red hot! cinnamon heart quick pickles

I've always been a fan of Valentine's Day. I don't care that it's some made up holiday geared to sell cards, roses and chocolates. I'm a fan of hearts, sprinkles, cupcakes, the colour pink....and I especially can't wait until those tiny cinnamon hearts to appear in corner drug stores. If crack was a candy, those tiny red spicy hearts would be it. But besides snacking on them by the handful, I wanted to find out what else I could do with these holiday candies. And I stumbled upon pickles. The unfortunate thing is all the recipes I found required actual pickling and canning and a whole lot of waiting around. I wanted instant results, so I decided to come up with my own brand of quick pickles.

I know, I know, for most of you, mixing up candy and condiments probably won't float yer boat. But for those of you who love their sweet with sour, this is the shizznit. It's sweet, it's spicy and the pickle packs a whole lot of zing. And I certainly wouldn't hold it against you if you drank the leftover red brine out of the jar in a moment of midnight weakness. Nope, not at all.

The recipe is pretty flexible when it comes to measurements....just make sure you have enough liquid to cover up your pickles and you'll do fine. I think next time I make these I'll increase the candy portion for an even sweeter bite.

red hot cinnamon heart quick pickles
4-5 large dill pickles, cut into thin rounds
1/2 c cinnamon red hots (cinnamon heart candy)
1/2 c dill pickle brine
1/4 c water

Add cut up pickles into a small jar. In a small pot, heat up the red hots, pickle brine and water together over medium-high heat until the candy melts, stirring often. Pour liquid into jar, covering pickles. Wait a while and eat. Lasts for a few weeks or just an hour or so. How many pickles can you eat in one sitting?

love proof

I'm a sucker for love so pretty much every day seems like Valentine's Day. Yesterday Cornelius jokingly said that Valentine's Day is the day where you have to prove your love to the other person! After laughing, I decided that I'd bake up some proof right away. After seeing Gourmet's recipe for a Truffle Chocolate Tart pretty much everywhere, I was smitten. Unfortunately, I didn't have really great dark chocolate at my disposal. I did however have some pretty decent semi-sweet baking chocolate and some really amazing imported French dark dark cocoa. I also had some Callebault white chocolate on hand...so I decided to modify the recipe somewhat and knock me out some love cake. Using 2 different chocolates, I decided to marbleize the ganache and create some pretty looking swirls. And since I was using white chocolate which is quite sweet, I did not add extra sugar to the mix. I'm sure it will be sweet and rich enough without the extra sugar! Truth be told, I haven't taken a bite out of this tart (we're saving it for tonight), but every time I lift the lid off my cake dome, I'm instantly salivating from the heavenly chocolate aroma. Oh my! Bring on the love!

chocolate truffle tart
For crust
28 chocolate wafers* (1 1/2 cups)
6 T butter, melted and cooled

For filling
1/2 c okay-quality bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped + 2 fine-quality T dark cocoa
1/2 c fine-quality white chocolate, coarsely chopped
6 T butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 c heavy cream
1/4 t salt
1 t pure vanilla extract

Special equipment: an 8-inch (20-cm) round springform pan

1. Make crust: Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Wrap a sheet of foil over bottom of springform pan (in case of leaks). Lightly butter side of pan. Stir together ground wafers and butter in a bowl until combined, then pat mixture evenly onto bottom of pan and 1 1/2 inches up side. Bake until crust is slightly puffed, about 10 minutes, then cool completely in pan on a rack, about 15 minutes. Leave oven on.

2. Make filling while crust cools: Whisk together eggs, cream, sugar, salt, and vanilla in a bowl. Divide mixture into 2 even halves. Set aside. Over low heat, melt dark chocolate, cocoa and half the butter in one saucepan and melt white chocolate and the other half of the butter in another saucepan. Stir until smooth and remove from heat. Cool for 5 minutes. Whisk the dark chocolate mixture into one of the egg mixtures and add the white chocolate into the other egg mixture and combine well with a whisk.

3. Assemble and bake tart: Pour white filling into cooled crust and then drizzle the chocolate filling over top in a random pattern. With a fork or the end of knife, create swirls being careful not to mix too much. Rap pan once on counter to eliminate any air bubbles. Bake until filling 1 inch from edge is set and slightly puffed but center trembles slightly when pan is gently shaken, 20 to 25 minutes.** (Center will continue to set as it cools.)

4. Cool tart completely in pan on a rack, about 2 hours. Chill, uncovered, until center is firm, about 4 hours. Remove side of pan and serve.


* I didn't have chocolate wafers, so instead I used vanilla wafers and added in a tablespoon or two of dark cocoa.

** It took about 40 minutes for the batter to not be totally liquid. Maybe I just have an old stove.