Truffles

Last year I found a cheap but wonderful way of giving home-made Christmas gifts. I had been given Willies Chocolate Factory Cookbook and saw a very simple truffle recipe made with his own brand of Cacao.

Everyone loved them, so this year I have decided to make them again but with a few interesting additions to the recipe.

I found another interesting recipe on the BBC Good Food website. To the standard truffle recipe they added Dulce de Leche Caramel Toffee and dark chocolate melted together, then frozen, to create a chewy caramel to put in the centre of the truffles. I couldn't find the specific caramel they recommended so I used a can of Carnation Caramel, available at most supermarkets, with dark chocolate.

I've also added different coatings to the original recipe. The truffles with the Caramel centre will just be dusted with cocoa powder, but I have also coated the remaining truffles in:

•Melted dark chocolate and dessicated Coconut.
•Melted dark Chocolate.
•Melted Milk Chocolate.
•Melted Milk Chocolate and crushed toasted Hazelnuts.

Other suggestions I've seen are rolling them in crushed Pistachios. or adding crystallised ginger or Chilli to the truffle mix.

I've finished most of them but just have to complete the one's with the caramel centres tonight, then I will post some pictures.

The truffles can be frozen for up to a month, so you can just take them out whenever you need them and package them up in a sweet bag with a lovely festive ribbon.