Ganache Truffles

Over Easter I bought a chocolate mould, and to keep things simple, I decided that the first batch of truffles I made should be plain ganache truffles. Ganache is just a mix of cream and chocolate, melted together until smooth. It produces a wonderful silky mouthfeel with a melt in the mouth texture.

To start with I melted the chocolate and gave the moulds two coats to act as a casing, then added the leftover chocolate to the heated cream to make the ganache. I then filled the moulds with the ganache, waited for it to set and topped each one off with a little extra melted chocolate to form a base.

The thing I loved about the moulds is how I was able to pour the soft ganache into each indent, rather than trying to roll them into balls by hand. The moulds also resulted in a wonderfully glossy shine to the truffles.

If you don’t have a chocolate mould you can still make the truffles by allowing the ganache to set and then rolling it into balls using your hands and then dusting them in cocoa powder or dipping into melted chocolate. In the past I have also brushed mini petit fours paper cases with melted chocolate and used these as moulds, which work well, as you can easily peel away the paper once they are filled.

Making sure to use good quality chocolate is essential – as the quality of chocolate you use will determine the quality of the finished truffle.

Ganache Truffles
Ingredients
150g dark chocolate 60%-74% coco
50g milk chocolate
170ml double cream
½ tsp vanilla
35g extra dark chocolate for the bases.

Method
Melt the 150g dark chocolate and the milk chocolate together in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water until melted and smooth.
Brush the insides of your moulds or paper cases with the melted chocolate, ensuring there are no gaps. Turn the moulds upside down to allow any excess chocolate to dribble down and coat the sides of the mould where it is most needed.
Repeat once again when the first layer has set.
Heat the double cream and vanilla in a pan set over a low heat until small bubbles begin to appear, but do not let it boil.
Remove the cream from the heat and pour over the chocolate leftover from brushing the moulds (It will probably have reset but this is fine.)
Stir gently until the chocolate melts into the cream and it becomes smooth, thick and glossy.
Allow to cool for 10 minutes before pouring into the moulds, making sure to leave a 2mm gap at the top of each one.
Allow the truffles to set for about 30-60 minutes.
Melt the extra dark chocolate and then spoon a little over each of the truffles, sealing the ganache inside a case of chocolate.
Place somewhere cool for 3-4 hours to ensure the truffles and properly set. Then either tap out from the moulds or carefully peel away the paper cases.

Chocolate Rice Krispie Easter Egg Nests

Chocolate Rice Krispie cakes have long been a favourite at children’s parties but I decided they would be perfect for this weeks Monday Munchers, especially when given an Easter inspired twist. The addition of speckled chocolate mini eggs turns these krispie cakes into Easter nests complete with their own eggs and cute fluffy chicks.

These are so simple and easy to make that they would be the perfect Easter treat to make with children. You could make mini ones, standard ones or even muffin sized ones if you wanted to give them away as gifts. Chocolate mini eggs always appear in the shops around Easter time and add a fun festive feel to the nests. I found some little fluffy Easter chicks in a cake shop and they were so adorable cute that I had to buy some, after all, you can’t have a nest without some chicks.
Make sure you have the paper cases ready to go, as the mixture starts to set quite quickly once you add the Rice Krisipes. You could use Cornflakes, crushed Shredded Wheat or even All Barn in place of the Rice Krispies is you wish, but I find Rice Krispies easier to work with and I much prefer the texture they provide.

While they still might seem more suited to children, can you honestly say you know an adult who would say no to a chocolate krispie cake? Have a Happy Easter!

Chocolate Rice Krispie Easter Egg Nests
Ingredients
135g dark chocolate
35g butter or margarine
1 tbsp golden syrup (45g)
100g rice krispies
Chocolate mini eggs for decoration

Method
Line a bun tin with paper cases and weigh out the rice krispies and set to one side.
Melt the chocolate, butter and golden syrup together in a bowl set over a pan of gently simmering water.
Stir occasionally until the chocolate is completely melted and smooth.
Remove the bowl from the pan and immediately stir in the rice krispies, making sure they all get coated in chocolate evenly.
Quickly spoon the mixture into the paper cases and add 2 - 3 chocolate mini eggs on top of each one.
Allow to set at room temperature before storing in an airtight container until required.
Makes 12

Orange & Ginger Cocoa Cranberry Granola

After the success of my recent attempt at making granola, I was eager to try out other combinations. I wanted to try a cranberry and ginger combo and decided to add the zest from an orange too as I think it tastes great when paired with cranberries. I set about gathering my ingredients and as I opened the cupboard to get the ginger my eyes zoomed in on a jar of cocoa powder and I thought… hey why not? Orange and chocolate, cranberry and chocolate, ginger and chocolate = yummy. So in it went.

