Easy Chocolate Truffles

Leaving things until the last minute is not something I enjoy doing. In fact, it stresses me out. I like to plan out my tasks for the day, jot major events in my calendar, and have weekly to do lists to tick off. 

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, the organisation kicks up a notch. My Christmas shopping is done by the end of November, the tree is up by the fist week of December, and Christmas dinner is on a Gantt chart ready for the big day.

This year, however, I had no choice.

Weeks of night construction works (say, 10pm to 4am) had me dazed and confused and unable to function during the day. Luckily, that's over now, but there is never a good excuse not to bring something to a dinner party. 

This is where you need something is a guaranteed crowd pleaser and takes minimal effort to prepare -Tim Tam truffles.

With only two ingredients, it's impossible to forget the shopping list. If you have a food processor, crushing the biscuits takes no time at all. Note that I don't actually own one, so I used my mortar and pestle so it did take me a little longer..

The truffles are ready to eat as is or, to make them a little more special, you can roll them in cocoa or dip them in chocolate. They also make fantastic edible gifts.

So if you have left it to the last minute this year, there is still time to make these easy chocolate truffles! Get rolling!

Easy Chocolate Truffles
Recipe adapted from Arnotts

Truffle Ingredients:

2 packets of Tim Tam
250g tub of spreadable cream cheese

Coating Ingredients (optional):

Cocoa powder
Dark chocolate, melted
White chocolate, melted
Flake, crumbled

Method:
1. Crush Tim Tams in a food processor to make a crumb.
2. Fold in cream cheese to bind and chill the mixture in the fridge for 30 minutes.
3. Roll the mixture into truffle sized balls (I use a teaspoon) and chill in the fridge for 20 minutes.
4. Coat the truffles in whatever coating you would like or just eat them as they are.

White Chocolate Rocky Road

Rocky Road is one of my go to "easy to impress" recipes. The recipe is impossibly easy to make and, for some inexplicable reason, everyone gets unreasonably excited when they see a plate it!

I made these back when I had first started full time work and decided that I had to come up with a brilliant way of getting my new coworkers to like me the only way I know how -aside from witty banter and actually being able to do the tasks I was given of course! So I whipped up a batch of White Chocolate Rocky Road with my favourite ingredients and brought them in the next day for Valentines Day.

A few of my favourite things: pistachios, almonds, marshmallows, gummy bears, cranberries and desiccated coconut

My favourite thing about this recipe is that you're free to include whatever ingredients take your fancy. There is no proper Rocky Road - just whatever you happen to feel like when you're shopping for ingredients! My personal favourites are pistachios for the crunch, and gummy bears for the chew and beautiful colours.

Melting white chocolate buttons double boiler style

The quantities in this recipe can be altered at your whim depending on how much you need -just make sure you have enough melted chocolate to cover all the good bits. The only hard thing is melting the chocolate to make sure it is smooth without seizing up which shouldn't happen if you're using the double boiler method. 

So if you need to whip up something everyone is sure to like, try making your own Rocky Road filled with your favourite ingredients!

This recipe is for Sweet New Zealand #32, a blogging event open to all Kiwi bloggers (including those overseas) which is being hosted by Frances at Bake Club.

White Chocolate Rocky Road

Ingredients:

375g white chocolate buttons (or a big block, roughly chopped)

1/2 cup pistachios

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup almonds

1/2 cup gummy bears

1 cup marshmallows

1/3 cup desiccated coconut

Method:

1. Line the sides of a 27cm x 17cm rectangular baking pan with baking paper. Allow enough to hang over the sides.

2. Place the white chocolate buttons in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of boiling water to create a double boiler and let it melt. Stir occasionally to help it along. You can also do this in the microwave if you wish, but stir frequently so it doesn't burn.
3. Once the chocolate is melted and smooth, set aside for a few minutes.
4. In a large bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and mix well.
5. Pour the white chocolate over the top and work quickly to make sure everything is coated.
6. Spread the mixture evenly into the baking pan and refrigerate until it is set (I usually leave it overnight).
7. Lift the Rocky Road out of the pan and cut into squares on a chopping board. Use a good knife because white chocolate is a lot harder to cut!

Before we go our separate ways

Since Christmas last year, it has become tradition to gather at the "JJJ flat" (Jack, Jai, Jamie + Cam and Starsh) for Christmas dinner before we all go our separate ways for the holidays. Seeing my childhood friends gathered together for such a meal reminds me of just how grown up we've all become.

Grown ups preparing salad and eating crumbed chicken

Our parents no longer have to come up with ideas for snacks to take for shared lunches -we do that all by ourselves. Everyone who attends has a hand in the meal -bringing a plate, doing dishes and providing good conversation.

The good thing about grown up dinners is that guests realise that it's an actual meal and make an effort to outdo each other with their dishes -no packets of chips allowed!

