Grand Truffles

Rich Raspberry Truffles

Oh Truffles! These little delectable chocolates are bite size and will have you coming back for more. These truffles are made from Ghirardelli chocolate for pure wonderful melt in your mouth goodness. You may say truffles seem too difficult to make. Not to worry there are only four steps involve and safe proof. I who always burns my chocolate made them perfect the first time.

Prep Time 1 hr
Bake Time 10 min
Serves 34 truffles

Ingredients

1 bag (12 oz) Ghirardelli semi-sweet chocolate
2 tbsp butter, softened
1/4 cup whipping cream
2 tbsp raspberry jam
1 tbsp shortening

Directions

Melt 1 cup chocolate on low heat in small sauce pan. Stir constantly, when all the chocolate is melted remove from heat. Stir in butter, whipping cream and raspberry. Place the chocolate mixture in the fridge for 15-20 min or until stiff enough to hold a shape, stir frequently. Shape into small balls and place on wax paper. If the mixture is still sticky, refrigerate for a little longer. Freeze the chocolate balls for 30 min. Heat shortening and 1 cup chocolate over low heat, stir constantly. Remove from heat and dip the frozen chocolate balls in the melted chocolate. Swirl the top to give a nice effect. Refrigerate truffles for 10 min. You can dip the truffles in white chocolate as well, or cocoa powder. To decorate the truffles, drizzle some chocolate on top. Enjoy the delicious rich chocolate. I dare you to eat just one!
Tip: to decorate the truffles with fun chocolate drizzling patterns, place 2 squares of chopped BAKER's semi-sweet chocolate in a freezer bag. Microwave on Medium for 2 1/2 min or until melted. Snip bottom corner of bag and squeeze over truffles.

HISTORY
All of my recipes are made to represent people or a time periods in history. First, I am going to let you brush up on your history. The truffles imitates characteristics of an elaborate King who ruled for many years in France?

Here is a hint: younger years

Older years

Ok, so if you guessed right it is King Louis XIV. Also known as the Sun King.
Louis was great he achieved absolute power. Louis believed in the divine right of Kings, that he was God's representative. He built the grand Versaille palais that is so elaborate and excessive. (Below are pictures of my trip to Versaille)



Anyways, Louis devoted his time to elaborate meals and parties. He seemed to rule above small daily troubles of the world. So back to my truffles. Can you see a connection. The truffles are very rich and elaborate. Some people commented that they are so rich they it is too excessive. The truffles represent King Louis the XIV because they are elaborate and rich. As well, the chocolate used for the truffles was Ghirardelli which is the best baking chocolate. King Louis would have expected only the best of the best. The truffles are deliciously rich and over the top just as King Louis XIV ruled. He lived rich and he spent all the money France had. He also reigned over the top, he built elaborate buildings and had absolute power over France.

Creativity
These truffles are creative because I was able to represent King Louis XIV with the ingredients I used. I creatively used the best chocolate I could find to use to have a rich flavor. As well the best chocolate available symbolized how Louis XIV would only have the best. These are creative because the truffles have an added ingredient of raspberry jam which adds some flare to the truffles. Just as King Louis had lots of flare with the way he dressed and spent all his money.

Cheesecake with a Bite

Lime-Orange Cheesecake

These small bite size cheesecakes are perfect for parties. It may seem strange making a green and orange cheesecake but they are delicious. Don't be afraid to try this recipe. The best part is they are bite size so you don't need to add on a lot of calories to enjoy them.

