Milk Chocolate Cinnamon Truffles

Recipe extracted from Rococo Chocolate’s founder Chantal Coady’s book ‘Mastering the Art of Chocolate’, available to purchase online.

These are silky smooth, with a delicate flavour of cinnamon and vanilla – a lovely way of getting children to taste a flavour other than straight milk chocolate. You could also use other spices in it if you wish: nutmeg, cardamom, star anise, liquorice root or bark.

Makes 30–40 truffles

Equipment needed:

• 15cm square baking tin or rigid plastic box lined with clingfilm;
• Probe thermometer;
• Disposable piping bag fitted with 5mm round nozzle.

Ingredients:

• 250g good quality milk chocolate (we recommend our 40% Cocoa Organic Milk Chocolate), broken into pieces;
• 130ml whipping cream;
• 15g liquid glucose or honey;
• 30g caster sugar;
• 1 cinnamon stick, crushed;
• 1⁄2 vanilla pod, split lengthways;
• 40g softened unsalted butter, diced;
• 300g good quality milk chocolate, tempered, for dipping;
• Icing sugar (flavoured with ground cinnamon if you wish), cocoa powder, or chopped nuts, to decorate.

Instructions:

1. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a bain-marie. Set aside.
2. Place the cream and glucose or honey in a small heavy-based saucepan and gently heat until it is almost boiling. Remove from the heat and set aside.
3. Place a clean and grease-free heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat. Once hot, put all of the sugar in the pan with the crushed cinnamon stick and split vanilla pod. Heat the sugar, shaking the pan regularly, and stir until the sugar melts.
4. Remove the pan from the heat when the caramel has darkened to a golden colour and pour the warm cream into the caramel, stirring with a rubber spatula to combine. Be careful, as it will bubble and spit.
5. Pass the mixture through a sieve into a clean heatproof bowl and let it cool to 60oC.
6. Stir a third of the caramel cream into the melted chocolate with a rubber spatula. As the mixture thickens, stir the next third in, and by the addition of the final third you will have a smooth and glossy ganache. Beat in the butter, until it has been fully incorporated.
7. Pour the ganache mixture into a shallow container, spread it out evenly and place a sheet of clingfilm over the surface. Leave it at room temperature for 30 minutes–1 hour to firm up.
8. Spoon it into a piping bag and pipe into long logs on a baking tray covered with non-stick baking paper (use a little ganache to stick the corners of the paper to the tray, to prevent it moving while you are piping). Leave to set overnight in a cool place.
9. Cut to size when set, then dip them one by one into the tempered chocolate, using two dipping forks. Make sure they are evenly coated, then roll them in icing sugar, cocoa powder or chopped nuts.
10. Place them on a baking tray lined with a silicone mat or greaseproof paper and leave to set. The truffles will keep well for up to a week if covered in tempered chocolate and kept in a cool, dry place.