CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES

This has to be the messiest recipe I have ever tried but the most fun to make.

I made it for Christmas last year and handed it out to my family. They loved it because it seems like you want to all that trouble whilst it is actually quite easy to make. Please do not do this when you have just cleaned your kitchen as the chocolate will get everywhere!

I did notice that whilst you roll the little balls your palms warm up so for me it was impossible to do them all at the same time, I had to stop half way and take a break.

Ingredients for 40 truffles:

• 1/2 450g jar dulce de leche caramel toffee
• 100g dark chocolate (70% cocoa), chopped
• 2 x 200g bars milk chocolate, chopped
• 142ml pot double cream
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• about 85g cocoa powder , to coat

Steps:

Make the middles first. Heat the Dulce de Leche in a pan for 1 min until warmed and runny, then stir in the chopped dark chocolate and leave to melt. Stir until smooth. Cover a dinner plate with cling film, oil the cling film well, then tip the mix onto it. Cool, and then freeze for 2 hrs or until very firm.

Put the milk chocolate into a bowl. Bring the cream to the boil in another pan, and then pour it over the chocolate. Leave for 2 mins, then add the vanilla and stir until smooth. Cool, and then chill until set.

Peel the caramel from the cling film, then snip into thumbnail-size pieces; wet kitchen scissors work best. Spread cocoa powder over a large baking tray. Take a heaped tsp of the truffle mix then, with cocoa-dusted hands, poke in a caramel chunk. Squash the mix around the caramel to seal, then roll into a ball. Put onto the tray, and then shake to coat in the cocoa. Repeat with the rest of the mix, then freeze, or chill if making less than 3 days ahead.

Tip: The recipe left me with quite a bit of caramel but I used it to fill up vanilla biscuits. You bake some simple vanilla biscuits and stick two together with some caramel you kept in the fridge, delicious!!

Thank you BBC GOOD FOOD magazine for the recipe!