This month for our featured recipe, we decided to give truffles a try!
I have always been strangely intimidated by truffles – somehow more than trying Martha Stewart’s homemade puff pastry recipe, or tarts, or triple layer chocolate cakes…so I was pleasantly surprised by how simple and easy these truffles are to make! And the teas this month lend themselves so well to this Christmas treat. I was particularly excited about the combination of Cherry Rose with chocolate, and it was incredible. I thought Snowflake would be neat rolled in coconut, but we liked them all rolled in cocoa the best. Feel free to experiment! We tried the recipe with Rooibos Nut Crunch (loved this one!) as well.
*A special note to all our impatient bakers out there: the tea taste comes through much more once the chocolate has chilled a bit…so don’t be disappointed if it doesn’t seem strong enough at first.
For tea-infused truffles, simply infuse the cream with tea by doubling the cream (you lose half to the tea leaves), and boiling it with 5tbs/cup of cream. This will give you ½ cup of infused deliciousness.
-250 grams (2 cups) dark chocolate (I use dark chocolate chips)
-5 tbs loose-leaf tea
-1 cup cream
-cocoa, for coating…or anything else you can think of!
Put the cream and loose tea leaves into a saucepan, stir to combine and bring to a simmer. Once it’s started simmering, you can turn it off and let it cool. I put mine in the fridge and left it for hours or ideally overnight. When you’re ready to mix it with the chocolate, reheat it (don’t be scared if it looks like a clump of tea, it will loosen up once you heat it) and then strain into a glass measuring cup using a fine metal sieve. Press as much cream as you can through the sieve using the back of a spoon.
You should now have ½ cup of cream. If the cream has cooled with all the time it’s taken you to strain it (this happened to me), reheat it briefly if you can in the microwave, but be careful not to microwave it once the chocolate is in it, as it might seize and turn weird and clumpy (this, sadly, happened to me too). Then simply add in your chocolate and stir like crazy so that it all melts and incorporates.
Chill your chocolate mixture completely in the fridge. Once it’s firm, scoop spoonfuls of the mixture and roll it into balls, then coat in cocoa or your coating of choice.
Enjoy! And Happy Holidays.