the chocolate to the butter, and beat until consistency is smooth. Frost the cake with a spatula.

7. Refrigerate the glazed/frosted cake for at least 30 minutes before serving.