These chocolate orange flavoured truffles are super easy and oh, so Christmassy!
This recipe is quite the truffle hack! Once you realise how easy it is to make your own truffles, you’ll be making them all the time or maybe that’s just me!
Talking of Christmas puddings and cake hacks, have you checked out my other Christmas favourite, Renee’s Perfect Puddings?
I actually made these truffles last Christmas when I had an excess of sponge cake offcuts after making a Swimming Pool Birthday Cake for my niece. I didn’t want to waste the cake so I upcycled it instead into these tasty truffles. Now if you don’t have any spare sponge cake lying around, then a shop bought cake will do the job just as well!
I think the chocolate orange combination is hard to beat but you can use mandarins or oranges in this recipe. If you want to make these truffles adults only, try swapping the juice for Conitreau for an extra Christmas kick!
The thing I love most about these truffles is that they’re so easy, even I can make them. I’m the world’s worst cake decorator and have a very bad track record with melted chocolate. The trick with these babies is to melt the chocolate and work with the truffles in two batches so you have plenty of time to coat each truffle. And the best bit? If your truffle dipping is a bit rustic, the white chocolate and the M&M cover all manner of mishaps!
These are the perfect addition to any Christmas party or dessert platter, in fact, these truffles are so good, that we’ve enjoyed them all year round because these little balls are amazeballs!
What’s your favourite Christmas dessert? Do you have a cracking kitchen hack?
Makes 20 truffles
Ingredients
450g stale cake (shop bought or home made)
1 x 100g packet Lindt Excellence Intense Orange Dark Chocolate
2 tablespoons mandarin or orange juice or Cointreau
225g milk or dark chocolate
20g white chocolate
Red M&Ms to decorate
How to – Traditional
- Blitz the cake in a Food processor until you have fine crumbs. Check there are no lumps of cake because these will make your truffles hard to roll later. Set crumbs aside.
- Break the Lindt chocolate into chunks and place in a heatproof bowl over a pan over simmering water (making sure the water doesn’t touch the bow,) stirring occasionally with a metal spoon until the chocolate has melted and is smooth.
- In a large bowl, combine the crumbs, mandarin juice and melted Lindt and mix well to combine. Alternatively process in a food processor until well combined.
- Line a baking tray with baking paper. Roll level tablespoons of mixture into balls and place on tray.
- When all the balls are rolled, pop the tray into the fridge for half an hour.
- Remove half the truffles from the fridge. Melt half the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second bursts until completely melted.
- Using a fork, dip the truffles, one at a time into the melted chocolate carefully allowing any excess to drip off. Place on the prepared tray and set aside for 10 minutes. Repeat with the remaining chocolate and truffles.
- In another microwave safe bowl, melt the white chocolate in 30 second bursts until completely melted. Allow to stand for a couple of minutes. Then, using a teaspoon, drizzle some “icing” on top of each truffle.
- Finish the puddings off with a red M&M.
- Pop the truffles in the fridge to set for 1 hour.
How to – Thermomix
- Place cake in TM bowl and set the dial to the closed lid position. Blitz on Turbo for a couple of seconds or until the cake is until you have fine crumbs. Check there are no lumps of cake because these will make your truffles hard to roll later. Set crumbs aside.
- Break chocolate into chunks and place in TM bowl. Blitz for 5 seconds on speed 9. Melt for 2 minutes at 50 degrees on speed 2 or until melted.
- Add crumbs and mandarin juice into bowl and mix for 15 seconds on reverse speed 4, scraping down sides of bowl half way through.
- Line a baking tray with baking paper. Roll level tablespoons of mixture into balls and place on tray.
- When all the balls are rolled, pop the tray into the fridge for half an hour.
- Remove half the truffles from the fridge. Melt half the chocolate in the microwave in 30 second bursts until completely melted.
- Using a fork, dip the truffles, one at a time into the melted chocolate carefully allowing any excess to drip off. Place on the prepared tray and set aside for 10 minutes. Repeat with the remaining chocolate and truffles.
- In another microwave safe bowl, melt the white chocolate in 30 second bursts until completely melted. Allow to stand for a couple of minutes. Then, using a teaspoon, drizzle some “icing” on top of each truffle.
- Finish the puddings off with a red M&M.
- Pop the truffles in the fridge to set for 1 hour.
