My brother got married!! The wedding was so much fun – a super-pretty ceremony followed by a blast of a reception! And since my boyfriend and I are ballroom dancers, we got to show off a little bit… My boyfriend also made sure to dance with all the girls in my family, which I’m sure they appreciated. As you can see, January was kind of a busy month…
Anyway, the day after the wedding, my parents hosted a dinner for my whole extended family (since they were in the area anyway) and guess who got to make the desserts?
Cookie dough bonbons! For these, I adapted this cookie dough truffle recipe on Ecole Chocolate’s site (taken from cookingactress.com). I replaced the cocoa nibs/chocolate chips with a mixture of chocolate and caramel crispy pearls:
Egg-free cookie dough:
10 tbsps. butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tbsp. heavy cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. fine salt
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1-2 tbsps. milk
As many chocolate crispy pearls and caramel crispy pearls as you want!
“To brown the butter: In a, preferably light colored saucepan, combine butter and vanilla [paste]. Over medium heat melt the butter and whisk constantly as the butter melts, foams, bubbles, and eventually little brown specks appear, and it turns amber.
Pour into a heatproof bowl (making sure to get all the brown specks and vanilla bean seeds) and place into the freezer or refrigerator until cooled to a semi-liquid state.
In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer combine cooled butter, brown sugar, cream, vanilla, and salt and beat on medium speed until fluffy.
Stir in flour and 1 tbsp. milk until combined. If needed, add milk 1/2 tbsp. at a time until you have a pliable but firm dough.
Mix in [chocolate and caramel pearls]”
To make the disks:
- Form cookie dough balls by rolling them in your hand (about 1/2 inch in size)
- Place the balls on a cookie sheet. Place another cookie sheet on top and press down (try to evenly press all areas). The balls should now be flattened into disks.
- Dip them in tempered chocolate (or candy melts if tempering is too much work) and cover with your favorite toppings.
I used 3 different toppings: Silver sprinkles, Silver Dragees, and silver luster dust. I would’ve liked to have bigger Dragees to differentiate them from the sprinkles, but it’s hard to tell sizes online (I ordered all of these on Amazon).
To use the luster dust, wait until the chocolate has fully hardened then simply take a regular paint brush, dip it in the dust (a little goes a loooong way) and paint whatever design you want. You can look at the first picture for some examples.
Result:
Success! The guests could not keep their hands off of them. Some of them were trying to watch their sugar intake, but the bonbons were just too tempting. I got compliments on the texture, particularly the effect of the crispy pearls.
My brother and his wife (who he likes to call his ex-girlfriend) took two of them to eat on their honeymoon. They had a C and a D on them; the initials of the newlyweds!
Jenna's Chocolates 