Football is on, Let’s make truffles!

Don’t get me wrong, I love football. I grew up as a Bear fan in a Bear household in Chicago. After I was married I moved to Green Bay, WI and after a few years (a few years after the Bears won the Superbowl)  I became  Packer fan. You can only live among the enemy so long and then you start to love them (Stockholm Syndrome?).  The problem is every game is crucial to me and unless my team is so far ahead that they’ve put in the second string QB, I just get nervous if I just sit and watch every play. So I find other things to do while I look over my shoulder at what is happening on the field.

Today it was truffles and Christmas cookies.  I was on my second truffle recipe and working on butter cookies. Half of these creations will be packaged up and given to my former colleagues so if they are reading this, goodies are coming.

The truffles I made yesterday were from a recipe I picked off the internet called Easy Decadent Truffles. Decadent, because the recipe called for cream cheese instead of cream. Cream the confectioner’s sugar with the cream cheese, then add in the melted semi-sweet chocolate. Chill for at least an hour then scoop off spoonfuls and roll into balls, then roll the balls in your choice of coatings. I used coconut, ground almonds, and cocoa. Some of the truffles I coated first in bittersweet chocolate that had been melted in a double boiler. Dipping the truffles in the chocolate and coating them was a big mess. Especially if you want to also roll them in coconut. My fingers were full of chocolate, which can be yummy at clean-up time but not so great when you are trying to pick up tools and truffles. Also the truffle mixture was really stiff.

Truffle mix after chilling

Either I refrigerated it too long or the cream cheese seized up but after some major failures when first trying to make some balls, I popped it in the microwave for 15 seconds and it softened up just enough to make it workable.

Easy Decadent Truffles

The second recipe was from Saveur Magazine, December 2009, page 58. It was an article on Swedish sweets and this truffle recipe is called Kokosbollar and is made with rolled oats. Easy to make, easy to roll. I cut the following recipe in half.

KOKOSBOLLAR (chocolate truffles)

makes 36 balls

16 Tbls. unsalted butter, softened

1/2 C. superfine sugar

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

2 oz. bittersweet chocolate, melted

6 Tbls. unsweetened cocoa powder

2 Tbls. brewed dark coffee, or espresso(room temp)

2 tsp. vanilla

2 1/2 C. rolled oats

1 C unsweetened finely shredded dry coconut

Combine butter, sugar and salt in a large bowl. (They say use a hand mixer but I used a spoon). Beat until fluffy, 1-2 min or so.

Add the chocolate, cocoa powder, coffee and vanilla and continue beating until combined. Place the oats in a food processor and pulse till roughly chopped. Add the oats to the chocolate/butter and mix till combined.  Refrigerate till chilled, about 1 hour.

Divide into 36 portions, using a tablespoon size spoon. Roll into balls and roll in coconut. Refrigerate for at least two hours before serving or packing in candy papers.

Kokosbollar

In my next post I will take you through the butter cutout cookies I also worked on during the game. Oh, by the way, the Packers won 34-16!