Dark Chocolate Pistachio Truffles

This process started out with some Ghirardelli chocolate chips, Fabbri pistachio delipaste and whole pistachios.

This was a first attempt at truffles so I stuck with a pretty basic recipe, but I found the end result to be more than satisfactory.

Dark Chocolate Pistachio Truffles
Yield: 20 Truffles
1 3/4 cups 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chocolate Chips
1 cup finely chopped pistachios
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons pistachio delipaste

Directions:
In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a simmer. Add the butter and stir until melted. Add the delipaste and stir until mixture is one solid color. Add the chocolate chips. Stir until completely melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and pour into a shallow bowl.

Cool, cover, and refrigerate the mixture until firm, at least 2 hours.

Using a melon baller or small spoon, roll the mixture into 1-inch balls. Roll each ball in the chopped pistachios. Enjoy immediately or refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Gelato and Beer, a heavenly match

Today I went over to Fat Lorenzo's and partook in an experimentation with Mike Lapitz, the creative mind behind their gelato.

First up was a gelato produced with Boulder Beer Company's "kinda blue."

We enhanced the flavor with a bit of our Fabbri blueberry delipaste and viola!

Now we are up close and personal with "kinda blue" gelato, available for your tasting pleasure at Fat Lorenzo's.

Next, we experimented with some Town Hall brews. We added some Fabbri apricot delipaste to the Masala Mama IPA to enhance some of it's brightness.

Then we worked with one of their Porters (I love me some dark and syrupy beers). The first round was enhanced with Fabbri moka and hazelnut delipastes. On the second round, we mixed it up with Fabbri coconut. The idea behind this was to bring out some of the flavors we were tasting in the beer. For this particular Porter we were trying to pull out the nutty notes, along with the smoky coffee flavor.

This my friends, is a thing of beauty.