Tuesday, December 16, 2014

TWD BWJ Chocolate-Mint Nightcaps


I really wanted to love these.  When I was growing up we’d go visit my grandparents in Chicago every summer.  One of the highlights was eating Frango mints, the chocolate mint truffles that used to only be available at Marshall Fields in Chicago.  (Now you can buy them at any Macy’s, which I have very mixed feelings about.)  I’ve loved the chocolate mint combination ever since.  I made these in stages.  One morning I made the ganache.  It was absolutely delicious (what’s not to like about chocolate and cream?), but I couldn’t really taste the mint. Paul says I’m crazy and that the mint flavor is very pronounced, but I really didn’t think so.  I thought the cookies could have used more.  Later that day I made the cookies.  They were only alright.  The chocolate flavor was pretty mild, and they just didn’t have anything very exciting about them.  The next day I assembled the cookies.  I was hoping that this would be a case where the whole was better than the sum of the parts.  For me, however, it wasn’t.  First, I had an absolutely impossible time piping the ganache.  After struggling, and struggling and the ganache not coming out of the piping bag at all, I finally gave up and just spooned it on.  It didn’t look like much, but it worked.  Afterward, when cleaning the piping bag, I realized that a piece of un-melted chocolate was stuck in the bag.  Lesson learned!  If you’re going to be piping a ganache, make sure the chocolate is melted very well.  Once I finally got the cookies made, though, I just thought they were underwhelming.  They were rich, but just not especially interesting.  In my book, these weren’t worth the time and effort.  Not when there are so many good cookies out there!

2 comments:

  1. These too were a bust for me. My ganache had zero mint flavor to it, and it was too hard to pipe, so I reheated hit, which was a mistake. It was OK, just not as smooth as it should be. These weren't worth the little effort as you say, or the cost of the chocolate. Bummer!

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  2. Piping the ganache caused me a few woes as well. I think there is something about this recipe that just needed a little more refining :-)

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