Passionfruit Truffles

I wasn't sure these truffles were going to make it; it's the week before Christmas and sweltering in my kitchen, but I like a challenge! JJ from 84th and 3rd chose holiday truffles as the December theme for the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop, such a prefect choice for the festive season. Truffles are a great home made treat for guests and perfect for a gift; decadent, luxurious and quite easy to make. Easy, but messy, they really challenged my slightly obsessive hand washing! These truffles are basically a flavoured ganache; I added passionfruit juice, but anything goes really, chopped nuts, alcohol, dried fruit, mmmm dried sour cherries. I failed to achieve the perfect spheres I was after, so next time I'll abandon the pursuit of perfection and get the kids to roll them, better their sticky hands than mine. I wanted to temper the chocolate for the coating, but at 35ºC in my kitchen it was a lost cause; check out the photos, not a beautiful tempered shine, but condensation! There is lots of great advice on the web for chocolate tempering, if you have a nice, cool kitchen it's worth the effort. Have a safe and happy holiday, I'll no doubt be back in the new year with a cleansing something...

Passionfruit Truffles

220g milk chocolate
80g dark chocolate
100ml passionfruit juice (pulp strained through a fine sieve)
150ml thick cream
15ml cointreau or orange liquor

• finely chop the milk and dark chocolate, tip into a small heatproof bowl or jug
• pour the passionfruit juice into the smallest pan you have, simmer over a gentle heat to reduce by half
• in another small pan bring the cream to the boil, pour both the cream and reduced passionfruit juice over the chocolate and leave for 5 minutes, do not be tempted to stir, walk away...
• after 5 minutes stir the chocolate/cream/passionfruit juice until it is shiny and evenly blended, stir in the cointreau
• pour the ganache into a shallow container and refrigerate until set
• scoop a heaped teaspoon of ganache and roll between your palms to form a ball, this stage is unbelievably messy, place the ball on a plate and continue rolling until you are out of ganache
• put the plate of ganache balls into the fridge or freezer to set

to decorate

cocoa powder
120g dark chocolate
50g white chocolate

• when the ganache balls are firm and you are ready to decorate the truffles, it helps if you have everything set ready to go
• line a baking tray with baking paper, lightly grease a wire cooling rack and stand it in the lined tray
• sieve the cocoa powder into a shallow bowl
• melt the dark chocolate (I do this in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, I find microwaving the chocolate in small bursts both frustrating and stress inducing, but if it works for you...) and pour into a small bowl
• take half of the ganache balls out of the freezer and drop, one at a time into the melted dark chocolate, retrieve the truffle using a fork, allow the excess chocolate to drip from the fork, gently scrape the base of the fork on the edge of the bowl then ease the truffle onto the wire rack
• in an ideal situation the truffles would be left to set in a cool place, but I live in Sydney, it's summer, I have no air-conditioning and my kitchen is mostly, horribly hot so it's back into the fridge for the truffles
• take the remaining ganache balls out of the freezer and, one at a time roll in the cocoa powder, pop into a sieve and gently shake to remove the excess then return to the fridge; if your kitchen is as hot as mine you may need put the truffles back into the fridge as you go
• melt the white chocolate, pour into a piping bag fitted with a tiny plain tip (Wilton 1or 2)
• remove the chocolate coated truffles from the fridge, and leaving them on the wire rack, decorate with the melted white chocolate, return to the fridge to set
• store your chocolates in an airtight container, in a cool place; in my case, that's back in the fridge
• allow the truffles to come to room temperature or indulge straight from the fridge :)