Roasted Figs With Chocolate Espresso Ganache Recipes

ROASTED FIGS WITH FRESH RICOTTA

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Put the figs, cut side up, in a baking dish. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat, and whisk in the honey, cinnamon and salt. Drizzle the hot honey butter over the figs and roast in oven until very soft, 10 to 15 minutes.
• Divide the fresh ricotta or fat free yogurt among 4 serving dishes and top with the warm figs and sauce. Enjoy!
• Cook's Note: These hot figs are really great over mixed greens or even on a toasted baguette as a crostini!

ROASTED FIGS WITH CHOCOLATE-ESPRESSO GANACHE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 300°F.
• To make the ganache, combine the chocolate, espresso, sugar and salt in a double boiler and heat over barely simmering water. Whisk until smooth. Add the heavy cream and transfer to the refrigerator to cool.
• To make the figs, combine the Brown Butter, honey, and Kosher salt in a bowl and toss with the figs to coat. Place the figs on a parchment-lined baking sheet and drizzle with any remaining syrup. Bake for about 1 1/2 hours, or until completely soft and slightly dry. Baste with any remaining juices.
• To serve, puddle about 2 tablespoons ganache on each of 6 plates and smear lightly across the dish. Top with the figs, about 3 per person. Dust with confectioners' sugar. Add a generous sprinkle of fleur de sel, if you like, and garnish with a mint leaf or two.
• Brown Butter
• Place the butter in a cold saucepan and set on the stove over medium heat. It will soon begin to melt and sizzle. After the butter melts completely, 2 to 3 minutes, it will begin to foam as the milk solids separate out. As these solids drop to the bottom of the pan, they will toast and the butter will take on a brownish color and a toasty aroma. Watch the heat carefully during this time to make sure the solids do not burn, lowering the heat if needed. When the butter stops foaming and is a light brown color, remove immediately from the heat and pour through a sieve or a coffee filter to separate out the solids, which you can discard.
• This will make more brown butter than you need for the figs. Try tossing it with vegetables or drizzling over fish. It will keep, covered, in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

CHOCOLATE COOKIES WITH ESPRESSO GANACHE

Steps:

• Cookies:.
• Blend together flour, espresso powder and salt. Set aside.
• Beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes).
• Add egg and beat for 2 minutes. Add vanilla and mix.
• Stir in cocoa powder until just blended.
• Slowly add flour mixture, mixing until just combined.
• Scrape dough onto work surface and divide into two. Form each into disk; cover with plastic and refrigerate for 2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 325°F; line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside.
• Remove 1 disk from fridge and between sheets of parchment, roll out dough to thickness of about 3/16 x 10 inches.
• Cut out dough using a 2-inch fluted rectangular cutter.
• Place cookies on prepared sheets.
• Bake 8 - 10 minutes. Cool.
• Ganache:.
• In small pan combine whipping cream and espresso. Bring just to boil.
• Remove from heat, and add chopped chocolates, whisk until smooth.
• Chill 1/2 hour.
• Spread about 1 tsp ganache onto bottom of each cookie, top with another cookie.
• Dust with icing sugar.
• NOTE: I usually double the ganache! I find that we like more filling in the cookies. And besides -- it is good right off the spoon, so there alone you need to double -- LOL.

ESPRESSO-INFUSED WHIPPED CHOCOLATE GANACHE

Steps:

• Place your chopped chocolate into the bowl of your stand mixer.
• Place the espresso beans in a sealable gallon-size bag (or between two pieces of parchment) and crush them with a rolling pin. Combine the heavy cream and espresso beans in a small pot and heat over medium-low heat until simmering. Remove from the heat, cover the pot and allow the cream to infuse for 10 minutes. Strain the cream through a cheesecloth-lined sieve into a clean pot. Return the cream to medium-low heat and bring back to a simmer.
• Pour the warm cream into the bowl of chocolate. Add the coffee liqueur if using and the salt. Gently stir the mixture with a spatula until smooth. Allow your ganache to cool until the outer edge of the ganache is a spreadable consistency; the center of the ganache may still be a bit loose.
• Fit your stand mixer with the whip attachment and whip the ganache on medium-high speed until the ganache lightens in color, 2 to 3 minutes. Don't over whip or you run the risk of breaking your ganache. Use immediately as a filling or frosting.
• Once the whipped ganache sets up it can be rewarmed in the microwave in 20 second bursts. Rewarmed ganache can be re-whipped or poured.

CHOCOLATE DIPPED FIGS

Steps:

• Melt chocolate chips on high in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds until melted and smooth.
• Stick a toothpick in to a fig and swirl in the melted chocolate, until covered.
• Place chocolate covered fig on a piece of waxed paper over a plate.
• Sprinkle a little sea salt over chocolate covered fig.
• Repeat until all figs are covered with chocolate and lightly salted.
• Refrigerate until chocolate has set.
• Store in the refrigerator in an air tight container, with waxed paper between layers.