Martha’s Chocolate-Champagne Truffles in Sparkling Sugar

I saw Martha Stewart’s recipe for chocolate-champagne truffles in sparkling sugar as I was looking about for new Oscar Party ideas and I thought they would be a perfect addition to the party – who doesn’t like truffles especially when they have champagne?!  Sounded like it would be a hit for the dessert table.

When I took a glance at the reviews, I saw that there was trouble in paradise.  Many folks complained that the truffles were soft and didn’t set properly.  The recipe does call for a substantial amount of liquid.  But I decided to dive right in anyway and give it a whirl.

Now, I did make modifications.  I didn’t really believe that yield of three dozen so I doubled the chocolate and the cream.  Taking into account the problems that other folks had with the softness of the truffles, I stuck to the recipe on the champagne and cognac.  That’s twice as much chocolate power to fight off all that extra liquid.

But it still wasn’t enough. 

These truffles were soft and I needed to freeze them just to get them to set properly.  They were in the fridge until the last minute on party night.  I had covered them in gold sanding sugar, thank goodness because otherwise they would have been too sticky and soft to work with!

But the most telling sign is at the end of the night, I had plenty of these truffles left over and none of the other truffles I made from the Pioneer Woman’s recipe.  So my advice is to stick to Ree’s recipe!

–Martta

Oscar Party Menu

No Oscar Party is complete without a killer menu.  I’ve put my thinking cap on to refine last year’s menu keeping the traditional favorites and adding in a few new fabulous offerings!

For the dessert table: 

The star of the show – Gold Dusted Chocolate Oscars in milk and dark chocolate:

The second star of the show: The chocolate strawberry tower:

Some crowd tested favorites: Pioneer Woman’s Chocolate Truffles with Sea Salt:

Then a bit of Pinterest inspiration with Chocolate Dipped Raspberries:

Individual Tiramisu Shooters: 

This year’s additions include:

Chocolate-Champagne Truffles, courtesy of Martha Stewart’s recipe (I’ll roll mine in gold sanding sugar):

And Individual Chocolate Avocado Mousse from Giada De Laurentiis:

Now on to the savories.  At the main table, I’ll have one of my Oscar Party standards: Spanakopita 

Hummus Three Ways: White, Roasted Pine Nut and Black Bean served with crudities and pita chip ribbons: 

Greek Cucumber Cups, thank you Rachael Ray:  Ginger Soy Chicken Mini Kabobs:

Rosemary Balsamic Mini Kabobs:

Antipasta Skewers Two Ways: Italian and Greek Style:

Then over to the coffee table in the prime time TV viewing location.  Guess what?  I’ll put more food there too!  Starting with Paula Deen’s Sugar and Nut Glazed Brie served with fresh sliced pears:

Classic, can’t live without Dill Dip with Crudités

and finally to round out the table, Cheese, Crackers and Grapes.

But Oscar Party isn’t completed without it’s signature cocktail…..the Twisted Cosmo!

So friends, I hope you’re seriously hungry ’cause I’m already cooking up a storm!  I’ve pinned all these to my Oscar Party board on Pinterest along with a few other party ideas in case you’re planning your own shindig.

–Martta

Sangria Slushies

As astounding as this sounds, sometimes I am faced with left over sangria.  What?! you say?  I know, perhaps my friends aren’t the lushes that they make themselves out to be…(impostors!)  Well I’m not about to pitch a perfectly good pitcher of sangria.

So what do you do when life hands you lemons?  That’s right, you make lemon drop martinis.  So when I have leftover sangria, it’s to the ice cream machine to make sangria slushies!

Start with your ordinary pitcher of left over sangria.  

Now I’ve tried freezing it just like this and you end up with some pretty chunky frozen pieces of fruit in your slushy.  Especially since the bottom of the sangria pitcher tends to be a bit heavy on the fruit.  So now I attack it with the mini chopper before throwing it into the ice cream maker.  The side benefit is the berries take on a staring role and what was once white passionfruit sangria (which is totally fab by the way, you should try it) now takes on the rich purple hue.

So there’s one obvious problem with just throwing all the fruit into the chopper – so yes, I go the extra mile and sort out the fruit that still had a rind attached – you know, those pesky oranges and lemons.  I let the green apples go, it makes for nice little flecks of bright green in the finished slushy. 

At one point in my life, I considered peeling all the rinds off of these tiny bits of fruit.

I peeled off three rinds and realized that was a really stupid idea and I switched to a much better plan.

The mega juicer.

All you need to do it make sure that you don’t have any escapees as you juice the fruit.

Now everyone into the blender – let’s go!  

So pretty.

And then just pour that loveliness into the ice cream maker and away we go! 

Then I dump the new sangria slushy either directly into my glass or into the freezer to enjoy later.

I can only hope that this post saves some sangria that might have been tragically leftover at your house too.

–Martta