While it was baking, the granola filled my house with a wonderful yet slightly bizarre assortment of smells. The zesty orange and the cocoa were the main aromas, making the house smell like a Terry’s chocolate orange only with a hint of spicy ginger mixed in. Now this may be wonderful to those of you who like Terry’s chocolate oranges, but I myself am not much of a fan and so I began to worry that maybe I had been a little too adventurous with the flavour pairings. I do like chocolate and orange together, but only when it’s real orange otherwise I find it tastes a bit fake.

Another slight hitch was that due to the cocoa powder I couldn’t tell when the mixture was turning brown as everything was light brown to start with. I decided to stick to the set time and trust my nose for any smells of burning and it all worked out well.

When it had cooled I ate a spoonful and was initially disappointed at the slight bitter edge to it from the cocoa powder, but as I chewed the cranberries released their sweetness and the orange flavour really shone through complementing the bitter cocoa flavour and I was left with a tingling of ginger on my tongue. I had another mouthful, …hmmm I like it.

This is definitely not your usual flavour pairings of granola but I quite like how it contains some unexpected flavours, although I might not use quite as much ginger next time. If you are a fan of Terry’s chocolate oranges, this could well be the granola for you.

Orange & Ginger Cocoa Cranberry Granola
Ingredients
100g jumbo rolled oats
50g porridge oats
100g wheat flakes
25g linseeds
40g flaked almonds
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp cocoa powder
3 tbsp natural oil
1 tbsp golden syrup
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp orange juice
Zest of 1 orange
50g dried cranberries
50g raisins

Method
Preheat the oven to 170C. Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper.
Place the oats, wheat flakes and linseeds in a large bowl.
Finely grate the zest from the orange and scatter over the oats along with the ground ginger and cocoa powder.
Mix the oil, water, orange juice and golden syrup together and pour over the oat mixture.
Use a spatula or large spoon and mix well, ensuring everything is lightly coated.
Scatter the mix onto the baking tray and place in the oven for 8-10 minutes until it’s starting to smell toasted and fragrant from the orange and ginger.
Remove from the oven and give everything a good mix to ensure even browning. Stir through the flaked almonds and return to the oven for a further 8 minutes.
Remove from the oven and mix through the cranberries and raisins and leave to cool. Store in an airtight container.

Peanut Butter Chip Choc Cookies

After making cookies to share with my friend over the weekend, I realised that its been a while since I baked cookies for the Monday Munchers and so decided that chocolate cookies would be this weeks treat.

These cookies are basically the well known Tollhouse Cookies but with a twist. I wanted to make chocolate cookies and so replaced some of the flour with cocoa powder and added peanut butter filled smartie style chips in place of chocolate chunks. The peanut butter chips not only showed up well against the dark cookie but also added to the fun of eating them as they provided little shots of peanut flavour in every bite, which was a novelty to the Monday Munchers as I don’t think we have peanut butter chips here in the UK, so people became quite excited by them. The ones I used were given to me by Gigi from America. If anyone knows where I can get these in the UK then please let me know.
I sat on the floor and watched them baking, it was interesting the way they spread into chocolaty pools before puffing up and baking into thick cookies. Somehow I always imaged they would turn from dough to cookie without the melting part in the middle, but I don’t suppose they would spread out into cookie shape otherwise – random comment I know! The cookies themselves were soft and chewy with a strong cocoa flavour. Next time I might try making mini ones and sandwiching them together with peanut butter for extra indulgence.

Peanut Butter Chip Choc Cookies
Ingredients
110g butter
50g caster sugar
75g soft brown sugar
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla
100g plain flour
25g cocoa powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g peanut butter chips or choc chips

Method
Preheat the oven to 175C and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper
Cream together the butter and both the sugars until light and well combined.
Beat in the egg and vanilla.
Sift in the flour, cocoa powder and bircab and beat until just combined. The mixture will be quick thick but don’t worry.
Stir through the peanut butter chips or chocolate chips.
Place heaped teaspoonfuls onto the baking tray, leave a 2inch gap between each one.
Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes until spread out and lightly puffed up.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire wrack to cool completely.
Repeat the process with any left over cookies mixture.
Makes 14-16 cookies.

