Evolution of the truffle

At this time of year I often make truffles. Something luscious, vegan and packed full of kilojoules is the perfect way to celebrate the solstice.

Over the years the truffles have evolved from a coconut cream based chocolate ball, to an infused coconut oil one. 

The problem with truffles is they’re often frustrating and time consuming to make. The mix needs to be firm but not so cold it shatters, nor so warm it melts just looking at it. Let’s face it – late at night on the solstice eve, constantly walking between the workbench and fridge to rechill the mix between every half dozen truffles gets a tad tiresome. In humid December weather, sitting in a tepid bath with an icy drink (and smouldering companion) would be way more fun.

A couple of months ago I promised to take a sweet to a friends place for dinner. I dithered. I dathered. Until finally I only had a couple of hours to concoct something. The ‘something’ became a cubed version of truffles, simple cut into mouth-sized bites. 

If time permits you can still go down the sensory truffle path and infuse the oil with orange peel, spices or something else equally delicious (chilli anyone?). But the version I ended up creating with walnuts and liqueur worked fine. Lets put it this way; there were no complaints or leftovers.

Because how I conceptualised this recipe and what actually went into it are slightly different - I'm giving two different ingredients lists. I know some of you actually like qualities and others (like me) have a 'look and adapt' approach. Lets keep everyone happy!

The truffle that became a square

Freeform ingredients list

Base
2 parts good quality chocolate

1 part coconut oil (plain or infused)

Pinch of sea salt

Texture and flavour

A handful of walnuts, broken into smallish pieces - and/or nut paste

A generous handful of something fruity with an edge e.g. dried cherries, freeze dried raspberries or orange zest

OR a couple of tsp of a good quality liqueur such as Grand Marnier or Frangelico if you want to extend the nut thing use hazel instead of walnuts. (Note: too much grog might stop it from setting)

A quantified list of ingredients

200 gm 80% good quality chocolate
100 gm coconut oil
100 gm almond butter (make sure it's pure, check the ingredients especially if its a big brand)
3/4 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 tsp Grand Marnier

Method

If you’re going to infuse the coconut oil, start this a day or two before. Otherwise the chocolate slice takes a few minutes to put together, plus another hour to chill.

Assemble your ingredients and find an appropriate tin or container. Ideally use a square or rectangular baking tin (nothing with sloping sides or alas, you’ll just have to eat all the trimmings!)  Aim for a size appropriate to the mass of ingredients so that the chocolate concoction comes up to about 3-5 cm high (depending on how small our large you want your squares). Metal is ideal, you don’t need to grease, though you can line with baking paper if desired.

Blitz or chop the chocolate so they’re in even sized pieces. In a double boiler gently heat until half the chocolate is melted.

If your coconut oil is solid, melt over a low heat – it takes a very short time so don’t take your eye off it. I usually let it half melt then turn the heat off.

Combine the chocolate, nut paste (optional) and oil (hopefully they’re still semi solid rather than a liquid but it still works, though the nuts or fruit might drop to the bottom). Mix through the nuts, fruit and/or flavouring of choice.

Refrigerate for about an hour until fully solid (use the freezer if in a hurry). It's a good idea to allow it to come up to room temperature before cutting, to avoid snaps and shards. If necessary, run a warm knife around the edges and cut into bite-sized cubes. Of course if you painstakingly lined the tin, you just have to pull the slab out and cut.

You can pretty up the cubes of chocolatey goodness with a sprinkling of cocoa, icing sugar or rose petals but really, these taste so good they don’t need they don’t need it.

dessert gyoza

This post has been in the pipeline for the past year. Blame the delay on gluttony. This is a morsel best eaten hot, so the restraint required to delay gratification and take a photo is quite large.

For those pedants loving precise measurements, the joy of this recipe is that you can make a small batch of three or four (if you can restrain yourself) for some late night solo pleasure, or dozens for a large crowd. As only a teaspoon of filling per gyoza is needed, a little goes a very long way. You can whiz up a batch in a mini food processor (for this job a regular sized processor is way too large, unless you like A LOT of dessert) and store the leftovers in a jar in the fridge for later use.

While flour isn't exactly a health food, this recipe does incorporate wonderful antioxidant rich dark chocolate with the calcium (and other nutrient) abundance of figs and nuts. It's also vegan/dairy-free.

Chocolate gyoza

2 parts dark chocolate, at least 70% (For two people 40 grams of chocolate is enough)

1 part dried figs

1 part walnuts

Gyoza wrappers*

Coconut oil

Icing sugar (optional)

To the make the filling either finely chop the chocolate, fried figs and walnuts, or blitz in a mini food processor.

Take a gyoza wrapper; place a heaped teaspoon of filling mixture in the centre, run a little water around the outer few centimetres of the wrapper, fold and gently press together. You can crimp by hand or use one of those nifty cheap plastic gyoza presses from an Asian grocery store. Repeat until you have the desired number of gyoza.

Heat a frying pan on medium. Add a teaspoon of coconut oil (really this is the best oil for the job) and place as many gyoza as you can in the pan. It’s ok for them to snuggle up next to each other. Cook for about 3 minutes on the first side, flip over, then another 2 minutes on the other. Or til just golden.

Plate up. Dust with icing sugar if desired and eat while hot.

Variations

What do you like with your chocolate? I settled on figs and nuts to slightly mitigate the sweetness and bring a little more healthy goodness to the dessert.

But if you’re not a health freak you can spike pure chocolate with a little orange zest, a splash of liqueur, a smidgeon of sea salt or even black pepper.

* you can find gyoza wrappers in the fridge at most Asian grocery stores.