Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Dark Chocolate and Pomegranates


    Since the Trader Joe's opened in West Seattle I find myself heading in the direction of the store more and more. While I was on a recent expedition I came across their prepackaged pomegranate seeds. They were too gorgeous to pass up . I had no idea what I would make with them but I took my little ruby jewels home and placed them in the refrigerator just waiting for an idea . After I finished a recent baking project I was left with about 1 1/2 cups of ganache and the bells went off. I would make little candies with the ganache and pomegranate seeds. Oh these are so very luscious. You have that wonderful deep bittersweet chocolate ganache that you bite into and then the pomegranate seed explodes with its tartness and the two combined-delicious! An added bonus is these are easy to make-put them in little candy cups,package them up with a pretty bow-these would make a great little gift to take to a dinner party or just to cheer up a friend.

Ganache
8 ounces good quality bittersweet chocolate (or semi sweet), finely chopped
1 cup heavy cream
4 Tablespoons butter cut into small pieces

Put chocolate into a large heatproof bowl. Bring 1 cup of cream just to a boil over medium-high heat; pour over chocolate. Let stand 10 minutes.  Stir the mixture very gently from the center of the bowl gradually widening your circle while incorporating the cream steadily, without overworking. The mixture should begin to appear glossy. Once it is smooth and glossy add the butter a little at a time,again slowly stirring until the butter is incorporated.  You can refrigerate until it gets to a consistency thick enough to spoon out into the your molds or liners. 

Fill each mold or liner with the pomegranate seeds-I averaged about 8-10 seeds per mold.  Then use either a tablespoon or ice cream scoop and fill each mold with the ganache.  Top each one with 2-3 seeds. Place in refrigerator for 1-2 hours or overnight until they firm up.






1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Love the look of the rich chocolate and the bright berries!