To make Christmas perfect this year, I decided to hand make truffles for friends and family. I searched through many recipes and this seemed to be the best one, by Jamie Oliver. I changed it a little and made two different filling; one Dark chocolate orange and the other; white chocolate with a hint of Baileys. For the outer layers I tried different things, such as cocoa, coconut, white chocolate, dark chocolate and nuts. The truffles turned out amazing but there are a few tips you need to know.
The truffle mixtures are best made a day before and left in the fridge overnight. For the dark chocolate, the truffle mixture is just hard enough to roll in your hands and then drop your truffle in whatever coating you like, then fish the truffle out with a teaspoon and place on greaseproof paper.
For the white chocolate truffle mixture, the mixture was a lot softer. So use teaspoons to shape the truffle and then drop the truffle into cooled melted chocolate, don't use any other coating as the mixture is too soft. Once the truffle is completely coated fish the truffle out with a teaspoon and place on greaseproof paper. Your truffle will have a hard chocolate coating with a soft creamy center.
Once you've made your truffles leave them on your greaseproof paper until the coating is hard enough to transfer them to the fridge. Store them in the fridge and they will last about a month.
Ingredients
300 ml double cream
1 knob unsalted butter
finely grated zest of 1 clementine
300 g good-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken into small pieces
1 pinch sea salt
1 splash brandy
1 handful mixed nuts, (Brazil nuts, toasted almonds and hazelnuts)
3 tablespoons cocoa powder,
Method
Put the cream in a pan over a medium heat and let it heat up. You don't want it boiling, just hot. As soon as tiny bubbles start to appear, add the knob of butter and the clementine zest. Once the butter has melted, pour this hot mixture over the chocolate pieces, whisking as you go, so the chocolate melts nice and slowly. If the mixture splits slightly, don't worry, you can bring it right by adding a splash of boiling water.
Add a pinch of salt to the mixture; it may sound bonkers, but the smallest pinch of salt actually makes chocolate taste even chocolatier! Stir in a splash of brandy.
Once completely melted and smooth, pour your melted chocolate mixture into a nice little serving dish or bowl. Pop this in the fridge for about 2 hours to set. Christmas is a busy time so you can always do this a few days before you need it if you want.
Put your mixed nuts into a plastic bag and use a rolling pin to bash them up quite finely. Get some little saucers or bowls and put the nuts in one and your cocoa powder in the other. Put a teacup filled with boiled water on the tray and pop a few teaspoons in there for scooping the chocolate. Get everyone around the table to spoon their own truffles out of the serving dish and roll them in cocoa powder, crushed nuts or anything else you fancy. Or, you can let them smear their truffles over a biscotti like some posh Nutella! Serve with a few glasses of your chilled Vin Santo.
