Ok, so I was supposed to post these recipes before xmas, what can I say.. I was slack. Here they are now, so you can use them any time through the year or save them for next xmas. Just bear in mind that the pictures aren’t the best as I had to take them in the evening under artificial light
Dark choc orange truffles
300g Dark orange choc (the good quality sort that has the orange pieces in, like lindt or the newish bournville)
125ml thickened (or single) cream
cocoa for rolling
Put cream into small saucepan and heat over low heat until volume just beginning to increase (not until it boils). Turn off heat and add choc (chopped), stir with metal spoon (you don’t want any moisture) until well combined. Pour into a bowl and leave to set in fridge. Roll into small balls and coat in cocoa.
Milk choc marshmellow truffles
300g Milk choc (the better the quality, the better the taste; pref not eating choc)
125ml thickened (or single) cream
1 cup chopped marshmellows (if you start with the mini ones, there’s less chopping involved)
milk choc for coating
Put cream into small saucepan and heat over low heat until volume just beginning to increase (not until it boils). Turn off heat and add choc (chopped), stir with metal spoon (you don’t want any moisture) until well combined. Mix in the marshmellow pieces. Pour into a bowl and leave to set in fridge. Roll into small balls and coat in milk choc.
Apricot balls
500g dried apricots, chopped
1 tin of condensed milk
2 1/2 cups coconut
extra coconut for rolling
Combine all ingredients well. Wet hands (VERY important hands are wet, and you’ll need to keep rewetting them, wet hands helps to stop the mixture sticking to you rather than rolling) and roll mixture into small balls. Roll balls in extra coconut.
White christmas (variation)
300g white choc (using this instead of kopha and milk powder, close enough and tastier – especially using a belgian white choc)
1/4 cup chopped macadamia nuts
1/4 cup coconut flakes
1/4 cup each of chopped red and green jelly lollies (I was looking for some snakes or such to chop up but settled on wine gums as that’s all I found – you’ll need 3 rolls of wine gums to get enough green and red, and you get to eat the rest of the colours too)
1 cup of rice bubbles
NB: try and chop up the nuts and lollies to about twice the size of a rice bubble
Melt the chocolate (microwave for about 1 – 1.5 mins then stirring works quite well). Mix in all the other ingredients. Pour and pat out into a lined square baking tin (about 20cm), leave to set then cut into squares. You can also put these into muffin cases, but as it can be quite sickly you might want to go for the mini muffin size
Fudge
NB: the two recipes below use a nice cheats way for making fudge, without having to worry about sugar thermometers and sugar ball stages. If you don’t have the liquid glucose that’s ok, you can leave it out – you’ll still get tasty fudge it just won’t be as smooth as the glucose controls the formation of sugar crystals.
White choc, pistachio fudge
1 tin of condensed milk
1 cup light brown sugar
2 Tbsp liquid glucose
125g butter
100g white choc, chopped
1 cup shelled pistachio nuts, chopped
1 1/2 Tbsp Bailey’s liqueur
Combine condensed milk, sugar, glucose and butter in large glass mixing bowl (if you choose a ceramic one you’ll have to extend your cooking time as too much energy goes into heating up the ceramic and not enough into the mixture). Microwave for 8 min on medium-high (70%), stirring every 2 min. Microwave for another 4 min on medium-high, stirring every 1 min (mixture should now be think and bubbly by the end of the time, before the stirring). After final stir add (gets all bubbles down), add white choc and stir until melted and smooth. Stir in nuts and liqueur. Spoon into a greased and lined square cake pan (18-20cm) and leave to cool. Cut into desired sized pieces.
Dark choc, walnut fudge
1 tin of condensed milk
1 cup light brown sugar
2 Tbsp liquid glucose
100g butter
200g dark choc, chopped
1 cup chopped walnuts
Combine condensed milk, sugar, glucose and butter in large glass mixing bowl (if you choose a ceramic one you’ll have to extend your cooking time as too much energy goes into heating up the ceramic and not enough into the mixture). Microwave for 8 min on medium-high (70%), stirring every 2 min. Microwave for another 4 min on medium-high, stirring every 1 min (mixture should now be think and bubbly by the end of the time, before the stirring). After final stir add (gets all bubbles down), add white choc and stir until melted and smooth. Stir in nuts. Spoon into a greased and lined square cake pan (18-20cm) and leave to cool. Cut into desired sized pieces.
