If you tend to shy away from making chocolates and truffles because you think they are too complicated or time-consuming, then think again! Well clearly some recipes for them are complicated and time-consuming, but not this one. This recipe is pretty fool-proof, no temperature checks or chocolate tempering needed. Perfect if you need to rustle up a simple sweet treat to serve or give as a gift.

WHAT YOU NEED:

– 12oz/340g chocolate (whatever kind you like as long as it’s good eating chocolate, it’s the main ingredient so if you use cheap cooking chocolate they will not taste good. For a traditional truffle taste, go for dark/semi-sweet chocolate, I prefer milk chocolate myself so that’s what I went for, you could also use white chocolate, or divide the batch and make two or three different kinds)

– 1/3 cup/80ml heavy/double cream

– 1 teaspoon flavouring extract of your choice (I chose vanilla, you can go for orange, rose, mint etc, whatever you like, do however ensure it’s natural extract/essence and not artificial flavouring)

– Toppings of your choice (I used shredded coconut, you could go for chopped nuts, powdered/icing sugar, cocoa, grated chocolate, sugar strands etc. Or do a selection of different ones)

– Mini paper cases

WHAT YOU DO:

1. Break up the chocolate into the cream and heat it in a pan on the stove (or double boiler) on a low heat, stirring until melted and smooth. Whisk in your flavouring extract.

2. Refrigerate it for a couple of hours until set. Don’t leave it much longer than that though or it will go too hard to work with.

3. Shape it into balls, roll it in your toppings, and place in the paper cases.

And that’s it. Easy right?