I spotted this little recipe in a magazine before Christmas last year.. lost it; then found it again, thanks to my friend Caroline. 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!

EQUIPMENT:

a medium/large-sized bowl
Food processor, if you have one.
wooden spoon
baking tray
baking parchment

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
150g white chocolate melted and slightly cooled
3 tablespoons of Baileys liqueur, or really, any liqueur you like.

For decoration: about 100g each of dark and white chocolate, melted separately.

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.)
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 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.

Amateur hour!!

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 .. 😉
VARIATION: I’m making this recipe for Easter this year, so I’ve simply doubled the ingredients, then divided it into two different bowls; one for each flavour – the first will be Bailey’s, but as a gesture towards Spring, (not that there’s any sign of it out there today) I’m making 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-alcohol version, I would suggest the finely grated zest of a large lemon, and one or two tablespoons of freshly squeezed Lemon juice. Taste it and see what you think..
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 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..

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