Fruit and Nut White Chocolate Truffles Recipe, Spotlight on Pistachios, The Scoop on Scoops, Coffee and A-Fib, Walk this Way to Cut Risks to Heart Health
Perfect for your New Year’s Eve celebration or to bring to a party, these luscious white chocolate truffles are a snap to make but look oh so elegant. As you set health goals for the coming year, simple lifestyle habits can have a big impact, especially on your heart. Read how coffee may stave off recurrent A-fib and how just 10 to 15 minutes of sustained walking can prevent many heart conditions.
Fruit and Nut White Chocolate Truffles
Fruit and Nut White Chocolate TrufflesCranberries and pistachios pair so well in these creamy white chocolate truffles but have fun experimenting with your own combinations—the technique is exactly the same.
Ingredients
- 4 ounces dried cranberries
- 10 ounces shelled pistachios, divided use
- 1 pound white chocolate, preferably 35% cacao
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions
Step 1
Coarsely chop the cranberries and 4 ounces of the pistachios; set aside. Chop the rest of the pistachios more finely and transfer to a shallow bowl; set aside.
Step 2
Coarsely chop the chocolate; reserve 2 ounces and place the rest along with the heavy cream in a large microwave-safe glass bowl. Microwave at 30% power for 2 minutes, stir, and repeat until the chocolate is not quite fully melted. Out of the microwave, add the remaining chocolate to the bowl, let sit for 2 minutes, and then stir until smooth.
Step 3
Stir in the olive oil and vanilla, then fold in the coarsely chopped cranberries and pistachios. Turn the mixture onto a parchment paper–lined rimmed sheet pan or cookie sheet and gently flatten it with a spatula. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes to firm up for shaping.
Step 4
Once chilled, transfer the paper with the chocolate to your countertop and line the sheet pan with a clean piece of parchment. Using a 1-tablespoon scoop, make a truffle ball and drop it into the bowl of chopped pistachios. Roll it in the nuts, then place on the prepared sheet pan. Repeat with the rest of the chocolate.
Step 5
Place the pan in the fridge to firm up the truffles, about 20 minutes. If not serving right away, place them in a tin or covered dish and keep in the fridge. Refrigerated, the truffles will stay fresh for up to 2 weeks.
Yields about 4 dozen truffles
Healthy Ingredient Spotlight
Picking Pistachios
Shelled pistachios are the easiest for cooking as well as snacking, but keep in mind that they’re usually roasted and salted—not the best option for sweets. When using pistachios for baking, making truffles, or as a pretty garnish, for instance, look for shelled pistachios marked “raw.” These are in their natural state, unroasted and unsalted.
Quick Kitchen Nugget
The Scoop on Scoops
Scoops with a spring-loaded handle are great for dishing out ice cream as well as for forming truffles, cookies, and even meatballs! You might already have one or more in your tool drawer. But if not or if you’re looking to expand the range of sizes you have, know that cookie scoops and ice cream scoops aren’t 100% interchangeable. Some cookie scoops are sturdier and might have sharper edges. I’ve always found that the spring-loaded handle is the most important feature because it allows you to release the food easily, preserving much of its rounded shape.
Scoops tend to come sized by the volume they hold, such as 1-, 2-, and 3-tablespoon (those measurements roughly correspond to 1.5, 1.75 and 2 inches in diameter), and you can find them all the way up to a 1/2 cup or more. Look for stainless steel and, if you use them often, an ergonomic design with a soft grip that’s easier on your hands.
For Your Best Health
Coffee and A-Fib
New research suggests that drinking coffee may help protect against atrial fibrillation, or A-fib, a common heart rhythm disorder that causes the heart to beat too quickly and irregularly, sometimes leading to stroke or heart failure.
For years, doctors have advised people with A-fib and other heart issues to stay away from caffeine, fearing it could worsen symptoms. But research done at the University of California San Francisco and the University of Adelaide in Australia found just the opposite.
