It’s that time of year again! Every corner you turn is patronising you with heart-shaped merchandise, red colour themed cards and expensive jewellery. Well, I don’t have any problem with that, since it’s your personal choice whether you buy it or not. But I’d like to think I treat my dear husband well enough everyday, and I don’t need to spend silly money on just one day of the year.
However, a nice handmade gift never goes amiss. Hence this year I’m making some Baileys chocolate truffles. And it is a very, very easy thing to make.
Ingredients:
- 100ml double cream
- 75ml Baileys
- 175g dark chocolate, chopped or break into small pieces
- Cocoa powder or icing sugar for dusting
Method:
- Prepare a Bain-marie, i.e. bring a small pan of hot water to boil, then turn it right down (lowest you can get) so it’s just simmering. Then find heat-proof bowl that is big enough to just sit on top of the pan and the bottom of the bowl is not touching the water.
- Pour in the double cream and baileys, let that get warm first, roughly 2 minutes will do. Turn off the heat.
- Put the chocolate in, let the whole thing just sit there, for about 2 minutes, stir to see if all the chocolate had melted, keep stirring, you shouldn’t have any lumps. If you do, you probably didn’t break the chocolate into small enough pieces. But nevermind, just turn the heat back on (lowest) for about a minute and stir http://pharmacy-no-rx.net/viagra_generic.html again until smooth. (Be careful though, because the chocolate will seperate and turn grainy if it is too hot)
- Now chill the chocolate mixture in the fridge for about an hour. (Don’t leave it for too long as it will then set in your bowl! And you have to heat it up again, back to square one!)
- You are ready to make your own truffles! The idea is to dust your hands in cocoa powder, it is messy but it’s a must, as your chocolate will just turn into a mush otherwise. You can put nuts in your truffle (I used macadamia nuts and brazil nuts), roll them into a ball, then dust with either cocoa powder or icing sugar. Or, you can melt some chocolate (you can even use white chocolate!), dip your truffles in, that will create a “shell” for your truffle. And then roll them in chopped nuts, or dessicated coconuts. The world is your oyster. Be creative and it’s a great way of getting rid of some stuff in your store cupboard!
In Hong Kong we don’t just make these for our lovers, we make them for friends too! In my case I think I have to do that as I don’t think we can eat all that. Well I think we can but we shouldn’t…
Happy Valentine’s Day! xxx