Sylvia's Chocolate Truffles

Sarah & Christina always have something delicious to share at Frankly Entertaining. Today they're sharing a favorite Holiday goodie with us. Should be tasty! Thanks for being here, ladies...

We're so excited to be back at Bloom to share one of our favorite Christmas gift recipes. Chocolate is almost universally appealing, and truffles never disappoint!

These were a staple at our house whenever there was entertaining to be done. Our mom could almost always be counted on to bring these super simple treasures to any party. Our mom usually made them plain, semi-sweet chocolate dipped in semi-sweet chocolate. Sometimes she switched the coating to white chocolate, and sometimes she just rolled them in cocoa powder.
These are super rich, so avoid the temptation to make them big. A little bite is usually enough to satisfy people.

As with all things, the quality makes the difference. The better the chocolate you use, the better the end result. However, I reccomend starting with whatever chocolate chips you have on hand and seeing how you like it. I also experiment with flavor add ins. On this batch I used peppermint extract for one half, and orange extract for the other half. The peppermint ones got dipped in melted chocolate and topped with crushed candy cane, and the orange ones got rolled in either cocoa, sprinkles or chocolate shavings.

People are usually impressed because these look like they take a lot of time, but the first stage takes about five minutes, then there's chilling time, the rolling takes about 15 minutes, then there's chilling time, and the decorating takes about fifteen minutes. If you have someone to help, you can cut the rolling and decorating times in half!

These make a really thoughtful neghbor gift, or co-worker gift. You only need to give someone a few, so you get a lot of gifts out of one batch. You can put them in cellophane bags, or box them up. One year I was delayed with neighbor gift by the early arrival of my second son, so instead we took these around for New Years; we attached a bag with two truffles to a mini bottle of Martinelli's and added a sparkler.


Recipe:

Ingredients:
1/3 cup whipping cream
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. butter
1 c. chocolate chips (or any other chocolate you'd like to use)
1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:

1. Put cream, sugar, and butter into a small saucepan over medium heat.
2. Heat mixture until butter melts, or bubbles start to appear around the edge of the pan. You don't want the cream to boil.
3. Remove cream from heat and stir in vanilla.
4. Pour cream mixture over chocolate chips, and stir until smooth. This is where you could add the different flavorings.
5. Put the chocolate mixture into the fridge to cool for about a half an hour. You want the mixture to be firm, but workable.
6. When the mixture is firm, start scooping it out a teaspoonfull at a time.
7. Roll each teaspoon sized piece into a ball, and place back into the fridge for about ten minutes. IF the mixture starts getting too warm to hold its shape, place it back into the fridge for a few mintues.
8. When the individual truffles are cooled it's time to decorate. Let imagination be your guide. Use melted chocolate, sprinkles, a dash os sea salt, or anything else you can think of.
9. Now, take them around the neighborhood and make some new best friends!

Thanks Anne and Emily for letting us come back and share with the Bloom readers. We hope you enjoy this little treat. Be sure to let us know if you come up with any delicious flavor combinations.