Retro Ad & Recipe for Deep South Peanut Pie

O.K. this is a very weird Retro 1940s Karo Syrup Advertisement, but since it features the Karo Kid as a New Year's baby,  I thought I'd post it. I love Peanut Pies. Add a Chocolate Cookie Crust, and I'm in heaven. Peanuts and Chocolate -- great way to start the New Year.

DE LUXE PEANUT PIE

Ingredients
2 eggs beaten
1 cup Karo Syrup, Blue Label (dark syrup)
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp. melted butter or margarine 
1 cup shelled, roasted peanuts

Directions
Roll pastry 1/8-inch thick. Line a 9-inch pie pan. Mix remaining ingredients together, adding peanuts last. Pour into pastry shell. Bake in hot oven (400˚F) 40 minutes or until a silver knife inserted in center of filling comes out clean.

To make Peanut Tarts:
Follow above recipe for De Luxe Peanut Pie using 1 recipe pastry. Line 6 to 8 individual tart shells. Pour in filling. Bake in hot oven (400˚F) 20 to 25 minutes.

Champagne Truffles Recipe: New Year's Eve

December 31 is National Champagne Day. A Perfect Food Holiday for New Year's Eve. I do a lot of wine/champagne chocolate pairing events with my company TeamBuilding Unlimited, and we often have trivia quizzes. How many bubbles in a bottle of champagne? 49 million to 250 million! Now, that's a lot of bubbles.

You won't have any bubbles in these Champagne Truffles for New Year's Eve, but you will taste the Champagne.. and the Cognac. I post this recipe every year for New Year's Eve because it's my favorite easy Champagne Truffle recipe. This recipe uses more champagne than most Champagne Truffle recipes, and the Cognac adds zip. If you're in a pinch, you can use a different type of sugar or cocoa to coat the truffles. The sanding sugar, though, gives it a festive New Year's Eve look!

No time to make these? Here's a link to Champagne Truffles you can buy to bring in the new year!

Martha Stewart's Champagne Truffles
Makes about 3 dozen

Ingredients
1/2 cup heavy cream
8 ounces dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup plus 1 Tablespoon Champagne
1 tablespoon Cognac
Coarse sanding sugar, for rolling

Directions
1. Bring cream to boil in small saucepan over medium-high heat. Immediately pour hot cream over chocolate in medium bowl; stir until smooth. Stir in Champagne and Cognac. Refrigerate until chocolate mixture is firm enough to roll into balls, about 1 hour. (or more!!)
2. Using small melon baller or ice-cream scoop, form 1-inch balls. Roll each ball in coarse sanding sugar and transfer to rimmed baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate truffles at least 30 minutes or up to 3 days before serving.

You can also use unsweetened cocoa or confectioner's sugar if you don't have sanding sugar. This recipe was in Martha Stewart's wedding section, so the sparkly white sugar looks great for weddings and holidays, but cocoa tastes just as good.. just different.

What Is Sanding Sugar?
Sanding sugar is large crystal sugar used as edible decoration that will not dissolve when subjected to heat. Also called pearl sugar or decorating sugar, sanding sugar adds "sparkle" to cookies, baked goods and candies. The sparkling affect is achieved because the sugar crystal grains are large and reflect light. You can order Sanding Sugar online or buy it in cake decorating departments. I get mine at Michael's, but I saw it at Williams Sonoma, too.

Photo: Martha Stewart website

Champagne Truffles for New Year's Eve

Ring in the New Year with Champagne Truffles. Several great Chocolate Companies make Champagne Truffles. The following list is not definitive, but will get you started. Comment below with your favorites. Love to add to the list. Scroll down for an awesome video from Vosges Haute-Chocolate on the making of Champagne Truffles!

Recchiuti Chocolate Champagne Truffles
A version of a classic favorite. Dark chocolate truffle with Schramsberg Blanc de Noirs from Napa Valley and confectioner's sugar.

Seattle Chocolate Company Champagne Truffles. A bubbly truffle featuring a blended milk and dark chocolate center with natural popping candy and a bit of bite. Enrobed in dark chocolate.

Choclatique Bubbly Champagne Truffles. I love these. Have tried them several times. They're light and cream and bubbly! 

Teuscher Chocolate of Switzerland
House specialty, the famous Champagne Truffle, a blend of cream, butter and chocolate: champagne cream center surrounded by a dark chocolate ganache, covered in milk chocolate and dusted with confectioner’s sugar. Originally created by Adolf Teuscher, Sr. in 1947. Available also in an all dark version which I like even more!

Jacques Torres
Jacques' Taittinger Champagne Truffles are a combination of milk chocolate, fresh cream and Taittinger Brut La Francaise. I love the cork shape of these truffles.

Williams-Sonoma
La Maison du Chocolat selects and roasts its own cacao beans, and all of the chocolate is made from special house blends. Their collection of chocolate truffles are hand made at the La Maison du Chocolat workshop in Paris. Other truffles but includes Champagne truffles: dark chocolate truffles infused with Fine Champagne Cognac, covered with dark chocolate and dusted with cocoa powder.

Payard Truffles
Champagne Truffles

Neuhaus Champagne Truffles
Dark chocolate dusted with a frosting of powdered sugar with soft centers of champagne butter. Not for the superstitious. Neuhaus Champagne Truffles are sold in boxes of 13.

Godiva makes a champagne truffle, but I haven't had one in awhile. I remember it was beautiful and very smooth, but there was more chocolate taste than champagne. Still Godiva truffles are great.

Charbonnel & Walker Milk Chocolate Marc de Champagne Truffles.  Milk Chocolate with Marc de Champagne center.  Also try Charbonnel & Walker Chocolate Pink Champagne Truffles. Tangy & Sweet with a strawberry dusting and Marc de Champagne truffle center. Tangy & sweet.

Paul A. Young Champagne Truffles. Made with real Champagne.

Demarquette Champagne Truffles. These are made with vintage Dom Perignon Champagne. U.K. Brut Champagne (Dom Perignon) blended with our very own recipe of single estate and single origin cocoas from around the world and Cornish and Hampshire creams for the ultimate in pure taste. Each truffle is hand dipped in 71.1% couverture chocolate before being dusted with pure cocoa powder.

Vosges Krug Champagne Truffle. Watch this awesome video on making Champagne Truffles.



Making of Krug® Champagne Truffles from Vosges Haut-Chocolat® on Vimeo.

Amaretto Truffles: National Chocolate Candy Day

Today is National Chocolate Candy Day! During WWII, the U.S. Government commissioned Milton Hershey to create a candy bar to include in the soldiers' rations. The recipe his company created is now the famous Hershey Milk Chocolate Bar. Today, chocolate is still an American favorite treat, and over 2.8 billion pounds are consumed annually in the U.S. On average each person consumes over eleven pounds per year--I think I account for much more, and if you're reading this blog, you probably do, too!

To celebrate National Chocolate Candy Day, enjoy these fabulous and easy Amaretto Truffles.

AMARETTO TRUFFLES

Ingredients
10 ounces dark chocolate (70-75% cacao, fair-trade), finely chopped
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sweet butter
1/4 cup Amaretto
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup crushed amaretto cookies

Directions
Simmer cream in saucepan. Stir in butter.
Remove from stove and add chocolate, place pot over ice water.
Blend in liquor and nuts, whip lightly as mixture thickens, do not beat.
Cover and refrigerate until hardened.
With teaspoon, rolls into balls and place on cookie sheet, refrigerate again until hardened.
Dip truffles in crushed amaretto cookies.