Eat Your Mistakes...or feed them to your mother-in-law

Today I tried to make a white chocolate buttercream based on my own recipe for chocolate buttercream which is just equal amounts of chocolate and butter and nothing else. I have no idea whether this would actually work, because I made so many mistakes in making this simple buttercream (one I've made a hundred times with regular chocolate) that to actually describe them would be tedious. Let's just suffice it to say that I tried to fix it by microwaving the mixture after blending it and when the white chocolate and butter separated and refused to go back together, I tried to fix it again by adding powdered sugar. I ended up with a thick sort of dough that obviously would not work for my purposes.Feeling the velvety texture with my spatula as I mixed it, I thought the soft dough might make a nice truffle center. So I tasted it. That settled the matter. What was once the beginnings of a white chocolate buttercream had suddenly transformed into the beginnings of white chocolate truffles.I rolled the dough into small balls and froze them to harden them up for easier handling.

I went the easy route and dipped them in almond bark. (Dark chocolate would contrast nicely with the sweet center, but I didn't want to go out and buy it.) Then I melted some white almond bark in a disposable pastry bag* and drizzled it over the top of the truffles to pretty them up.

While I was zigging and zagging, I thought, "Hmmmm....these would make great gifts!" And I haven't bought anything for mother's day yet. So I boxed them up and now they're in the fridge, ready to give to my Mom and mother-in-law on Sunday. They don't have to know that their gifts started out as a disaster!

Black & White Truffles

1 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup butter

1 cup powdered sugar

dark & white chocolate for dipping & decorating

Melt the chocolate chips and butter together in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring in between. Beat in the powdered sugar. Roll the dough into balls and freeze until hard, about 10 minutes. Dip in dark chocolate (you can mix a little shortening, butter or parafin with it to make it shiny) and then decorate with white chocolate.

*You can buy disposable plastic pastry bags at Walmart on the cake decorating aisle. I get a pack of 50 and I think it's less than $10. They're awesome b/c you can stick chocolate in the bag, microwave it, then snip the end and squirt the chocolate out to decorate with. You can also use them for drizzling anything, like frosting or glaze.