When you impulse buy a big block of cooking chocolate with no specific idea of what you want to use it for and you realise you don’t have the time to make something elaborate out of it, what do you do? What on earth was I thinking when I picked it up???
Well, that’s the kind of conversation I was having with myself when my grocery cart had fallen prey to a big bar of white cooking chocolate that sneaked its way through the checkout counter and was now lying in front of me on the kitchen platform. With nothing on agenda whatsoever with respect to white chocolate, my thoughts floated around in the eternity of my mind space hoping to hit some brainwave that would help me understand the rationale behind and logic of impulse buying. But it happens to us all the time, when the visual display overpowers our rational thinking ability, some hidden passion around the subject matter triggers, our normal thinking ability ceases and we are overcome with a sudden strong urge of self-gratification. Thus happen to us, things like this large white chocolate bar on my kitchen platform!!
My super thrilled kids had loads of suggestions how to make best use of this ingredient. Buy ice-cream and top it up generously with chocolate shavings?? Grate the bar, melt and mould them into chocolate bonbons??? Or maybe make them into some creamy melt-in-mouth chocolate truffles?? After a lot of animated discussion, we short listed chocolate truffles and making the truffles became the high point of our already charged up weekend!!
Let me take you through what we actually did….
To get going, you need…
About 250g White Chocolate Bar (finely sliced) or White Chocolate chips
½ cup fresh cream
1 tsp Vanilla essence
For the coating,
Fine crushed almonds or pistachios/ Rainbow sprinkles/ Sweetened Cocoa powder/ Any other roll-on’s of your choice
Boil cream in a container using double boiler method whisking gently all the while. Once boiled, add the white chocolate slices or chips and keep stirring till the chocolate melts and blends perfectly with the cream. Add the vanilla essence and mix well.
Let it cool and thicken a bit. Mix well with a spatula once and refrigerate for about 2-3 hours with the contained covered in a plastic wrap.
Scoop out and shape into balls and roll them gently to get an even coat of the sprinkles of choice. Voila!! Your chocolate truffles are ready!! Go ahead and dig into some absolutely creamy ‘melt in the mouth’ treats that are so very easy to make!
And don’t forget to store the rest of them in the refrigerator right away.
In Indian weather conditions, you may have to put the mixture back in the refrigerator midway through, if you feel the consistency has thinned due to heat. In that case refrigerate the balance mixture for another 30-40 minutes before resuming.
For me, the most exciting part of making and decorating the truffles is the abundant scope for novelty and imagination that be applied while creating them. We can add flavours like strawberry or orange or mocha while melting the white chocolate or create random rainbow ripples using edible colours or fruity syrups during the refrigeration process.
What can be more fascinating than unleash our creative expressions through colours and flavours to tickle our senses and appease our palate. Keep innovating, keep creating and enjoy the bliss of gastronomic amazement and Yummy Expressions!
Yummy Expressions 