Countdown to Christmas Day 13: Chocolate Truffles

On the thirteenth day of Christmas my true love gave to me the recipe for Chocolate Truffles!!

I enjoy making my chocolate truffles because they are great fun and also creating different concoctions and experiment with different flavours. 

For someone who doesn't eat chocolate hardly i've managed to write 5 blog posts containing the stuff!! 
Chocolate is something i can easily live without i'm not one of those girls who's addicted to chocolate i tend to eat more around christmas as theres always boxes of it lying around or in our christmas sweetie jars but i never really eat it the rest of the year. 
I used to receive a box of Godiva Chocolates every year they are one of my favourites but i'm the type of person that takes for ever to eat sweeties so everybody else devoured them before i could get the chance!! 

These Chocolate truffles i concocted myself they make a perfect treat for yourself as you can keep them in the fridge without any coating for a couple of weeks and just take them out when you fancy a treat. 
or
They make the perfect trear to take round to somebodies house or give to friends and family this festive season. 

I've just made one tray as i only made them to photograph for this post but you can make as much or as little as you want!! 


Recipe 

1. Pour 400ml of Double cream into a medium saucepan along with a teaspoon of good quality instant coffee on a medium heat warm the milk until its gently simmering. Keeping an eye on it to make sure the milk doesn't burn.
2. Meanwhile chop up 500grams of good quality chocolate (milk or dark) and place in a large bowl. 
3. Once the milk in simmering remove from the heat and pour over the chocolate leaving it to melt. 
4. Its best to leave the chocolate to melt in the warm milk for a couple of minutes as its easier to combined them together. Using a rubber spatula start to stir the mixture until its fully combined remember to scrape round the bowl. You should be left with a smooth and glossy chocolatey goodness. 
5. Line a baking pan (rectangle or square) using cling film (plastic wrap) it should cover the sides and over lap the sides. If you find the cling film doesn't stay put place a little bit of butter or rub the tin with oil before covering with the cling film (plastic wrap). 
6. Tap the pan on the counter a few times to get rid of any air bubbles and to even out the surface. Place the tin of chocolate ganache into the fridge for a good 6 hours but best to be left in over night. 
7. Its now time to look out your different coating for your truffles, i've used what ever was lying around the house. Cocoa Powder, Chopped Hazel Nuts and Melted Chocolate with fleur de sel. Boil the kettle while your looking everything out.
8. Taking you set ganache out of the fridge turn upside down onto a clean work surface and giving it a few taps on the bottom to release the bar on ganache. If it doesn't come out turn it back round and release it yourself they can be a nightmare sometimes. 
9. Pour the boiling water into a mug/jug after you've done that remove the cling film from the brick of ganache. Warm your knife (Sharp and long) in the water drying it off before you slice your squares.To create my perfect squares i used my kitchen ruler (very handy to have) measuring each square out to be the thickness of the ruller. Its the perfect amount of truffle i've found. 
10. Now time to have some fun and cover your truffles in your chosen flavours.
11. I chose to dust some with cocoa powder, some with Fleur De Sel and some with salted peanuts 

I've chosen to do square truffles because personally i find them neater and easier to work with but if you prefer round ones go ahead! 

Another few idea's of mines on how to infuse your truffles:
Instead of using instant coffee (we only had that or cafetiere coffee) use around a handful of coffee beans to infuse the milk while its warming and remove before pouring over the chocolate. I would use dark chocolate as it would work best and hey presto you have Chocolate Coffee Truffles.

Leave out the coffee this time as heres something with a little kick:
If you can get a hold of ancho chilli perfect but if your like me and your local super market doesn't stock them just add a tiny pinch of dried chilli flakes.  Along with the chilli add a tea spoon of ground cinnamon to infuse the warming milk. This again works perfectly with good quality dark chocolate remember to sieve the milk before pouring over the chocolate. 

This ones easy:
grate  the zest of one orange on a microplane zester and add to the chocolate (dark or milk) then pour over the warmed milk. Terry chocolate orange but better!!

LoveLx