Daphne (deadendmind) sent me a step by step photo recipe for yummy chocolate truffles.

Here’s a note on culture. When it’s our name day or our birthday we traditionally do a kerasma in Greece. It means to offer a bit of food or dessert at work or to friends and family to celebrate. So this is Daphne’s favourite kerasma recipe.

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When we are celebrating or its our birthday we usually offer some dessert to colleagues. However, in the middle of the economic crises this can be a bit of drain on resources, especially if one wants to offer nibbles to 30 people. What could be better than just making something yourself? However, we are not all be professionals nor have a lot of time. So, here is an easy recipe which yields a lot of chocolate pieces and everyone likes!

I made these chocolate truffles for the third year in a row to just give a kerasma to my colleagues for my brithday. The great thing about the recipe is that I can do one part one day and the next the next day.

I found the original recipe on TasteFULL (leads to Greek post) and just changed it a bit.

Let’s get a move on:

You’ll need

• 250gr. dark chocolate (sweet rather than bitter)
• 100 ml single cream (and a bit more if you omit the alcohol)
• 25gr. butter
• 40ml. of alcohol you like or a bit of coffee for the smell
• cocoa powder for after (even better if it’s fair trade)

Method:

Chop the chocolate into pieces and put in a bain-marie to make the process faster. While the chocolate is being heated up, put the cream in another saucepan to warm it up too.

A heartbeat before the cream boils take it off the heat and pour over the chocolate.

Stir gently. Initially it will look wrong but keep on stirring until the chocolate if fully incorporated. You’ll see that the mixture will become lovely.

Now it’s time to throw in the butter. Stir, stir, stir until it’s all incorporated. Add your flavour (alcohol or coffee) and take off the heat.

If everything was done right (it will have been, it’s super easy) your mixture is going to be shiny. This is the part where you can add anything you want like dried fruit.

After, you can just let it set in the bowl, then take a bit and create little chocolate bowls. I did this the first time around and it takes forever. Also if it’s a bit warm the mixture melts. So here’s the easy way to do it.

Grab a little tray and cover it with some cling film. Leave the mixture aside for a while so that it is not really warm and then pour it in the tray. Spread it with a spatula so that it is even, cover with some cling film and put it in the fridge. Leave it of 2 hours at least or overnight. The mixture has to be hard enough to work by hand.

Final hurdle!
Take the tray out of the fridge and turn over on some non stick paper. It will have the tray shape so your chocolate truffles will be rectangular.

Put some cocoa powder in a bowl. Grab a big knife, wear some gloves if you want to avoid getting chocolate all over your hands.

Cut the chocolate in to strips and then into little rectangular pieces and put them in the bowl with the cocoa. Not all together, some at a time. Move then around a bit so that they are fully covered by cocoa.

That’s it! They are really tasty, they have a velvety texture and a slight bitterness from the cocoa coating. Depending on the pan you use you will end up with more or less, thinner or thicker, but more or less around 30 pieces. This is a recipe that you can vary and experiment with a lot so you can change it according to what you like.

Not a lot of time required, not a lot of money and you have a handmade kerasma (which I always consider best)

Good luck!

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WHO COOKED:
Daphne(deadendmind)
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