Fair trade sweetness!

Come grab a free hot chocolate or a truffle tomorrow  (Friday 20 May) to celebrate Fair Trade Fortnight, and check out the Fair Trade Fair on campus. I’ll be pimpin the club from around 12:30pm. If you’d like to join in on some sweet giveaways, contact me (Zo) at thepotluckclub.uc[at]gmail[dot]com, or wander along and say hi.

Recipes for the stuff I’m giving away:

Spiced hot chocolate

• 1c almond milk (I made my own, see method below, or you can buy it for about $7/L)
• 3 tsp (about 30g) fair trade drinking chocolate (I used Trade Aid’s stuff)
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I used Trade Aid’s stuff)

Place all ingredients into a small pot and stir over medium heat until the mixture just starts to simmer. Pour and serve.

Almond milk

Making your own costs half as much, plus you have the leftover almonds which you can use in cooking/baking/breakfast.

ratio of ingredients: 1c almonds (about 160g) + 1L water makes about 1L.

Soak almonds in just enough water to cover for at least 6 hours, or overnight.

In a blender: Blend (do not fill blender more than 3/4 full), strain through a sieve or muslin cloth into a bowl/container, then pour into airtight pouring jars. Pour more water over the almonds in the sieve and push with the back of a spoon to extract more juice out of them, until you have about a litre.

In a food processor: Blend (do not fill more than 1/4 full with water), strain through a sieve or muslin cloth into a bowl/container, then pour into airtight pouring jars. Pour more water over the almonds in the sieve and push with the back of a spoon to extract more juice out of them, until you have about a litre.

You can dry the almond pulp in the oven or you can store in an airtight container for no more than a week and add to your breakfast oatmeal, or breads. If you dry them out you can use them in baking like ground almonds, or like breadcrumbs when making stuffings or vegetarian burgers.

Chocolate ganache truffles

adapted from Irina’s awesome and fully illustrated recipe

• 300ml whipping cream
• 20g butter (preferably unsalted)
• 600g dark chocolate (I used Trade Aid’s), chopped smallish*
• optional: 25g or about 2Tbs sugar

*The truffles will still be softish (like fondant icing, but not all sandy), so if you want them more solid, just use more chocolate

Heat cream, butter and sugar on medium heat in a saucepan until it just comes to a simmer.* Whisk occasionally to help the sugar dissolve, if using. Remove from heat, pour in chocolate, and let sit for a few minutes.

Whisk in circular motions towards the centre, trying not to beat air into the mixture but mixing vigorously enough to make the cream and chocolate mix to form a smooth, glossy mixture.

Refrigerate until the consistency is like a very thick icing – this will take a few hours.

Once the mixture is solid enough to be scoopable, grab a metal teaspoon and scoop out chunks of the mixture, and roll slightly with your hands. They don’t have to look perfect. Immediately drop them into one of your coatings (rough ideas below), coating the truffle in a generous layer (especially if it’s cocoa!). Set aside on a paper lined baking tray. Once your tray is full, refrigerate.

*Try not to walk away as the cream can go from sentient to furiously bubbly quickly, and it’s not fun to clean up!

Truffle coating ideas

Cocoa based

• Cinnamon - Use half icing sugar and half cocoa, with a very small amount of cinnamon – you don’t want it to overpower. Sift together before using as a coating
• Chilli - Use half icing sugar and half cocoa, with a very small amount of chilli – you don’t want it to overpower. Sift together before using as a coating
• Cardamon - Use half icing sugar and half cocoa, with a very small amount of cardamon – you don’t want it to overpower. Sift together before using as a coating

Keep in mind that after a few hours the truffles will absorb some of the cocoa, so if you want them totally dusted, you will need to dust them again just before serving.

Grated chocolate

• White, milk or dark

Ground nuts

• Pulse almonds, pistachios, or toasted hazelnuts with a bit of caster or icing sugar to prevent the mixture from forming a paste.

Chocolate

• Melt dark, white or milk chocolate on a very low heat (or in a metal/ceramic bowl sitting above a simmering pot of water). Sit melted chocolate in warm-hot water when dipping truffles.
• Add a few drops of essence to the chocolate to flavour if you wish – vanilla, nut based (be very sparing with almond essence), orange, peppermint

 These recipes were also entered into Trade Aid’s recipe competition. Every entry gets free Trade Aid chocolate, yay! Submit your recipes if you have them, but remember to do it before the end of May