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Delightful Chocolate Truffles
Back with the chocolate theme (at this rate the blogs more about sweet things than savoury, though I’m not saying that it is a bad thing!)
For those who like chocolate, things need to be simple, nothing too fancy. I adore chocolate truffles, you get the luxurious flavour of chocolate melting away. The issue is, they see to be damn expensive for just one or two little truffles with your coffee.
Fret not, as they are easy enough to make, as long as you don’t mind getting your hands messy.
Makes 18-24 truffles (dependent on size/greed etc)
- Heat the cream(115 ml) and butter ( 15 gm) in a saucepan, and bring to the boil
- Pour this over 150 gm of broken dark chocolate
- Allow this to stand (2/3 minutes) to melt the chocolate
- Stir with a whisk till smooth
Then just take this mixture, and put it in your fridge for a couple of hours (or overnight)
It is then onto the fun part, take spoonfulls of your truffle mixture and roll them into a ball and coat with cocoa powder.
Once created, place them back in the fridge to firm up. They will last for a week or two, but it is likely that friends and family will have made sure they don’t!
Unadulterated Chocolate Making
Who can resist chocolate? Not many people for sure, there are those of us who like the dark deep flavour of high cocoa chocolate. Whilst others amongst us love the light rich flavour of white. Of course, some prefer the middleground of milk. Where do you fall, let me know in the comments.
Personally, I fall at either extremes, really dark or really sweet. This is all about ‘real’ chocolate, nothing but the essentials are needed. Thanks to the people at Mayan Magic (yes that was a mini plug, I did receive the kit for free) I’ve had the opportunity to get messy in the kitchen with chocolate.
Mayan Magic Closeup
The kit itself has three main ingredients, powders, butters and agave nectar (for sweetening). Even if you can’t bake and have issues measuring things then do not fret. It’s as simple as :
- Chop & Melt the butters (bain marie aka bowl over water)
- Whisk in the powders till smooth
- Taste, and taste again.
- Add agave nectar till sweet enough.
- Pour into moulds.
- Chill
- Devour
Finished and Nibbled Chocolate
I used mini silicone tart tins as my moulds, and had a little nibble as you can see. Check back in the next day or two (or have a look at you RSS) to see about the mess I made using the chocolate. Just think, pure unadulterated truffles.
Chocolate Tarts – Easter Treats
There are so many nice things about this time of year, whether it’s the evenings being brighter or the sun attempting to shine through and tempt us into shorts. Though of course, we have just had easter past.
Therefore, no doubt people have indulged with a gluttony of chocolate based goodies. I’m no different, and I thought I’d share some chocolate tarts I made:
Freshly decorated chocolate tarts
Chocolate Tarts (x5)
For the shortcrust pastry (~400g):
- 200g of sifted plain flour,
- 100g of diced butter
- dash of salt
- 1 beaten egg
You can of course buy in the pastry, but it’s simple enough to make (even by hand). Combine the dry ingredients, and rub together, till you end up with flaky breadcrumb style texture. Add the egg slowly, just enough to bind the mixture together. Place the mixture on a work surface, bring into a ball and squish down to 2/3cm high. Wrap it up in clingfilm and leave it in the fridge for 30mins before use.
Once chilled, roll out and line the pastry tins and blake bind for 12-15 mins, at 180C.
Chocolate Filling
- 200g of melted dark chocolate (you can use plain for a lighter tart)
- 50g flour
- 4 eggs
- 75g butter
- 100g golden caster sugar
Mix all the ingredients together (set aside a small portion of melted chocolate for decoration). Fill the tart cases with the mixture, bake for 5-8 minutes till set.
Decorate off with the cocoa and melted chocolate in any dazzling design.
Sit back enjoy, and share with those around you. Be careful, they are devilishy tasty.
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