A Southern Grace: “You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.”

December 29, 2007

“You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is, never try.”

Yum

You said it, Homer.

It’s amazing how quickly my confidence in my culinary skills can disappear. I was super excited to make some tasty treats for our Christmas gathering. My first endeavor was some truffle-like creations called snowballs.

The ingredients:


First, I creamed ¾ cup of softened butter.



Next, I added 3 cups of confectioner’s sugar in 1-cup increments so as to avoid dusting the kitchen walls and my face.



At this point, I divided the filling into two equal parts because I wanted two different flavors. Half #1 was made pink and peppermint (using 1 teaspoon peppermint extract).


Half #2 was made green and butternut-flavored (also with 1 teaspoon extract).


Isn’t it festive? So far, so good.


After chilling the filling (ha, that rhymes), I used a baby spoon to make balls:


I popped these into the freezer for about an hour and then proceeded to plummet toward failure. The end goal was to cover each ball in dark chocolate (the peppermint filling) or white chocolate (the butternut filling). Easier said than done, my friends. Live and learn, I guess, but my method didn’t work. I melted 6 oz of the chocolate with ½ tablespoon of oil, but it ultimately cooled too quickly for me to accomplish much. I had to keep nuking it and nuking it and got so frustrated that I put my camera away before I could inadvertently unleash my anger on it.

They tasted all right but were super sweet. Regardless of my difficulties, I finished, and here they are with some homemade toffee that was stellar (I should've documented its creation instead):


End verdict: Not worth the trouble.

Fortunately, the Maminator made some luscious white chocolate-peppermint fudge and regular chocolate fudge that satisfied my sweet tooth:




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