Simple Chocolate Truffles (10 variants)

These recipes all come from a battered notebook where I copied recipes when I was a kid. It is well used and covered with stains... The pages are starting to fall apart so I think it is a good idea to save those online.

Another festive / gift recipe - homemade truffles and apart from the whipping they are easy as anything (no dipping, they are just rolled in cocoa). And taste lovely.

If you dont like truffles that dark, use milk chocolate or half half.

Note: Of course the rum can be replaced with just about any flavoring or liqueur from cayenne pepper to bayley's... I tend to like rum, px sherry, raspberry liqueur, orange marmelade and grand marnier as flavors for mine.

• 250g dark cooking chocolate (or white or milk)
• 100g cream
• 1 tablespoon rum (see alternate flavours at the end)
• cocoa powder or chocolate sprinkles to roll the truffles in. You can also mix the cocoa powder with icing sugar to give a different look. These options can be useful to mark different flavors.

Melt the chocolate gently with 1 tablespoon of warm water. I tend to do that "bain marie" i.e. pot in another pot of near boiling water.
Warm the cream gently, so it can be mixed with the chocolate without solidifying it
Add the cream to the chocolate gradually until you have a smooth mixture
Let the mixture cool back to room temperature and add the rum (or other flavoring of your choice)
Whip the mixture into a thick mousse (5 minutes)
Refrigerate 15 minutes or more, so the mixture thickens
Roll the dough in little balls, and roll the balls in cocoa powder
Due to the high amount of cream they are better kept refrigerated for as long as possible, but take them out 20 minutes before serving at least.

Variants (moved from the comment below)
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* liquor chocolate: rum, bayleys, brandy, kirsch, calvados etc.
* inca style: cayenne pepper, cinnamon, coriander
* suzette: orange marmelade & grand marnier liqueur
* fruit: any fruit jelly (raspberry works well) & kirsch (or fruit spirit). Raspberry is a good flavor with dark chocolate, as is apricot. Apple & orange seem to work best with milk. Strawberry and lemon are best with white chocolate. This is all of course very personal.
* vintage style: rose water/rose syrup. Or violet extract if you can find it (tell me where!). Lavender water could also work but I have not tried it.
* eggnogg: use milk chocolate for the truffles and add nutmeg
* coffee: dissolve some instant coffee in the warm water used when melting the chocolate. Or use real coffee
* malt truffles, i.e. milk chocolate truffle base with added malt / ovomaltine / horlicks always goes down well too.

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