Finished Chocolate Cobbler -it was really dark so I couldn't take a great picture..

I had decided against the randomiser and opted instead for a recipe I had seen on pioneer woman a few months ago. The chocolate cobbler looked simply divine and Jason begged me to make it. The recipe was quite easy to prepare and was absolutely delicious! The only trouble I had was that the oven dish I used was too big for the recipe and, hence, was forced to double it (but it's OK, the 20 servings of chocolate cobbler had be demolished by the end of the night). The recipe is at the end of this post.

Front to back, left to right: vegetable curry, also veggie curry, pavlova, ambrosia, lemon and sour cream cake, grated cheese, chilli, spinach and feta quiche, salad, crumbed chicken, chocolate brownie.

My mouth started watering as soon as we entered the flat. The smells that were coming out of that kitchen were absolutely delightful! When my eyes finally adjusted to the dimly lit kitchen, I spied Jai at the stove making his veggie curry, Ronen and Jo preparing the salad and a heaps of people crowded around a giant platter of, what I later found out, was crumbed chicken (thanks to Ronen's pro baking skills). Note to self: must crumb more chicken. More often.

Ronen's crumbed chicken (sorry for the lighting. I wish I was more pro)

Time: not sure. Status: really really hungry and wishing they would hurry up with the salad so I could grab a plate.

The spread before us was pretty magnificent. I didn't even know where to start. I just knew that I wanted a little bit of everything. 

Jai's: Veggie Curry #1 -chickpeas, green beans, onions

Jai's Veggie Curry #2 -capsicum, onions, cauliflower

 I am of a belief that a meal is not a meal without meat but Jai could persuade me otherwise if he cooked me food every day. As you may remember, I'm very weird about onion -it has to be cooked right the way through or I feel like vomiting. I did the opposite of vomit. I went back for more.

Jamie's Chilli

I'm a little ashamed to say that I didn't realise this was chilli until I saw Jamie have it over nachos. I treated it as a curry and had it over my rice which was just as nice (heaps of people copied me and had it over rice so it's OK).

Liz's Spinach and Feta Quiche

This was one of my favourites. Liz used flaky pastry instead of the traditional shortcrust pastry which gave it a lighter texture -perfect for the summer. 

Sarah's Pavlova and Ambrosia

Even after stuffing myself to bloatation, I was still looking forward to dessert. Again, we all got a little bit of everything in our bowls to fill our second stomachs (the one reserved for dessert).

My dessert bowl -chocolate cobbler, vanilla ice cream, ambrosia, pavlova, lemon cake (my trifle was on Jason's plate)

I was absolutely blown away by the calibre of pre-separation-Christmas dinner. I wish I brought my extra stretchy eating pants. I wish I owned extra stretchy eating pants. I must remember to buy some extra stretchy eating pants. The only downside was finding what I think was a hair in Grace's cake.. She denies this.

Grace hair? Mmmm..

I was more impressed with the way old friends came together and worked towards a dinner -how far we've come!

Cameron manually whipping cream for his trifle (unfortunately I was so excited that I started eating it before I could take a picture..)

Recipe for incredibly easy and incredibly yummy chocolate cobbler:

Ingredients -Brown sugar, flour, cocoa powder, milk, butter (later to be melted), salt, white sugar, baking powder and vanilla essence

Ingredients:
- 1 cup flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 7 Tbs cocoa powder, divided
- 1 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/3 cup melted butter
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (I always like to put extra)
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
- 1 1/2 cup hot water


Method:
1. Preheat oven to 180°C

Step 2

2. Stir together the flour, baking powder, salt, 3 tablespoons of the cocoa, and 3/4 cup of the white sugar. Reserve the remaining cocoa and sugar.

Step 3

3. Stir in the milk, melted butter, and vanilla to the flour mixture. Mix until smooth.

Step 4 with glad wrap.

4. Pour the mixture into an ungreased 8-inch baking dish. 

5. In a separate small bowl, mix the remaining white sugar (it should be 1/2 cup), the brown sugar, and remaining 4 tablespoons of cocoa. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the batter.

6. Pour the hot tap water over all. DO NOT STIR!

7. Bake for about 40 minutes or until the center is set.

Ice cream. Highly recommended.

8. Let stand for a little while and serve with ice cream and pour the gooey centre over the top. Trust me -you'll need the ice cream as this is super sweet!

Note: stopped at step 5 and took my separate parts over to the flat and completed the recipe there. This way, the cobbler would be nice and warm by the time everyone was ready for dessert. I highly recommend this option if you are taking this to a party -let it cook while you're eating!

I'm off to bed now as I'm flying out to China in 7 hours for more food adventures. Blogspot is banned there so I'll have to find a way to stealth blog. Stay tuned for weird food you probably never want to try!