Prep Time 30 min
Bake Time 30 min
Serves 20 cheesecakes (muffin tin size)

Ingredients

Base
1/2 box of Butter Cake mix
1/2 cup of butter, softened

Filling
2 pkg (16oz) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup whipped cream
2 eggs
1 pkg orange jello
1 pkg lime jello

Topping
Whipped cream
Limes

Directions
Preheat oven to 350F. Grease muffin tins with shortening. In a mixing bowl, combine the butter cake mix and softened butter until crumbly. Scoop 2 tbsp of mixture into each muffin tin. Press down until firm.
For filling, beat softened cream cheese until smooth and fluffy. Add sugar and mix well. Beat in eggs one at a time followed by adding in the sour cream and whipped cream. Pour half the cream cheese mixture into a different bowl. Mix in the orange jello into half of the cream cheese mixture and mix in the lime jello in the remaining half. Pour 2 tbsp of orange cream cheese on top of cake mix. Pour 2 tbsp of lime cream cheese filling over top of the orange. Bake in over for 30 min or until the edges are stiff. When you remove the cheesecakes from the oven the middle will still be jiggly. Let cool for 10 min on counter. Refrigerate for 3 hours or preferably over night. When you are ready to serve cut into quarters for a more elegant presentation. Add whipped cream and limes.
HISTORY
This specific recipe represents the characteristics of a very famous person in history. This is a pretty tricky one to guess, but think of how the cheesecake tastes and how it looks.
Here is a hint:



So this fabulous pancake photo is Beethoven. Do you see the resemblance.

Beethoven was the last great Classical composer and the first great Romantic composer. The cheesecake has two extremely strong flavors, lime and orange. These two flavors represent Beethoven's great classical work and his romantic compositions. At an early age Beethoven discovered he was going deaf. After he became deaf his music drew more heavily on personal emotion. Once Beethoven was deaf he was a little 'edgy'. His music was so grand and emotional it had a cutting bite to it. The cheesecake have a new strange taste which represents his change in the way he composed his music. As well the combination of the lime and orange flavors is edgy and has a bite to it.

Creativity
The cheesecakes are creative because they are totally different than any other cheesecake I have made (and I have made a lot). I was creative in trying two new flavors and combining them to make the cheesecake have a bite to the taste. I creatively changed the texture by adding in jello to the filling and having the base made from cake mix. These cheesecakes are also creative because the colors and ingredients I used emulate Beethoven.

Cookies with a Surprise

Chocolate-Cherry-Nut Crunch

Get ready for a surprise. These cookies are nice and big and very pleasing to the eye. They look like giant sugar cookies, but just wait until you bite into them. The insides have everything you can think of milk chocolate, white chocolate, walnuts, almonds, cherries and don't forget the coconut. The recipe may seem a little different but I dare you to try them out. They are fluffy and so good you will be coming back for more.

Prep Time 30 min
Bake Time 10 min
Serves 24 cookies

Ingredients

Sugar Cookies
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp salt
3 cup flour
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup sour cream

Filling Mixture
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup walnut pieces
1/2 cup blanched and slivered almonds
1 cup of chopped dark cherries
1/4 cup coconut

Topping
1 cup coconut

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare sugar cookies. Cream butter and sugar together, add in vanilla. Beat in eggs and sour cream. Add in dry ingredients, flour, salt, b.powder and p.soda. Refrigerate dough for 1 hour or overnight. Prepare filling mixture, in a bowl toss all ingredients together ensure it is evenly mixed. Roll dough into 1" balls. Indent each ball with a large thumbprint.


Fill the indented dough with 1 tbsp or more with the filling mixture. The filling look like its overflowing. Make sure there is a lot of filling in the dough.

Cover the top of the overflowing filling mixture with a little extra dough as shown in the picture below. Roll the dough into a ball. The dough should be approximately 2", should be twice the size from starting ball.
Roll the cookie dough in coconut. Cover the entire ball.

Place on cookie sheet 2" apart from each other and bake for 10-12 min. Cool and ENJOY!

TIP: You can freeze these cookies for up to 2 months. Place in an air tight container and freeze.

HISTORY
So these cookies are great, but you are saying they are just cookies right. Well no, these cookies can start making you think of history class.

Think of the cookies, they have nuts, coconut, cherries, white chocolate chips and milk chocolate chips. They are classy and elaborate. Is there a time period in history you remember that was excessive and elaborate.