Choc Chip Cakies

I call these cookies cakies because they are a cross between a cookie and a cake. The outside is crisp and chewy and the inside is soft and cake-like. They adapt very well to whatever add-ins or flavours you wish to throw at them. I kept mine simple with a vanilla base and choc chips stirred through. You may notice that some of the cookies have pink blobs in them, this is because I used white chocolate bar that had been dyed pink (it was left over from valentines day).

I made these for my friend J from back home, as she was visiting yesterday. We had a lovely time sitting on the sofa, munching cakies and catching up with each others gossip.

Choc Chip Cakies
Ingredients
100g butter or margarine
60g soft brown sugar
40 caster sugar
1 egg
½ tsp vanilla
150g plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g chocolate chunks of your choice

Method
Line a large baking tray and pre heat the oven to 190C.
Cream the butter and both sugars together until creamy and well combined.
Beat in the egg and vanilla and chocolate chunks.
Sift over the flour and bicarb and fold in until a dough is formed.
Place heaped teaspoons of the mixture onto the baking tray, leaving a 2inch gap between them.
Flatten the dough slightly and place in the oven to bake for 8 minutes.
Remove the cookies from the oven, they should be golden brown and slightly puffed up.
Allow to cool for 3 minutes before transferring to a wire wrack to cool completely.
Makes 16 cookies

Double Heart Chocolate Cakes

As its Valentines Day this week I wanted to make a heart inspired treat for the Monday Munchers in honour of the occasion. I decided to make small heart cakes with the help of my fantastic heart shaped silicon muffin mould. I knew I was going to make them chocolate flavoured and I wanted to top them with some kind of heart decoration but I was unsure what to do. I went trawling through online cake dec shops for inspiration and found a heart shaped chocolate mould; two days later it landed on my doormat.

Even though I was planning to make dark chocolate cakes, I still wanted to include some red into the equation. I hit upon the idea of dying a little white chocolate red and streaking it over the chocolate moulds before filling them with white chocolate. I was unsure if it would work but I was really pleased with how they turned out, more pink than red, but they definitely stood out against the dark chocolate background.

The cakes were quick and simple to produce and were adored at work, although they did receive a few of groans from some of the men who had forgotten Valentines Day was so close. (I feel I should be thanked really or else they might have had some angry wives and girlfriends on their hands.) A small word of advice though, don’t be tempted to remove the cakes from the mould until they are almost completely cold. I tried, and my first one turned out more of a molehill than a heart – they are very fragile when warm.

If you don’t have a heart shaped mould you could always make cupcakes or bake a sheet of sponge and then stamp hearts out using a cookie cutter.

Double Heart Chocolate Cakes
For the cake
115g self raising flour
115g caster sugar
115g margarine
2 eggs
½ tsp baking powder
70g dark chocolate

For the icing
100g dark chocolate
20g butter
½ tbsp honey or golden syrup

For the chocolate hearts
100g white chocolate
40g extra white chocolate
Red food dye

To make the chocolate hearts
Melt the 40g of white chocolate in the microwave, stirring every 30 seconds.
When molten, add 2 drops of red food dye and stir to produce a pretty pink colour.
Transfer the melted pink chocolate into a piping bag fitted with a small plain piping nozzle and pipe zigzag streaks across your chocolate mould. Allow to dry in the air for 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt the remaining 100g of white chocolate.
Then pipe or spoon the chocolate over the set pink chocolate zigzags and set aside to harden. (I left mine overnight)
Don’t be tempted to put them in the fridge to speed up the process as this can cause the chocolate to ‘bloom’ (have white speckled patches) due to the temperature change.
When completely set, tap out and store in an airtight container until required.

To make the cakes
Preheat the oven to 170C
Weight out all the ingredients, expect the chocolate, into a large bowl and beat together until light and fluffy.
Melt the dark chocolate and then quickly beat into the cake batter. The batter will become quite thick as the chocolate firms up, but don’t try to thin down with milk as the batter becomes soft once in the oven and the chocolate softens.
Spoon tablespoons of the batter into a prepared mould or muffin cases.
Bake in the oven o 15-18 minutes until risen and springy to the touch.
Allow to cool before removing from the tin.

To make the icing
Melt the chocolate, butter and honey or syrup in a small saucepan over a gently heat until molten.
Stir until amalgamated and then leave to cool for 5-10 minutes until it forms a spreadable consistency.
Then spread the cooled cakes with the icing and top with a chocolate heart.
Makes 12 cakes

This is also my entry to Zorra’s Valentines Day event.

