Chocolate truffles

This Christmas I did not buy presents; I made them.  I've made rum raisin chocolates before, which I like to make for colleagues and friends now and then, but they weren't quite festive enough on their own for presents, so I decided to try making a (small) variety of other chocolates to accompany them. I opted for chocolate truffles rolled in pistachios and coconut flakes, and rum flavoured truffles rolled in cocoa powder. Finally, I also made chilli chocolate truffles coated in chocolate. All five varieties (including the rum raisin chocolates) took three evenings to make, since the chocolate needs to be melted, mixed, chilled to set, rolled into balls, coated, chilled.

Cocoa-coated, coconut-coated, pistachio-coated, and chocolate-coated chilli chocolates

Rummy chocolate truffles rolled in coconut

A selection

Chocolate truffles coated in pistachio

Chocolates in their box

All of them were easy to make, but took time to roll into balls and coat neatly and evenly. I also found the chilli chocolate recipe a little tricky: at first I chilled the chocolate too long and it set too hard to roll into balls. The recipe calls for less butter and cream, hence is harder stuff, so you need to keep on eye on it if chilling. Also, in my opinion the truffles call for at least 3-4 times more chilli powder than the recipe prescribes (i.e.1-2 tsp). I also need to figure out a better way of doing the chocolate coating. My solution was slightly hilarious: after spooning the melted chocolate over truffle on a cocktail stick and shaking off the extra chocolate, I left it to set by sticking it into a banana! It worked well in the sense that none of them were disproportionately coated, but the downside is that they all have a little hole at the bottom... Oh well. They look pretty and taste lovely, so yay!