Between 1600 to 1750 there was a new style in art, architecture and music called Baroque. During the Baroque period people the objective was to impress others. Many aspects of the Baroque period was excessive and elaborate. Art had elaborate decorations and deviate from simple shapes. Here are some examples of the Baroque era.
Interior of Wieskirche in German baroque style, by Johan and Dominikus Zimmerman.

Versailles Palace, commissioned by King Louis XIV.
Johann Sebastian Bach, composer during the Baroque era. Baroque music is considered some of the most complex of musical forms.
The chocolate-cherry-nut crunch cookies imitate the Baroque period because the ingredients included are very much in excess. The cookies have coconut on the top to represent that they are elaborately ornamented. The cookies are delicious but there is almost too much ingredients to be elegant and sweet. The cookie was showy because it included many wonderful ingredients. This represents the Baroque which is defined as flamboyant, elaborate and excessive.

Creativity
These cookies are creative because it is difficult to make a simple sugar cookie elaborate and excessive. I creatively chose all the ingredients to include inside the cookie to make it taste like they were over the top. They are creative because I chose sugar cookies to represent the periods in history Baroque and Classical. I did this so the reader could compare and contrast the two cookies, because they start from the same base cookie. I added sour cream into my sugar cookies for this recipe so the cookie recipe would also include many ingredients and so the cookies would have a nice fluffy taste. I creatively rolled the cookies in coconut to give the cookies a more elaborately decorative feel.

Classical Cheesecake

Cheesecake Cookies


Wow these cookies went fast! These simple bite size cheesecakes are insanely delicious. You will be coming back for more. And the best part is they only take four ingredients and 10 min to make. How easy is that! This recipe is perfect for everyone who loves cheesecake but find it too hard to make. Now make a delicious cheesecake in 3 easy steps. You will love these. Make a batch and try to eat just one!

Prep Time 10 min
Bake Time 15 min
Serves 30 cookies

Ingredients

1 tube of sugar cookie dough, or homemade dough
1 pkg (8oz) of cream cheese, softened
1/2 can (7oz) sweetened condensed milk
Topping: 1 cup of sliced strawberries
or mandarin oranges



Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. Roll sugar cookies into a 1" balls. Place on cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 min. Cool cookies for 10 min. While cookies are baking make the cheesecake topping. Beat softened cream cheese in a mixer. Add sweetened condensed milk and mix until well blended and smooth.

Spread cream cheese mixture on top of cookies. Don't be shy with the topping there is plenty. The more you use the more delicious the cookie will be!

Top the cookie with washed and sliced strawberries or other sliced fruit such as oranges or bananas.


These cookies are absolutely delicious, try being a little creative with your cheesecake cookies. Try these variations and mix and match.

Try these cookies Add-ins Add the finishing touch

Vanilla Cookies (Yellow Cake Mix)	1 small can of crushed pineapple, drained	Sliced pineapple
Chocolate Cookies (Chocolate Cake Mix)	1/3 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips, melted	Drizzled melted chocolate
Ginger Cookies (Ginger Snap)	2 spoonfuls of fresh lemon juice and a spoonful of zest	Whip cream topping and coconut
Sugar Cookies	1 ripe banana, mashed	Banana slices and walnuts

1. Prepare and bake the cookies 2. To the cream cheese filling stir in the add-ins 3. Add your finishing touches

TIP: To prepare cookies from cake mix simply add in 1/2 cup of vegetable oil and 2 eggs a box of cake mix of your choice.

TIP: You can freeze these cookies for up to 2 months. After topping the cookie, cover in a tight container and freeze.

HISTORY
How this recipe relates to history. Well, these cookies are elegant and very simple with only 4 ingredients and 3 steps to make. Can you guess which era these cookies represent?
Take a look at the picture below. The following person was a very famous composer during this time period.


Did you guess right! This awesome pancake is an image of Mozart. Here is a real picture to compare.


