Homemade Chocolate Truffles: It’s a Wonderful (Chocolate) Life

One of my favorite holiday traditions is making homemade chocolate truffles for me and my favorite peeps. Other traditions include watching It’s a Wonderful Life, the only good Christmas film ever made. And surfing on Christmas day with my brother, and maybe even some Christmas cartoons… but I digress. This week I wanted to share this awesome recipe for spicy sweet crunch truffles and cinnamon macadamia nut truffles.

Luscious Homemade Chocolate Truffles

With just a few ingredients and a bit of time you can make these little bits of chocolate heaven. These soft, ganache-y truffles are so delicious and easy, but I did include some notes at the end, in case you are worried about how to choose chocolate or liquors. Despite their simplicity, they never fail to impress.  This makes about 40 truffles, so halve the recipe if you don’t have someone to help you roll!

24 oz of good quality, semi-sweet dairy free chocolate
1 cup coconut milk
3 Tablespoons of fancy liquor (optional)
1-2 teaspoons extract(s)
1-2 teaspoons spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, etc.
1/2 cup each type of topping (cacao nibs, crushed nuts, candy canes, etc)

1. Break apart the chocolate into small bite-sized pieces, and set aside.
2. Heat milk in a small saucepan on very low heat, stirring constantly. When the milk is warm, add the chocolate in bunches, stirring constantly until it is mostly melted. Turn off heat, but continue stirring.  Add in the liquor(s), extract(s), and spice(s) and stir until it is totally smooth.
3. Pour into a glass bowl and refrigerate for at least an hour, until set.
4. When the mixture has firmed up remove it from refrigerator. It should be scoopable with a regular spoon; if not, let it come to room temperature.
5. If you are using nuts, grind them into small bits using a food processor; ditto for candy canes, cacao nibs, seeds, etc. If you are using spices (like cinnamon, cayenne, etc) use about two tablespoons total.
6. Place the various toppings in small bowls. Scoop out about a tablespoon of chocolate and roll into a ball with your hands, then immediately roll into the topping.  Place onto a platter and continue with remaining chocolate. Store truffles in the fridge or freezer, and let come to room temperature before serving… or just eat them cold!

For spicy sweet crunch truffles, mix cinnamon, cloves, cayenne and smoked paprika with ground cacao nibs to make this almost too-spicy combination.

For cinnamon macadamia nut truffles, grind toasted nuts into almost a powder, then toss with cinnamon sugar. These tasted even better the next day- the nuts were soft and buttery and complemented the chocolate very well.

A note about milk: coconut milk makes these extra creamy and delicious, but you can also use soymilk with great results, or a combination of the two. Almond or rice milk is not recommended because they have a tendency to be a bit watery, and doesn’t mix as well with the chocolate.

A note about the chocolate: Choose a mixture of very dark and semi-sweet chocolate, so something like 60-70% cacao will be perfect for these truffles.

A note about the liquor and extracts: You can make boozy or non-boozy truffles. Skip the alcohol and add two more tablespoons of milk, and increase the extracts to 1 tbsp. You can use vanilla, almond, cherry, hazelnut, coffee, or any other heavenly extract combination you can think of.  the chocolate is pretty intense and has a tendency to overshadow the extracts, but it does add a nice background flavor. If you do use booze, you could use a good whiskey or bourbon, rum, kahlua, or any other sweet liquor. Bourbon is especially good.

share the chocolate love, people!
happy holidays!