Goat's Milk Ice Cream and Chocolate Truffles

Recipes first:

Goat's Milk Ice Cream
1 c.     sugar
3/4 c.   goat milk
1 pint   sour cream

grated zest of 1/2 lime
1 T. fresh lime juice


Combine sugar and goat milk in small saucepan and simmer until sugar dissolves.  Remove from heat, and whisk in sour cream.  Refrigerate until cold, then transfer mixture to ice cream machine and follow machine directions.


Classic Chocolate Truffles - Simple
12 oz.   unsweetened chocolate, broken into small pieces
1/3 c.   heavy cream
4 t.      liqueur, like Grand Marnier or Creme de Menthe (for flavour), or milk
3 T.     ground orange zest (if using Grand Marnier only)
unsweetened cocoa and/or confectioners' sugar, for dusting the truffles

Combine heavy cream and chocolate in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and cook, stirring, over medium-low heat, until chocolate melts and blends with cream.
Remove from heat, and add liqueur (and orange zest, if using).  
Pour ganache (that's the name for the mixture of heavy cream and chocolate) into a wide dish (like a pie pan) so that you end up with plenty of surface area so that it cools quickly.
Alternatively, you can line a square buttered baking dish lined with buttered parchment paper and pour the ganache into that to make squares.  
Cool in fridge for 1.5-2 hours, until it sets.
Using a melon-baller or other sphere-shaped spoon, scrape the surface of the ganache to form small, roughly sphere-shaped balls, placing them on a waxed paper-covered surface.  You need to work quickly, as the ganache will soften too much if you allow it to warm up.  Alternately, if you go the cut route, you can cut the truffles from the 8x8 slab into whatever shape pleases you, with cookie cutters.  If you're making them for the first time, it's easiest to just cut squares.
Place the unsweetened cocoa or confectioners' sugar into a shallow bowl.
After shaping the truffles, place them individually into the unsweetened cocoa or confectioners' sugar and move them around to coat them.  Place them into a waxed paper-lined airtight container and refrigerate until ready to eat or gift.

A more sophisticated recipe, which I watched on "Good Eats" (with Alton Brown) has you melting more chocolate and coating the truffles with that before dusting them with cocoa or confectioners' sugar.  He also offers crushed nuts as an alternative coating, which, when presented with the cocoa- and sugar-coated truffles, make for a very nice presentation.

This recipe for "simple" truffles is adapted from one I found online at the Better Homes & Gardens website.  I'd love to hear how the recipe works for anyone who ventures to make them before I do.  Right now, I've still got a backup of recipes to prepare, including pecan pie, cookies (I have a pantry full of cookie add-ins waiting to be used), and something with collards, as I have a bunch in the fridge (we received them the most recent share from Be Wise, along with a pound of heirloom tomatoes.  I also have a recipe I made up for veggie burgers that I want to try out, but I'll hold off on that until we eat enough of our refrigerator's contents so that I won't feel too badly about going to the grocery store and buying more tofu, which will form the base for the burgers.  If the recipe works out, I'll put it in a future post.