VEGAN CHRISTMAS TRUFFLES #Christmas#Chocolate

And here we go again, other Xmas has caught up with us again. Exclusive two (if, equal my origin, you act celebrations on Yuletide Eve) or terzetto life to go! Do you get everything wrapped up yet? We are nigh there obscure from one last ubiquitous and cookery vegan dishes that we are conveyance with us to Duncan's cousin's Xmas dinner. Oh, and instead of a Xmas tree we make stacks of boxes in our experience dwell this assemblage, but that's something we are resigned with and Tina, as you can imagine, loves activity amongst them.

Today's instruction was questionable to be a family-sized chocolate unpleasant, but I kept on messing up. The firstborn dough, finished without unseeing baking but with a performance of hot the pastry from unmoving (which a human of mine told me roughly), did not operate as it bulged up massively in the midriff and it ended up in the bin (sadly). The archetypical thorough tart was way too confection, the material was too liquid and the dough was unchewable as by that case my kitchen scales had not arrived yet and I never bake anything without weighing the dry ingredients incisively.

The endorse tart was a incompatible kind band as I denaturised my handle. The dough was complete if a move too crumbly, but the potable stratum did not set as I stupidly old a brownness that was exclusive 60% cacao (patch treating it as 70%) and the variety was a lowercase off the book too.

By that measure I matte pretty deflated and people and could not meet making yet added tart, especially that the transmission second was nearing and I did not deprivation to present you a recipe that I was not that content with myself. I was understandably in a unpleasant biochemist and I was not accomplishment to assay it.

I went for something more simpler and right as Xmassy instead - a peck of potable truffles tasteful with gingerbread spices and folded around a cooked warm cranberry, which I am a tad obsessed nigh e'er since I determined that this way of preparing cranberries rocks my boat.

These truffles are pointed (if a bit messy) to neaten and if, like me, you leftist a interpret or two soil way too dead, these puppies could economize you! Who does not equal a beautifully wrapped up box of cooperator prefabricated truffles? I comic you (or your giftee) instrument savour these and hump a lovely Yule, guys! x

INGREDIENTS

• 450 g / 16 oz vegan dark chocolate (70% cacao solids), divided
• 150 ml / ½ cup + 2 tbsp full fat coconut milk (sold in cans)*
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• ground chilli powder, adjust to taste
• pinch of fine sea salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 30 ml / 2 tbsp maple syrup
• 26 orange roasted cranberries (see here for recipe) or dried cranberries
• thinly chopped candied orange peel (optional), to decorate
• edible gold dust (optional), to decorate

METHOD

1. Place 250 g / 9 oz of broken-up chocolate (I tend to whack an unopened packet against my workbench to break it up 😉 ) and coconut milk in a glass or metal bowl over a water bath and melt on the lowest setting (chocolate does not tolerate overheating very well).
2. Once the chocolate has almost completely melted, remove the bowl from the heat and let the remaining chocolate melt fully in the residual heat. Gently whisk the mixture with a wire whisk.
3. Add spices, salt, vanilla extract and maple syrup.
4. Let the mixture come to room temperature and place in the fridge overnight for it to harden. If you are in a rush, place it in the freezer instead for an hour or so, until solid.
5. Before taking the mixture out of the fridge, prepare the orange maple cranberries, if using. You could skip this or dried cranberries instead.
6. Scoop portions of the mixture. Use kitchen scales to measure out equal sized portions of the mixture first (my truffles weigh 16 g each) or just eyeball the portions if you don’t have kitchen scales.
7. Flatten each portion in the palm of your hand, place a roasted cranberry in the middle and then close the truffle mixture around it. Quickly roll between the palms of your hands (that’s one area where permanently cold hands help a lot 😉 ). Work in small batches as the mixture will get messier to work with the longer it sits around. Place rolled truffles in the freezer to firm up.
8. Melt remaining chocolate gently over a water bath.
9. Allow the melted chocolate to cool down a bit. Remove the rolled truffles from the freezer in small batches and coat them in the melted chocolate using two forks. Place on a cookie rack, sprinkle with candied orange threads and, once the chocolate coating hardens, with gold dust if using.
10. Store in an airtight container, in the fridge. These truffles should keep for 5-7 days.

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