Truffle-making class

Obviously, being that I have a food blog, I cook a lot. Still, you can always learn new things. Dave found a Groupon for a truffle-making class last October, so I had him buy it for me and Diane as a birthday present for her. We have made chocolate truffles before, but the ad for the Groupon specified that we'd get to taste champagne, truffles, and learn tips on making the little chocolatey devils. Sign me up.

The class was held in Evanston at Now We're Cooking. Although I do think that the class was geared toward beginners, we did learn a lot of new things, such as:

• You can melt the ganache ingredients in the oven rather than a double boiler.
• You can make truffles by using a melon baller or piping bag instead of rolling them in your hands, which are too warm.
• When dusting the truffles with powdered sugar, cocoa powder, or nuts, you should shake them around in a Ziploc bag. (I had rolled them around on plates before.)

Basically the idea behind the truffles is that you melt the ganache (bittersweet chocolate, butter, and other tasty ingredients) in the oven, then mix in cream and your flavoring of choice. We made plenty of truffles, as you can see - we are piping masters!

Diane and I also got tips on making chocolate fudge in a food processor, and we found some new gadgets that we could use in our kitchens.

We also got to taste plenty of goodies. Along with champagne when we arrived, we got to taste five types of chocolate truffles and then pick one to make. They had already made salt, vanilla, cinnamon, orange, and peppermint truffles. (We both picked cinnamon, clearly a popular flavor in the class.) We also got to taste hot fudge sauce with vanilla bean ice cream.

Needless to say, we had a great time! Diane and I are excited to maybe take more cooking classes and explore more of what Now We're Cooking has to offer. I hope they do classes on ethnic foods and maybe pastry. But for now, I'll settle for the box of delicious cinnamon truffles in my fridge!