Today is National Cheese Lovers Day. Chocolate and Cheese go perfectly together. You just have to have the
right pairing.
Here are a few guidelines for the perfect
CHEESE and
CHOCOLATE pairing. Foods with similar flavor profiles work best together. For
Darker Chocolates, choose a more complex, aged cheese. For
Milk Chocolates choose a buttery cheese such as a Triple Brie. For
Fruity Chocolates pair with a sharper cheese. For
Nuttier chocolates pair with cheese high in butterfat.
Spicy chocolates pair with sharp cheeses,
A few examples of
Savory-Sweet Pairings:
Dark chocolate (80% or more cocoa) with a delicious true
Blue cheese.
Burnt caramel chocolates with a
beer-washed Cheese.
Bordeaux-style chocolate with a creamy triple crème
Brie.
Citrus-y chocolate with a semi-hard, buttery
table cheese (feta or havarti).
Here's an easy recipe for
Cream Cheese Chocolate Truffles. You might also want to try my recipes for
Goat Cheese Truffles or
Blue Cheese Truffles, too.
Cream Cheese Chocolate Truffles
Ingredients
3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
8 ounces softened cream cheese
4 ounces unsweetened or bittersweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup DARK cocoa powder, for rolling (or ground/chopped walnuts)
Directions
Pour cocoa powder or nuts into a shallow pie pan and set aside.
Chop chocolate into small pieces and melt in top of doubleboiler (or a pot over a pot of simmering water), stirring after every 45 seconds to prevent overheating. Set chocolate aside.
In large bowl of electric mixer, beat softened cream cheese. Gradually add powdered sugar. Beat mixture on medium speed for a few minutes, until well-blended.
Stop mixer and stir in melted chocolate. Beat until well combined.
Remove bowl from mixer, cover it with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm enough to scoop, about 20-30 minutes.
Once candy is firm but not hard, scoop into 1 inch balls using teaspoon or candy/cookie scoop.
Roll truffles in cocoa powder or ground/chopped walnuts.
Serve truffles at room temperature, but if you're not eating right away, put in airtight container and keep in refrigerator.
