Raymond Blanc’s chocolate truffles

Portion size: Makes 40-50
Hands-on time 5 min, simmering time 10 min, plus 1 hour setting
Difficulty: easy

Recipe by: Raymond Blanc

“Making chocolate truffles brings out the child in all of us, and perhaps you will find you have a young, curious helper (or two) in the kitchen. Put on your aprons and set aside a little time to have fun.” Raymond Blanc

Join Extradelicious to unlock Cook Mode

Ingredients

For the chocolates

- 300g dark chocolate (about 70% cocoa solids)
- 300ml whipping cream or double cream
- 35g runny honey
- 60g unsalted butter, room temperature and diced into small pieces

For coating

125g cocoa powder
Finely chopped pistachios
Toasted and chopped almonds
Desiccated coconut
Crushed dried raspberries

You’ll also need

Shallow tray lined with compostable baking paper
Baking sheet lined with compostable baking paper

Useful to have

Digital probe thermometer

Join Extradelicious to unlock Cook Mode

Method

In a microwave or bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the chocolate – it should read around 40ºC on a digital probe thermometer. Remove the pan from the heat.
In another small saucepan, bring the cream and honey to the boil. Remove the pan from the heat.
Whisk the boiled cream/honey mixture into the melted chocolate, little by little. It may look as if it is splitting, but persevere and you should end up with a shiny, silky-smooth mixture. Continue to stir with a spatula until the mixture has cooled to 35-40ºC, about 10 minutes. If you don’t have a thermometer, test it by touching it to your bottom lip – it should be slightly warm to the touch. With the spatula, stir in the butter.
Recipe continues after advertising adslot-recipe-4
To make chocolates, pour the mixture into the prepared tray (see Raymond’s tips). Allow the mixture to set for at least 1 hour before turning it out and cutting it into squares or other shapes. Transfer to a lined baking sheet. Alternatively, to make truffles, pour the mixture into a deep bowl and leave it to set. Use a melon baller to scoop out round truffles and place them on a lined baking sheet.
One at a time, roll the chocolates or truffles in any of the coatings above, then return to the lined tray until ready to serve (see Make Ahead).

Recipe taken from Simply Raymond by Raymond Blanc (Headline Home £25) which is out on 21 April 2021. Photographs: Chris Terry