Update: The round-up is now up - Part 1 and Part 2

Success! Gluten Free Mint Choc Chip Brownies

Some of you may know that I recently tried to bake some gluten free cookies for a work colleague without much success. They were dry, thin, brittle and quite bland in taste. Not really on the yummy scale. But, as the saying goes, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. I was determined to find a way to produce a gluten, or at least wheat free, treat that he could enjoy.

I decided to steer away from cookies and try something softer and more cake like. I know there are quite a few flourless cake recipes around, but I wanted to make something that he wouldn’t normally be able to eat. It was while I was flicking through a cookery book that I happened upon a recipe for lemon polenta cake and a little light bulb in my head lit up – ohh I could use cornmeal in place of the flour, that might work. I decided to make some brownies to find out.

The batter came together well and looked just like a standard brownie mix. I made them extra dark by adding a couple of tablespoons of Dutch process cocoa powder along with the melted chocolate into the mix. I also threw in some mint chocolate baking chips that were given to me by a good friend. I loved how dark and glossy the batter looked, and from licking the bowl I could tell it was good.

During baking the brownies rose up, but then deflated on cooling. They gave off the most wonderful chocolate smell with a hint of mint. They had a shiny crackled surface and once sliced revealed a soft, fudgey interior, almost inky black in colour thanks to the cocoa powder. I had a little nibble and they tasted yummy and really packed a punch with the mint flavour. I was amazed at how much flavour the little minty chips added. So with crossed fingers I packed them up and took them to work for the Monday Munchers.

They were received extremely well at work, with people loving their intense dark colour and strong minty flavour. I didn’t tell them they were gluten free until after people had began munching. When I told them, the look on their faces was one of utter amazement and one girl even admitted she wouldn’t have tried them if she had known (I think I put her off with the bad batch of cookies). More importantly I was then able to offer them to the guy on the wheat free diet and he described them as ‘ace’ which really made me smile. So at last a success – hurrah!

Gluten Free Minty Choc Chip Brownies
Ingredients
140g butter
100g dark chocolate
180g caster sugar
2 eggs
15g Dutch process cocoa powder
85g fine cornmeal (polenta)
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
70g mint chocolate baking chips

Method
Preheat the oven to 175C. Grease and line the base and sides of a square 8inch baking tin.
Melt the butter and chocolate together in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water.
Remove from the heat and stir in the sugar followed by the cocoa powder.
Beat in the eggs one at a time, until the mixture is airy and glossy.
Sprinkle over the cornmeal and the bicarb and mix in well.
Finally fold in the mint chips and pour into the baking tin.
Bake for 35-40 minutes until risen and a skewer inserted comes out sticky but not wet from raw batter.
Allow to cool in the tin (it will sink slightly but that’s ok).
Remove from the tin and slice into 9 squares.
Store in an airtight container until required.

Note: Replacing the cornmeal with plain flour works just as well and using standard cocoa powder and a bar of mint chocolate would be fine.

Giganti-Hugeous Crisp Cookie Thins

I wanted to try and make some wheat free cookies for one of my work mates who is on a wheat free diet. Rather than using an existing wheat free cookie recipe I decided to try and replace the wheat flour in a standard cookie recipe with a wheat and gluten free flour I had picked up at the supermarket.

The cookie dough came together well and seemed to be of a good texture and consistency and I was feeling relatively confidant they would turn out ok. I added some chopped chocolate orange chunks for flavour and spooned small teaspoonfuls out onto a baking sheet. The recipe said the cookies would spread so I left quite a bit of room in between each one. When the baking time was up I opened the oven door to find the cookies hadn’t spread a little, but had melted into huge thin flat cookies that were merging together. Eppp!

I tried again, placing fewer spoonfuls on each sheet and leaving plenty of room. The second batch turned out better, they were still huge but at least they did look vaguely cookie shaped. The texture of the cookies was very crisp and crumbly. They were also quite brittle and had a slightly gritty texture from the rice flour that was part of the mix. I was quite disappointed in their flavour, they were sweet yet had quite a savoury note to them.

I took them to work anyway where they received mixed responses. Some people hated them while others quite liked their unusual texture. It was decided that they resembled more of a French langue de chat biscuits than a soft chocolate chip cookie but they would make quite good cookies to serve with deserts. So they were a successful (sort of) but not really as a soft and chewy cookie. I’ll have to try again another time.

