Chocolate, orange and cardamom truffles
Rich chocolate offset by warmly spicy cardamon and orange zest. This is a delicious recipe for home-made chocolate truffles – perfect for giving away at Christmas, as a Valentine's Day treat, or with after-dinner coffee.
Ingredients
- 160ml double cream
- zest of 3 oranges, finely grated
- 6 cardamom pods, pods discarded and seeds ground
- 225g plain chocolate
- 20g unsalted butter
- 3 tbsp icing sugar, sifted
- cocoa powder, for dusting
Method
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Step 1
Heat the cream with the cardamom and orange zest until boiling. Turn off the heat and leave the mixture to infuse for 40 minutes.
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Step 2
Melt the chocolate in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water. The bowl shouldn't touch the water – you need to melt the chocolate gently.
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Step 3
Add the butter and let it melt in the warm chocolate, then add the sugar and cream. Mix well until everything is smooth. Let the mixture cool, then refrigerate it until it is firm enough to handle.
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Step 4
Form the chocolate mixture into truffle shapes using your hands and roll in sifted cocoa powder.
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Step 5
Put them into a shallow plastic box lined with baking paper as you make them. Put the truffles in the fridge so they can firm up – about two hours. Sift all over with cocoa powder to finish.
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Step 6
The truffles will keep for a couple of weeks in the fridge. Take them out of the fridge and let them warm up a little before serving – they're not good fridge-cold.
