Soft Chocolate Truffles

Yesterday I put up the recipe for my white chocolate truffles, and you may have realised that it is fairly flexible. This is a deviation, with whole hazelnuts, and without half a cup of dry ingredients stirred through, which makes the chocolate more like a fudge in texture.

Ingredients:

1. 250g milk chocolate
2. 60ml cream
3. dash liqueur/flavouring (I used Amaretto)
4. 1/4 cup whole hazelnuts
5. 1/2 cup chocolate strands for dusting

Instructions:

• melt chocolate and cream, then stir in liqueur and hazelnuts
• Chill the mix, then take out and put teaspoon-sized lumps on a tray with baking paper and refrigerate for another ½ hour (aiming for 1 hazelnut in the centre of each.
• Remove, roll into balls and coat with chocolate strands

This recipe also works very well without the nuts. Dark rum, Kahlua,  or Cointreau also make a great liqueur addition. If you don't like to add booze, try some vanilla, almond or peppermint flavouring. If you want to make them a bit more grown-up, use dark chocolate instead of milk (not more than about 60-70% or they will be hard), and coat with a rich cocoa powder instead of chocolate strands.Makes a lovely christmas present