“Coffee increases physical activity, which is known to reduce atrial fibrillation,” explained Gregory M. Marcus, MD, an electrophysiologist at UCSF Health and the senior author of the study, which was published in JAMA. Dr. Marcus added that “caffeine is also a diuretic, which could potentially reduce blood pressure and in turn lessen A-fib risk. Several other ingredients in coffee also have anti-inflammatory properties that could have positive effects.”
Rates of A-fib have been climbing in recent years, largely due to aging populations and increasing obesity. More than 10 million adults in the United States have been diagnosed, and experts estimate that as many as one in three people may experience the condition at some point in their lives.
To explore whether coffee helps or harms, the researchers designed the DECAF (Does Eliminating Coffee Avoid Fibrillation?) study, the first randomized clinical trial to test the relationship between caffeinated (despite the study’s acronym) coffee and A-fib.
The trial involved 200 patients who were regular coffee drinkers and had persistent A-fib or a related condition known as atrial flutter along with a history of A-fib. All underwent electrical cardioversion, a procedure that uses a controlled electrical shock to restore normal heart rhythm. Participants were randomly assigned to drink either at least one cup of caffeinated coffee or an espresso shot each day or completely avoid coffee and other caffeinated beverages for six months.
At the end of the study, the group that drank coffee experienced a 39% lower risk of recurring A-fib episodes. In addition to coffee’s potential anti-inflammatory effects, the researchers proposed that those who drank coffee may have naturally replaced less healthy drinks, such as sugary sodas, with coffee instead.
“The results were astounding,” said first author Christopher X. Wong, PhD, of UCSF, the University of Adelaide, and the Royal Adelaide Hospital. “Doctors have always recommended that patients with problematic A-fib minimize their coffee intake, but this trial suggests that coffee is not only safe but likely to be protective.”
Fitness Flash
Walk this Way to Cut Risks to Heart Health
New research revealed that walking in uninterrupted longer bouts of 10 to 15 minutes significantly lowers cardiovascular disease risk by up to two-thirds compared to shorter strolls of under 5 minutes.
An international team of researchers from the University of Sydney and Universidad Europea found that even people who walk fewer than 8,000 steps daily can see major heart health benefits simply by changing how they walk. Those who took their steps in one or two continuous sessions had lower rates of heart attacks, strokes, and death. Even when covering the same total number of steps, uninterrupted longer walks appear to provide greater benefits for the heart than do scattered short strolls throughout the day.
The work, which was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, explored how walking patterns affect the health of people who are generally inactive. The study involved 33,560 adults between the ages of 40 and 79 who typically walked fewer than 8,000 steps a day and had no history of cardiovascular disease or cancer. Participants wore research-grade wristbands for one week to record both their step counts and how their steps were distributed throughout the day.
The researchers followed their health outcomes for about eight years and found striking differences in cardiovascular risk between those who walked in shorter versus longer bouts:
- People who walked continuously for 10 to 15 minutes daily had only a 4% chance of experiencing a cardiovascular event such as a heart attack or stroke compared to a 13% risk among those who walked continuously for just 5 minutes a day.
- The benefits were greatest for the least-active individuals, particularly those taking 5,000 or fewer steps. Within this group, the risk of developing cardiovascular disease fell from 15% among short walkers to 7% among those who walked up to 15 minutes at a time.
- Among the most-sedentary participants (5,000 or fewer steps a day), the risk of death dropped from 5% for those walking in 5-minute bouts to under 1% for those taking longer walks.
Co-lead author Matthew Ahmadi, PhD, deputy director of the Mackenzie Wearables Research Hub and member of the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney, explained: “For the most inactive people, switching from brief walks here and there to longer continuous walks may come with some health benefits. There is a perception that health professionals have recommended walking 10,000 steps a day is the goal, but this isn’t necessary. Simply adding one or two longer walks per day, each lasting at least 10 to 15 minutes at a comfortable but steady pace, may have significant benefits, especially for people who don’t walk much.”
Senior author Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis, director of the Mackenzie Wearables Research Hub and physical activity theme leader at the Charles Perkins Centre, added: “We tend to place all the emphasis on the number of steps or the total amount of walking but neglect the crucial role of patterns—for example, how walking is done.”
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