Truffles

I made these again this year as they went down a treat. I followed a couple of recipes, but the simplest I've found is Jamie Oliver's:

Jamie's amazing diy chocolate truffles
Makes about 40-50 teaspoon-sized truffles, depending on how big/small you want them



• 300ml double cream
• a knob of unsalted butter
• finely grated zest from 1 clementine (I had none so used a lemon instead)
• 300g good-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken into small pieces
• a pinch sea salt
• a splash of brandy
• a handful of mixed nuts (Brazil nuts, toasted almonds and hazelnuts)


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. (Be very wary of adding hot water though!)

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. About 30 minutes before you’re ready to make your truffles pull the bowl out of the fridge and let the chocolate warm up to room temperature.





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.

Of course, I'm on student budget so I haven't bottles of Vin Santo laying around, but this is a perfect treat for serving to relatives and friends that call over the festive season.

Oh and I actually ended up not using the cocoa powder in the end. These keep well in the fridge for a week, the nut coating loses its crunch after 2-3 days however.

This comes a bit late for Christmas day, but you've got New Years ahead of you and everyone loves finger food this time of year, so try it and let me know how you get on!

I'm even going to go far as to say that these are better than Ferrero Rocher because you made them yourself!




(crap photobooth picture because they were all eaten before I took a picture of them all prettied up! d'oh!)