Bourbon Chestnut Bonbons Food

BONBONS

Steps:

• In large bowl, combine margarine, confectioners' sugar, condensed milk, coconut, chopped walnuts and vanilla. Stir well. Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours, or until mixture has thickened enough to roll into balls. Roll the mixture into 1-inch balls and place close together, but not touching, on cookie sheets. Freeze until hard.
• While bonbons are freezing, line a cookie sheet or flat surface with waxed paper. Combine chocolate chips and shortening in the top of a double boiler, over, not in, simmering water. Stir until melted. Using a toothpick or a fork, dip each bonbon in the melted chocolate. Place on waxed paper to dry. When chocolate has hardened, store bonbons in plastic bag in the freezer.

CHESTNUT SOUFFLé

Steps:

• Heat oven to 350°F. In 2-quart saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Gradually stir in flour with whisk; cook 2 minutes or until smooth and lightly browned. Gradually stir in milk; heat to boiling, stirring constantly until thickened.
• In small bowl, beat egg yolks. Slowly stir one-fourth of the hot milk mixture into yolks. Pour mixture back into saucepan; cook and stir 1 minute. Remove from heat; stir in chestnut puree, cheese, salt and pepper. Pour mixture into food processor. Cover; process 30 seconds or until smooth.
• In small bowl, beat egg whites with electric mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form. Fold stiffly beaten egg whites into chestnut mixture. Spoon into ungreased 1 1/2-quart soufflé dish.
• Bake 45 to 50 minutes or until done. Garnish with fresh thyme sprig.

DARK CHOCOLATE & BOURBON BONBONS

Steps:

• Line a 9X9 baking tray with parchment. Chop chocolate and place in a large glass bowl. On the stove simmer heavy cream, bourbon, vanilla and salt. Just before it boils remove from heat and pour a quarter into the chopped chocolate. Allow to rest 2 minutes and mix a little. Slowly add the remainder of the cream and whisk. (Adding all the cream at once would cause the fat to separate from the chocolate which is not what you want.
• Mix thoroughly until creamy and pour into your parchment lined dish. Chill at least two hours or overnight before removing.
• Once set you can remove and cut into your desired shapes. I melted down various chocolates and using a dessert fork with a missing center tine, dipped each bonbon in a bath of chocolate before doing fine decorating using melted chocolate in a parchment bag.

AMARETTO BON BON BALLS

Steps:

• Blend all the ingredients together and shape into 30 one-inch balls.
• If the mixture turns out too wet/dry, balance it out by adding more powdered (icing) sugar to dry it out or more liquor to moisten it up.
• Roll the balls in extra powdered sugar, cocoa powder or chocolate milk powder.
• Store in an airtight container for at least one week before sampling.
• I have also successfully stored them in the refrigerator and in the freezer.