Sugar high

Today I made truffles. I've made this recipe before to no small acclaim but I rarely make them because it takes so blinkin long. Here is the recipe: Earl Grey Chocolate Truffles, and I doubled it except I accidentally tripled the cream, which didn't seem to matter, and I only added a bit more tea but in hindsight the original amount was still probably enough. I did all this while listening to a few BBC Radio 4 podcasts. I like to try to keep in touch with goings-on in the homeland.

First you warm the cream and let it steep with orange and Earl Grey tea leaves for an hour. Then strain it, warm it, melt in the butter, and pour it over the chocolate. (My food processor did not enjoy carving up chocolate chips - you'd think I was dropping in chunks of concrete.) Leave that to set in the fridge for an hour. (We're already at two hours, if you're counting.)

Use a melon baller to scoop it into balls on a wax paper-lined baking sheet and place sheet in freezer for an hour (or overnight. I did all this yesterday.)

It's too floopy to make perfect round shapes. What's more, if you should ever make this, I recommend keeping this tray in the freezer and taking them out one at a time when you get to the next stage, which is to cover them in melted chocolate. Not just any melted chocolate - heated to a specific temperature, then cooled, then heated again. Plus 'dropping them into the melted chocolate' never works. I just drizzle a bit in the bottom of each case, drop in the truffle, and drizzle over the top.

Et voila.

Once they've been in the fridge for a(nother) hour, they are hard on the outside and still truffley soft in the inside. I had a taste of one. It was like a bite of concentrated sugar. It makes me shiver just to remember that one bite. Still, some people have a sweet tooth. I have one more batch in the freezer then that's it for another year (or two). Putting-Feet-Up time.