Pavé style spiced truffles

When I began this blog, I often mentioned that I didn’t really like chocolate. I never really craved it or found myself blown away by any particular brand. It was just a food stuff that always sat in the ‘average’ catagory for me. Now, some years on, either my tastes have changed or I’ve ventured in to better quality chocolate. I’m not sure which it is, but I actually like it.

My favourite is the intense, high cocoa chocolate with a flavour (if you haven’t tried Lindt’s dark lime yet, you should) or better still, some spice. The spiced chocolate I’ve been loving lately comes from the John Lewis Cook Edition’s killer truffle recipe.

These are french pavé style truffles; the beauty of these is that there’s no messy rolling or shaping to do. Just whip up a ganache, leave it to set, cut it up and dust with cocoa. If you’re short of last minute gifts or want something special for guests over Christmas, these fit the bill. The silky, shining ganache is incredibly rich with it’s 70% cocoa content and the added spices leave a warming feel, making them the perfect treat for winter days.

John Lewis have kindly let me share this recipe with my readers, but you can pick up a copy of the free magazine in store to get your hands on the rest. It’s all focussed on celebrating food moments and has plenty of ideas for last minute edible gifting. That said, I think these truffles would make a great mini project for the quiet days after Christmas and are simple enough for kids to get involved in.

There’s so much beauty under the cocoa dusting of these truffles that I almost didn’t want to finish making them. If I could have left them with their lustrous sheen, I would have.

To make 50 spiced truffles, you’ll need:

300g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids)

300ml double cream

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp mixed spice

1/4 tsp ground cardamom

Cocoa powder for dusting

 

Line a 20cm square tin with cling film or baking paper and set aside.

To make the ganache. Chop the chocolate finely in to a medium sized bowl. Using a small saucepan on a low heat, combine the spices and cream by stirring with a whisk, until the cream reaches a simmer. Pour the cream mixture over the chocolate and leave for a couple of minutes.

Stir the chocolate and cream mixture together with the whisk until you reach a glossy, smooth consistency. Don’t worry if the mix starts look split, grainy or oily, it can easily be rescued. It may be as simple as to just whisk the mixture more to help the emulsification process. If that doesn’t work, try adding a tablespoon of warmed milk at a time and using an electric whisk.

Pour the silky ganache in to the tin and level out. Alow to cool at room temperature for around an hour, then transfer to the fridge until firm. Cut the ganache in to truffles of around 2cm and lightly dust in cocoa powder, shaking off any excess.

These gorgeous truffles are best eaten at room temperature but should be kept in the fridge where they’ll happily keep for two weeks. Just pop a few out on a plate an hour before serving.

If gifting, there are plenty of kits around to dress up your home made goodies at this time of year. I used the bags and gift tags from the Meri Meri Kit to package mine.

If you make these beauties, come back and let me know how they turned out and tweet a photo using the hashtag #JLCook.