Serves: Makes 18-20
With Christmas fast approaching, may I suggest making these heavenly truffles to give as presents. Not only will they be much appreciated but it will give your waistline a bit of a chance…eat one or two and pass on the calories to someone else. I cannot stress strongly enough that these truffles only work with Maldon sea salt. What you want is a little crunch of saltiness every now and then. A uniformly salty chocolate would be quite revolting. I have covered my truffles with a milk chocolate but you could go dark all the way-in which case you will need to temper the chocolate to 31-32˚c. Of course, you will need a thermometer for this although you can just melt and dip without tempering but the chocolate then lacks a little shine and is a bit softer.
Ingredients
- 150g plain chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids), roughly chopped
- 30g unsalted butter
- 30g golden syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 150ml double cream
- 3-4 pinches Maldon sea salt
- 280g milk chocolate, finely chopped
Method
- Place the chocolate, butter, syrup and vanilla extract in a bowl. Pour the cream into a small saucepan and place over a moderate heat. Bring to boiling point and pour over the chocolate. Stir once or twice then leave for 2 minutes. Stir until the chocolate and butter have melted. Leave for 5 minutes then stir in the salt-as much or as little as you want. You are looking for a subtle amount-taste as you add each pinch.
- Chill for about 2 hours until the truffle mixture is firm enough to form into a ball. Roll into quail egg-size balls. Chill until hard.
- At this point you don’t have to cover the truffles in melted chocolate; you could roll in cocoa powder or chopped nuts. But for a professional finish, place 2/3 of the milk chocolate in a bowl and sit it over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Stir until the chocolate has melted. You don’t want the temperature of the chocolate to reach above about 38-40˚c. Lift the bowl off the saucepan and stir in the remaining chocolate. When the temperature reaches 30˚c it is ready to use.
- Dip each truffle into the chocolate, working quite quickly as the chocolate can start to set by the time you get to the last truffle. Place on a sheet of non-stick baking parchment and chill until hard. Keep in the fridge.
