Nutella Truffles + Reading Failure

This post is going to be a little different from my other recipe posts since it's a recipe off of someone else's blog and I managed to screw it up.  For the actual recipe, just follow this link. 

A few weeks ago a friend sent me a link to the blog A Beautiful Mess, specifically the post on Nutella Truffles, and said that I should try making those.  I read through the recipe and said "this doesn't sound too bad" so I went to the store and got all the ingredients together and that's when the trouble began.

The wording on the box of Baker's chocolate is covered up, but if you do much baking with chocolate, you might already know that the orange box is not bittersweet chocolate--it's unsweetened.  I realized that I had made a critical reading error AFTER I had everything all melted together.  But really, how bad could it be?  The answer is: very.  So it was time to deploy emergency confectioners' sugar!  But that just made it too thick.  Add more cream!  But now it doesn't taste very Nutella-y.  Add more Nutella!  But now it's too thick again.  More cream! 

Well, eventually I got it tasting alright again and poured into a bowl to chill in the fridge for a while.  But I think it was still probably a little thick.

Success?

After a couple hours, it was time to roll out the little truffle balls.  I'm pretty good at this part, what with all the practice from making Oreo truffles and buttercreams, so I think that went fairly well.

Success!

Back to the refrigerator they went!  It was now time for dipping them in white chocolate.  This should be easy, right?  *sigh*  I'm thinking it just was not a day I was meant to make anything.  Melting the white chocolate started out just fine, but actually dipping the truffles was another matter.  They tended to each melt a bit when I dipped them, turning the chocolate a little less white with each one that went in.  Then the chocolate decided it didn't want to stay very melty anymore and began to thicken.  They all got dipped, though!

Success...?

But that didn't look good enough for me, oh no!  I had leftover white chocolate chips, so I melted those and sent them through again!  And had the exact same problem, only worse.  But they all got dipped a second time, no matter how clumpy the chocolate got!

I am fairly certain this is not what success looks like.

So how did I manage to salvage these abominations?  Easy!  I put them in a tub so no one could actually see them and brought them to a party that had a whoooole lot of alcohol!

SUCCESS!!!!

Actually, despite their looks, these did turn out to be really tasty.  And it helps illustrate an important lesson: just because you screw up a recipe pretty badly, it doesn't mean you can't salvage what you've got and still wind up with something great (if horrifyingly ugly).

Turnovers

I got my fondness for baking from my Grammie.  She always encouraged my efforts and was the one who found that great cheesecake recipe that I still use.  Grammie used to make a lot of pies, and when she did, she'd also make some turnovers or tarts with extra dough.  I didn't feel like putting the effort into making a pie today, though, so it's just going to be turnovers for now.  To make them, you'll need 1 1/2 C flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 1/2 C cold shortening, 1/4 C cold water, and jam of whatever flavor you like (I used triple berry jam).

This is all you need!

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  In a large bowl, combine your flour and salt and add in the cold shortening in chunks.  Cut the shortening into the flour using a pastry blender, a couple of knives, or, if you're feeling particularly ambitious, your hands.  When you're done, it should look kind of like little pebbles.  Using a fork, stir in your cold water a little bit at a time until the dough kind of sticks together.  Form the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, and stick in the fridge for about a half hour or so.  Once it's chilled for a while, take it back out and roll the dough pretty thin, on a floured surface or between a couple sheets of parchment paper or waxed paper.  Using a biscuit cutter, cut out as many circles as you can.  I managed to get nine (well, eight and one vaguely roundish one from the last bit of dough).

Now put a couple of teaspoons of jam in the center of each circle.  Fold the circle in half and seal up the edges with a fork.  Also cut some slits in the top for ventilation.  I always put a little too much jam in so it squooshes out the side.  It's not really a problem, though.

Sprinkle a little bit of sugar on top if you want and put these guys on a cookie sheet and into the oven.  Bake them at 400 degrees for about 10 minutes, then turn your oven down to 350.  Bake for another 15 minutes or so, or until they turn golden brown.  Make sure to let them cool for a while before you eat them.  Sure, they may seem like they're only a little warm on the outside, but that jam stays pretty hot for a while!

Tasty jammy goodness!