Crisp Cookie Thins
(Recipe adapted from Waitrose.com)
Ingredients
100g butter
50g soft light brown sugar
50g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
125g wheat and gluten free flour (or ordinary plain flour)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
75g chocolate orange, chopped

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.
Place the butter and sugars into a bowl and beat together until fluffy. Beat in the vanilla and egg and then sift over the flour and bicarbonate of soda.
Fold in the flour followed by the chocolate.
Drop teaspoons of cookie mixture onto the baking tray leaving A LOT of space between each one.
Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden around the edges.
Transfer to a cooling wrack straight away and leave to cool.
Make 16 cookies.

BBD#06 - Coffee, Almond & Choc Chip Braided Bread

When Eva of Sweet Sins announced she was this month’s host of Bread Baking Day and her chosen theme was shaped breads, I knew I had to participate. I love playing with dough, the smells, textures and flavours they produce are simply wonderful and this event sounded like one I could have a lot of fun with.

I decided to use my favourite sweet bread dough recipe, which produces a wonderfully soft and fluffy bread thanks to the use of milk and an egg which keeps the dough supple and moist. My first thought was to flavour it somehow and bake it in a ring mould, but I wanted to have more fun with it than this and so I hit upon the idea of plating/braiding it instead. As I began divide the dough into thirds for braiding, I suddenly had the idea to flavour each of the three strands of dough with a different flavour. I chose to flavour my dough with coffee, dark chocolate chips and chopped almonds along with almond essence for extra flavour.

I really liked how the braid turned out, the different appearance and flavours of dough intertwining and made the bread look speckled and intriguing. Once baked, the braid had turned lovely and golden brown and looked quite ordinary on top, but revealed its mix of flavours upon slicing. This also made it incredibly fun to eat as each bite contained a new flavour, or combination of two flavours that switched order with every slice cut. However, be warned this also makes it hard to stop eating it.

This dough is so easy to work with that I think even people who have a fear of yeast would be able to handle it. It requires very little work and looks after itself and always seems to produce excellent results. It’s also very versatile and will take to any flavours or add-ins you wish to throw at it.

Coffee, Almond & Choc Chip Braided Bread
For the bread dough
350g strong plain bread flour

50g caster sugar

¼ tsp salt
25g fresh yeast
50g butter
200ml milk

1 egg

For the added flavours
1 tbsp dark chocolate chips
2tsp instant coffee granules
1 tbsp water
2 tsp flour
20g whole almonds
½ tsp almond extract
Method
Combine flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl.Measure out the milk into a jug and cut the butter over the top of it and heat gently until warm but not to hot. (It shouldn’t get hotter than body temperature).Break up the yeast and stir into the milk mixture before whisking in the egg.
Pour this milky mixture over the flour and use your fingers to bring everything together and then kneed on a lightly floured surface for 5 minutes until soft and stretchy, adding more flour if necessary. Transfer to a greased bowl, cover with cling film and leave to prove for 25 minutes by which time it should have double in size.Knock back the risen dough on a lightly floured surface and divide into three equal pieces.
Knead the chocolate chips into one third of the dough and set to one side.
Mix the water into the instant coffee and add the flour to make a paste. Add this paste into another third of the dough and knead until mostly incorporated but a few streaks remain.
Chop the almonds into small chunks and knead into the final piece of dough along with the almond essence.
Using your hands, roll out the three balls of dough into long stands.
Place the strands side by side and plate them together into one loaf.
Place the loaf on a floured baking tray and brush the top with a little milk or sugared water. Preheat the oven to 210C and allow the bread to prove while the oven heats up.
When the oven is up to temperature, place the bread into the oven and bake for 18-20 minutes until golden brown and springy when pressed. (You may need to turn the baking tray round half way through baking if one end is browning more quickly than the other).Allow to cool for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire wrack to cool.

Update: The round-up is now up! Click for Part 1 & Part 2

Mocha Mud Cake

Chocolate and coffee are one of those flavour pairings that work brilliantly together. Neither flavour overpowers the other, while each contributes its own qualities. The chocolate is of course chocolaty and already full of flavour but the addition of coffee deepens the flavour, making it seem more intense while adding its own rich, almost smokey taste and aroma. Just wonderful.

I used this pairing in a mud cake I made last week for my cake decorating/sugar class Christmas party to celebrate finishing our Christmas cakes (post to follow). The cake is moist yet sturdy and full of the rich, intense mocha flavour. Its dense and fudgey texture makes it resemble more of a brownie than a cake, as I always think of these as being light and fluffy. It’s not that sweet, the rich dark chocolate being the star of the show.

