sugar dr(un)k

Turkey day was a success. I ate, but mostly drank enough, for the New England Patriots defensive line. I just wanted to give the stamp of approval that we are, in fact, the most gluttonous country in the world. Nothing wrong with showing a little patriotism, right?

My job for Thanksgiving was dessert, naturally. Choosing the perfect dessert is one of life’s greatest challenges in my opinion. Everyone is already full after dinner and you somehow have to convince them that what you’re serving is worth unbuttoning (and possibly unzipping) your pants.

You want something delectable and unforgettable yet light and irresistible after a meal of carbs atop starch with a side of saturated fat.

After milling through my Google Reader, which houses more than 25 baking blogs, I decided on Mini Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle’s. You can find the delicate little goodies at No Biggie’s blog. It said it made 4 small trifles and we were having 6 people over, so I figured I’d double the recipe, no biggie (you see what I did there?). Here’s what I churned out:

(Un)Fortunately, doubling the recipe left me with a tub of the vanilla/pumpkin pudding and half a gingerbread cake. Determined not to let that go to waste, aka sit by myself with a ladle watching reruns of Friends, I decided to make gingerbread truffles covered with chocolate ganache. So here’s what I did:

1. Mix about 1/4 cup frosting (I used whipped buttercream) with the leftover cake. Hands are the best utensil for this job.

2. Roll 1/2-1 inch balls and freeze for about an hour.

3. In a double broiler, bring water to a boil then simmer and melt about 2 cups of melting chocolate.

4. When chocolate reaches a thin consistency, cover truffle in ganache by submerging the truffle. You could also take the more feminine route and daintily coat it with a spoon, but I like chocolate too much for that. Decorate as desired (I used sprinkles, or “Jimmies” for you mid-westerners/east coasters).

Everything was a hit and really yummy. Stay tuned, though, I’m bound to miss my flight back to Boston, overdraw from my bank account or something. But for now, I’m on cloud-freakin-nine!