Mozart was a child prodigy composer during the classical period and many people today still enjoy his wonderfully creative music.

Therefore, the cookies imitate the classical period. The neoclassicism art and architecture became simpler and more conservative and music developed newly formed rules of composition.


I simplified a regular cheesecake recipe to 4 ingredients and 3 simple steps. The same as classical period music, art and architecture were simplified from the previous Baroque and Rococo periods. This cookie follows withing the rules of cheesecake as it has a corresponding base, filling and topping. Just as classical music had rules that were followed by composers.
The cookies are so delicious and make with only 4 ingredients, which represents the elegance, pleasing without excess, controlled aspects of classical music.

Creativity

These cheesecake cookies are creative because I was able to use only 4 ingredients to make a simple and elegant dessert. I also had a theme of using sugar cookies to imitate the periods of the Baroque and Classical period in order for readers to compare and notice their differences. Another aspect of creativity for this cookies is I developed different ways to make these cookies (as seen in the table above). This table enables my readers to be creative in their own way but still stay inside the rules which is similar to the way Classical music was composed. I also creatively made my cheesecake cookies have three layers. Each layer can be creative in its own way as well, the layers represent the three movements of sonata-allegro: Exposition (Cookie base), Development (Icing) and Recapitulation (Topping).

Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed Bell Pepper



This blog is mostly dedicated to desserts and sweets but I think its creative to switch things up every once in a while. These are perfect if you are looking for a quick dinner recipe. They may seem small but they sure can fill you up.

Prep Time 20 min
Bake Time 20 min
Serves 6 bell peppers

Ingredients

6 bell peppers
2 cups couscous
1 tomato
1/2 onion
1 zucchini
2 cups chicken
2 cloves of garlic
1 can chickpeas
1/2 cup mozzarella

Directions

Preheat oven to 350F. In medium pan, cook chicken. Cube the cooked chicken. Dice tomato, onion and garlic cloves. Peel and chop the zucchini. Prepare couscous as directed on the box. Drain the chickpeas. Combine all ingredients (excluding the bell peppers) in a bowl. Mix well so every ingredient is evenly dispersed. Cut the top of the bell peppers and remove the seeds.

Fill each bell pepper with the prepared mixture to the very top. Place the bell peppers in a pan with 1" of water on the bottom. Bake for 20 min. Once the bell peppers are finished baking enjoy the delicious combination of all the vegetables and couscous. It is really filling, you only need one.


HISTORY
These peppers represent a person in history. This person ruled during the Enlightenment era. A hint: think of the peppers as two separate pieces (personalities). The inside stuffing and the pepper shell.

If you still can't guess who these peppers emulate, then here is another hint:


Did that help much. Well I think he is a good looking man!

This picture is of King Frederick II of Prussia. Frederick the Great.

The bell peppers represent King Frederick II of Prussia because he had a split personality. He viewed himself as a liberal thinker. He also wrote and composed excellent concertos. As seen in the picture below.
He was personally enlightened. But to the public he ruled in absolutist fashion. He ruled as a powerful absolutist and was a tactical genius in the military.

Just as the bell peppers have two components to them so does Frederick the Great. The bell peppers have a soft core which is delicious. This soft core represents Frederick's personal life. His enlightened life of art and music. While the hard shell of the bell pepper represents Frederick II official life he was cold, rigid and despotic.

Creativity
This recipe is creative because the ingredients were carefully chosen to emulate the characteristics of Frederick II of Prussia. Also, some recipes for stuffed peppers have the peppers boiled prior to filling them. I creatively chose to keep the bell peppers with a hard shell so that they would better represent the hard, rigid leadership of Frederick. I also creatively invented the recipe for the stuffing to make it different than other stuffed pepper recipes. This recipe has couscous, chicken and chikpeas. The different recipe can also be creatively compared to the new thinking of the enlightenment period. Frederick II relished the new intellectual thinking.