Bailey’s Truffles..

I spotted this little recipe in a magazine one Christmas, and it’s become one of my standard holiday must-do’s. This recipe is really easy, but actually takes some time to make, because of the chilling involved. Leave yourself a little time if you can, because making and decorating these, even for someone as useless as I am, is great fun.

I suppose what I’m saying is that you can do this in your own time – so have a go!

(There’s a Easter/Summer version, using Limonchello, in the NOTES)

EQUIPMENT:

• a medium/large-sized bowl
• Food processor, if you have one.
• wooden spoon
• baking tray
• baking parchment
• 2 more, smaller bowls, to melt the decorating chocolate.

INGREDIENTS:

• 100g plain Digestive biscuits, ground to fine crumbs in a food processor, or via the old-fashioned way, with a plastic zip-lock bag and a rolling pin.
• 50g full fat cream cheese – with a long ‘best-before’ date.
• 150g white chocolate melted and slightly cooled
• 3 tablespoons of Baileys liqueur, or really, any liqueur you like. If you’d like a rich, but non-alcoholic version, I’d suggest leaving out the liqueur, and add the very finely grated zest of an orange.
• For decoration: about 100g each of dark and white chocolate, melted separately. Or see some other suggestions in the NOTES.

METHOD:

• Melt the chocolate in a large bowl. I use the microwave; mine’s 1000w and takes about 1 min, 30 secs to melt that amount of chocolate. Stop it every 30 seconds and give it a stir – this way, you won’t run the risk of over heating the chocolate.
• Allow the chocolate to cool for about 5 minutes.
• Add the biscuit crumbs and cream cheese to the chocolate, and mix well, using a wooden spoon.
• Add the Baileys and mix it in.
• Cover the bowl and put it into the fridge for at least 3 hours.
• Put a sheet of baking parchment onto a baking tray and put it into the fridge to cool
• Remove the bowl from the fridge, take teaspoon-sized pieces out, and roll them into a ball with the palms of your hands.
• Place each truffle onto the chilled baking tray as you make it. You should get about 30 truffles from this mixture. See NOTES.
• Return them to the fridge while you melt the chocolate – the aim is to keep the truffles as cold as possible while you’re handling them.
• Roll each truffle in the melted chocolate and remove it with the tips of two forks, let it drain for a couple of seconds, then put it back onto the chilled baking parchment. I usually try to cover an equal number with the  dark and white chocolate
• 
• Drizzle a little dark chocolate over the white chocolate covered truffles. I find the easiest way to do this is to swing a small spoonful back and forth quickly over the truffles from a height of about 40cms. It’s a bit messy, but works best I think.
• If you like, you can think up a few decorations to go onto the chocolate – I used the gold spray (see picture in NOTES) I bought some dried raspberry pieces this week with these little truffles in mind. Desiccated coconut would be good too, or even just rolling them in some sifted Cocoa powder – the choice is yours!
• These little truffles should be kept in the fridge – I’d say that they’d keep for about a month like that.

NOTES:

• Those who know me well will agree that I have very limited patience with fiddly stuff, so my final result is never going to win any beauty contests. No doubt you will do this much better than me, so please feel free to post your perfect specimens on the Eating for Ireland Facebook page.
• Try not to do as I did the first time I made these – I made some of these too big – you have to remember that you’re going to be putting a chocolate overcoat on these. They are very rich indeed, and the larger ones were too much of a good thing. I got 24 out of this recipe, but I think you should aim for making 30. If you’re a perfectionist, you’ll weigh each truffle as you roll it, to ensure equality of measure .. 😉
• VARIATIONS: I made this recipe at Easter last year – I simply doubled the ingredients, then divided it into two different bowls; one for each flavour – the first was Bailey’s, but as a gesture towards Spring,  I made a Limonchello version as well. Just replace the Bailey’s with the Limonchello. If you don’t have any Lemon liqueur (mine was a gift), or you want a non-alcoholic version, I would suggest the finely grated zest of a large orange.  What about Dark Chocolate and Mint essence? Or a personal favourite taste combo of mine – Dark Chocolate and Ginger? I’ll just be changing the decorations to match the contents..
• For Easter this year, I’m going to see if I can make the truffles into egg-shapes! – Wish me luck!
• The box you see in these pictures was one that I kept for just such an occasion. It just proves that presentation means a lot – for instance, it made these completely ham-fisted efforts look positively elegant! 😉
• You should probably drizzle the dark chocolates with white, but I had bought this little pack of edible gold spray, and was dying to use it. I think it looks quite good..