Homemade chocolate truffles

Now as Christmas is getting here and you are probably thinking what you can get as a presents for friends and family. Well this is a recipe that is so simple and easy to do you will be amazed that you have never done it before.  But it all depending on what you do afterwards that make the chocolates special.  So let’s get started with the basic truffle mix.

You will need.

250ml/9fl oz whipping cream

225g/8oz a good dark chocolate

Now what you need is a bowl and three pares of hands, but if you are like me you do not have that so what you need to do is set your bowl on a damp tea towel.  This holds the bowl still while you pour the cream with one hand and whisk with the other.

So all you do is cut the chocolate up as fine as you can, or if you can get then use chocolate buttons. The smaller you can get it the better and easier it is to work with.  So once you have you chocolate cut up, in a bowl then get your cream on, and bring it to the boil.  Once you have your cream up and boiling pore it in to the chocolate and whisk it at the same time.  Now at first it just looks like it has split but keep on whisking.  What will happen is that the chocolate and the cream will emulsify and you should get a thick rich chocolate ganache.

Now you can let it cool and either pipe it in to petifore cases or shape it to form round balls. You can even press then in to small pastry cutters or roll it in to a long sausage shape in greaseproof paper and then cut in to disks. Then once you have done this let them set in the fridge for about two hours.

Now to decorate you can roll them in cocoa powder, coconut, or chopped nuts. Or if you like put them in the freezer for about twenty minutes so it goes really hard and dip them in melted chocolate so it form a crisp outer coat .

Home made chocolates always look impressive and if you cannot think of what to get someone, some thing that you have made says so much more than some thing you have just bought.