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Coffee and Cardamom Truffles
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Coffee and Cardamom Truffles
These are intensely flavoured little chocolates in which the coffee taste comes through quite strongly. Try making them with a coffee such as mocha sidamo, which has overtones of cocoa.
- Preparation time: 30 minutes, plus cooling and chilling
-
Total time:
50 minutes
Makes: 22
Ingredients
- Coating
- 200g dark chocolate, chopped
- cocoa powder (optional)
- grated white chocolate (optional)
- ¼ tsp cardamom seeds, taken from pods
- 284ml carton double cream
- 4 tbsp fresh ground coffee
- 4 tbsp caster sugar
Method
- Put the chopped chocolate in a large bowl and set over a pan of just-boiled water to melt. Meanwhile, crush the cardamom seeds as finely as possible in a pestle and mortar. Heat the cream, coffee and sugar in a pan, stirring, until the cream is just boiling. Pass the mixture through a fine sieve (or a sieve lined with muslin or a clean jay cloth), to catch the coffee granules, allowing the cream to fall into the bowl of chocolate. Add the cardamom and stir until all the ingredients are evenly blended.
- Remove the bowl from the pan. Cover the surface of the chocolate mix directly with plastic wrap. Leave to cool at room temperature for about an hour.
- If the mixture seems quite liquid, whisk briefly with an electric whisk until it just thickens. If it's already thick, just beat briefly with a wooden spoon until smooth and shiny. Chill until firm enough to handle - about 45 minutes. Meanwhile, line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
- Take a heaped teaspoon of truffle mixture and roll into a ball. Place on the baking tray. Continue, using all the mixture. You should make about 22 truffles. It's important that your hands are cold - run them under cold water periodically to cool and clean them. Alternatively, shape the truffles with two teaspoons, which is considerably less messy. Chill the truffles for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, put the chocolate for the covering in a large bowl over a pan of just-boiled water until melted. Remove the bowl from the pan and let the chocolate cool a little.
- If you want to coat the truffles in grated white chocolate, spread it out on a plate now. Using 2 forks, gently lift each chilled truffle and dip it into the melted chocolate then, before it has set completely, roll in the grated chocolate. Alternatively, just return the dark chocolate-coated truffles to the fridge to set.
- If you're using the cocoa, sift it on to a large flat plate and roll the set truffles in it.
- Store in the fridge for up to 4 days, but allow them to stand at room temperature for 20 minutes before serving. These are delicious with after-dinner coffee.
Comments
This recipe was first published in Tue Oct 01 01:00:00 BST 2002.
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