Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Covey offers recipes for truffles, toffee.
POLAND – Laird Covey’s first job was in a bakery in Middlebury, Vt., where he fried lots of doughnuts and rolled out three dozen pie crusts each day.
“I was in high school, and I put in 50 hours a week during the summer,” said Covey.
He received lots of cooking experience from that first job and from his family members as well. “I grew up in a family with some great cooks and married into one with great cooks,” said Covey. Both of his grandmothers were great cooks, and Covey says that it’s ironic that he rolled pie crusts and made doughnuts with his first job since one grandmother made great doughnuts and the other was a “wonderful pie maker.”
“She would make two similar pies but in slightly different ways, and then we would have a taste test,” he said.
Covey especially enjoys Chinese cooking and candy making. “We had bought Marcy’s mom some cookbooks for presents, and then I read them and decided to keep them for myself,” he said.
He found the candy making especially fascinating. “If you view cooking like working in chemistry, then candy making is your thing,” says Covey. He likes it because it’s “exact.”
Covey enjoys making candies at Christmastime and giving them to his staff at Central Maine Medical Center, where he’s worked for the past 16 years and currently serves as chief operating officer.
“The focus of the candy making is for celebration. … We actually eat very healthy, with a little decadence once in a while,” says Covey.
When Covey sets out to make his candy, two things he needs are a good candy thermometer that has low temperatures on it for the tempering of the chocolate and great music playing in the background.
One item Covey has to have in his kitchen that is not related to his candy making, is sweetened dried cranberries or Craisins. “For almost every meal, we have a green salad, and I like to put the Craisins on the salad,” he said.
Covey enjoys ethnic foods and gets to try great restaurants when he visits his grown sons in New York City. Both of his sons are vegetarians, and he says that he has picked up great cooking ideas from them. He subscribes to both Bon Appetit and Eating Well magazines, and also likes getting recipes from his collection of Moosewood cookbooks.
Covey also enjoys tennis, cross-country skiing, snow-shoeing and hiking with his wife, Marcy.
Chocolate truffles This recipe comes from Better Homes and Gardens magazine, December 1984
Ingredients:
2/3 cup whipping cream
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon sugar
8 to 10 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped (Use the highest-quality chocolate you can find.)
2 tablespoons desired liquor (brandy, Amaretto, Kahlua, rum, Grand Marnier)
Cornstarch (to roll chocolate in)
1 pound dipping chocolate, cut up
Method:
1. In a 1-quart saucepan combine whipping cream, butter and sugar. Cook and stir until butter is melted and mixture is very hot. Remove from heat. Stir in the semisweet chocolate until melted and well blended. Stir in liquor. Transfer mixture to chilled bowl. Cover; chill 1 hour or until mixture is completely cool, stirring often.
2. Drop mixture from rounded teaspoon onto baking sheet lined with waxed paper. Chill 30 minutes or until firm. Roll balls in cornstarch. Brush off excess.
3. To dip: Melt dipping chocolate in top of double boiler over hot water. Bring chocolate to 122 degrees Fahrenheit. Replace water in bottom of boiler with cold water. Slowly cool chocolate to 82 degrees Fahrenheit, stirring constantly. Adding a small amount of grated chocolate (4 ounces) while cooling helps the chocolate to cool and stabilizes it. Replace cold water in bottom of boiler with warm water and bring chocolate to 89 degrees Fahrenheit, stirring constantly. Maintain chocolate at 89 degrees while dipping.
4. Working quickly, drop candies one at a time into chocolate. Lift candy out and allow excess chocolate to drip off. Place chocolate on waxed paper. Let cool. Store in cool, dark place. Makes about 30.
Note: Truffles can be rolled in high-quality cocoa, or in ½ cup finely chopped nuts instead of dipping in chocolate.
White chocolate truffles
1 pound white chocolate, grated
¼ cup heavy cream
3 tablespoons Brambleberry liquor
2 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
1 egg yolk
Confectioners’ sugar
Method:
1. In top of double boiler, combine chocolate, cream, liquor and butter. Stir constantly till smooth.
2. Stir in egg yolk.
3. Chill 4 hours or until firm.
4. Form in 1-inch balls.
5. Roll in confectioners’ sugar.
6. Store in cool place.
If chocolate cools too long, leave at room temperature to soften. Makes 3 dozen.
English toffee
Ingredients:
1 pound butter
2 cups sugar
¼ cup cold water
1 large bar of sweet chocolate
Finely chopped almonds
Method:
1. Melt butter in heavy, large pan.
2. Add sugar until dissolved, then add ¼ cup cold water.
3. Keep stirring until thermometer reaches 300 degrees Fahrenheit (hard crack).
4. Pour into buttered 9- by 13-inch pan, which has bottom layer of chopped almonds, then shaved chocolate. (Use half the chocolate bar over half the amount of chopped nuts.)
5. Add remaining shaved chocolate and remaining chopped nuts.
6. Let cool and then break into pieces.
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