Pinterest Experiments

I was an early adopter of Pinterest, the online bulletin board where you can pin your inspiration for later access from any computer or handheld device. A few years ago, I even taught a social media course for seniors in which I demonstrated how to set up and use Pinterest. I likened it to the bulletin board my mother had in her laundry room when I was a kid. She would clip useful information, such as explanations of laundry symbols, from magazines and pin it on the bulletin board for future reference. Pinterest is that bulletin board on steroids.

Honestly, it's addictive. I can waste hours on there scrolling through craft and DIY pins, as well as cooking and baking pins, and repinning the most appealing ones to my own boards for later reference. I also pin from other websites when I see something of interest.

Since I love to cook, bake, and craft, I have started testing some of the pins on my board and updating the descriptions to reflect my experience. I post the results to an album on facebook called Pinterest Experiments for my friends to see. This, of course, seems to be common practice -- just this weekend a friend shared the results of one of her tests (sadly, a fail). And one can't forget the popular sites of Pintester and Pinstrosity.

So, this weekend I was inspired to try a recipe for white chocolate lemon truffles, partly because I was in the mood to make something, partly because a friend likes white chocolate and I thought they might make a nice Easter present, and partly because the day before I had purchased cute mini cupcake liners and wanted an excuse to use them. I consulted a few different recipes that I had pinned and settled on one that sounded best, then picked up some white chocolate while getting groceries.

The melting and combining was easy enough and before I knew it my white chocolate ganache was ready to be chilled. I had two hours to wait, so I decided the best use of that time would be to make a box for the truffles. Sure, I could present them in a piece of tupperware, but where's the fun in that? After a quick google, I decided that Aunt Annie's method would work just fine. I carefully measured the size required to fit the paper cups that would hold my truffles and then cut and scored the back of a Rice Crispies box. I folded it into shape, glued the tabs, and held them in place with binder clips. And voila! I had a box. [Note that the picture is a little deceiving --the top of the box (seen on the right) is 1/8" larger in width and length to fit over the bottom (seen on the left).]

And then because this didn't take nearly long enough, I watched a foreign film called The Lunchbox on Netflix (by no means an endorsement, though I do like the looks of an Indian lunch box and sort of want one).

When it was time to scoop and roll my truffles, I did run into a minor issue. The mixture was too soft to hold its shape. So, I scooped out portions to make 1" balls, tossed them quickly in icing sugar so that they wouldn't stick, and let them slump on a baking sheet lined with foil. Once I was done, I put the sheet in the freezer for 10 minutes before attempting to roll them again. This time, they held their shape. Success!

Naturally, I tasted two for quality assurance purposes before packaging any for giving. It was the right thing to do.

Now, I had intended to cover the box that I'd made either with paper or washi tape, but once I saw it put together, I decided that I liked the look of the unadorned Rice Crispies box. So, instead, I just removed the binder clips, lined the box with wax paper, added 6 mini cupcake liners, and popped the truffles inside.

Of course, the final step was to tie it with a ribbon (and then put it in the fridge so that they won't melt before they are delivered!)

So, all in all, this was a great Pinterest experiment. I'm sure that I will make the truffles again. In fact, I think that in the future, I will try them with different flavours. As I read through the comments on the various truffles recipes, a few ideas stood out: key lime, orange, and coconut. It's hard not to go into full out truffle production, to be honest!

What flavours do you think would work with white chocolate truffles?