Truffles for Mothers Day

If I'm totally honest, I'm a bit of a food tart.

If it's fiddly, or difficult, or lets face it, tarty, it appeals.



I love truffles so much. They are not only fiddly to make and tarty to decorate, they also taste amazing.

The tray above were made for my Mum, and they are honey and almond, dark cherry, crystallised ginger, and chai. And they are all milk free.

These were for my Granny and were made with real cream instead of the soya cream I used in my Mums. Granny got white chocolate cherry, dark ginger, salted caramel, mint, chocolate orange, and honey and almond.

I also made a chili and lime version but it wouldn't harden enough in time to be turned into a truffle. A shame really as this was definitely my favourite flavour, but on the plus side I do have a whole cup full of it in the fridge so hey-ho!

I used a basic recipe and then played with it to achieve the different flavours and textures, but here is the basic theme;

Dark Chocolate Truffles

100g dark chocolate

100ml double cream

25g unsalted butter,

1 tbsp of either honey, maple syrup or golden syrup

Melt everything together in either a double boiler of a heat proof bowl over a pan of hot water. Do this using low heat and have patience or bad things will happen.

When all is melted and blended nicely together, add your chosen flavouring such as chopped cherries, crystallised ginger, orange essence etc, and leave in the fridge overnight to set.

Once set, scoop out tea spoon size blobs and form into rough ball shapes with your fingers. Then cover as you wish. A simple way is to roll them in caster sugar, or drinking chocolate. Cocoa powder works well if you want that really bitter chocolate bite. Or you can roll them in nuts or sprinkles.

To chocolate coat them you need to melt just chocolate as described above, and then drop the truffles quickly into the melted chocolate before removing them onto some grease-proof paper to set.

Once made, they will keep in the fridge for about 10 days..... as if they would ever make it that far!