The cake rose into a dome and the surface cracked whilst cooking, but once out of the oven, the dome subsided and the cake turned out almost perfectly flat on top. I served it with some crème fraiche, as its creamy, slightly acidic flavour cut through some of the cakes richness. It was quickly gobbled up along with the mince pies and oat slices that some of the other members bought. It would make a wonderful celebration cake covered in silky ganache or as a dessert for a dinner party, served with crème fraiche and fresh berries.

Mocha Mud Cake
(Adapted from ‘Kitchen Wench’ blog)
Ingredients
200g butter
200g dark chocolate
25g cocoa powder
2 tbsp instant coffee granules
60ml water
1 tsp vanilla
200g caster sugar
3 eggs
115g self raising flour

Method
Grease and line an 8inch/20cm springform cake tin and set to one side. Preheat the oven to 160C.
Put the butter, chocolate, cocoa powder, water and vanilla into a saucepan and place over a low heat to slowly melt. Stir from time to time to ensure even melting.
When completely melted, remove from the heat and set to one side to cool slightly.
Meanwhile, beat the eggs and sugar together for 3-4 minutes until pale, thick and creamy.
Pour the cooled chocolate mixture into the egg mixture in a thin stream, beating all the time. Then beat for a further 30seconds until light.
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 55-65 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out relatively clean.
Allow to cool completely in the tin before removing and storing in an airtight container until required.
It will keep well for 4-5 days. If any leftovers turn a little dry, heat gently in the microwave and serve with custard.

Peanut Butter Balls

Last week I received a fantastic Christmas food parcel from my friend Gigi of Gigi Cakes and amongst the goodies were Reese’s peanut butter cups, a chocolaty peanut treat I have heard lots about and longed to try. These cups were extra special as they also contained a layer of banana. I eagerly unwrapped them and took a bite and.. mmmmmmmm delicious. I adore the combination of the crumbly sticky peanut butter and the smooth sweet chocolate, the banana added an extra interesting note that worked really well. They got demolished pretty quickly I can tell you. Only problem was I was left craving more. After a quick browse through some of my favourite trusty blogs, I found a recipe from Joy of Baking that looked ideal and without further ado I reached for my peanut butter.

These peanut butter balls were so quick and easy to put together. I thought at first they weren’t going to turn out right as the peanut mixture was quite dry and crumbly but the minute I started to mould the mixture into balls, the heat from my hand transformed them into smooth, soft balls. After a short rest in the fridge they were coated in dark chocolate and in just over an hour I had my own stash of peanut butter chocolaty goodness. Yay!

I handed a few out to friends and got rave reviews, so much so that I am planning on making some more and giving them out as gifts as part of the little truffles boxes I make at Christmas. If you know someone how is a fan of peanut butter and chocolate, make a batch of these for them and they will love you forever. Thank you Gigi for introducing me to these great treats.

Peanut Butter Balls
For the peanut centers
250g smooth peanut butter
30g butter
½ tsp vanilla extract
125g icing sugar

For the coating
150g dark chocolate
20g butter

Method
Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper and set to one side.
To make the centers, place the peanut butter, butter and vanilla in a bowl and heat gently in the microwave until the butter has melted, but do not overheat.
Beat the mixture until the butter becomes absorbed and the mixture becomes smooth.
Sift in the icing sugar, about a third at a time, mixing well until it is all combined. (The mixture will turn very crumbly and stiff at this stage but this is ok.)
Using a teaspoon, take small amounts of the peanut mixture and using your fingers, squish it into a ball shape.
Use the palms of your hands to roll into a ball, about the size of a small walnut or large marble. (The mixture will become soft, smooth and more workable as you mould it.)
Place the balls on the lined baking tray and place into the fridge to firm up for 20-30 minutes.
After the peanut balls have chilled, melt the butter and chocolate together until smooth.
Drop each peanut ball into the melted chocolate and use a teaspoon to help coat it completely in the chocolate.
Remove the ball from the chocolate by scooping it up with a fork. Allow the excess chocolate to dribble off and scrape off any excess using the teaspoon.
Place the ball back onto the sheet of greaseproof and repeat with the remaining balls.
Return the peanut butter balls to the fridge to set, for a minimum of 30 minutes.
Transfer each ball into a small paper case and serve, or store in the fridge until required.
Makes around 25 peanut butter balls