Lemon truffles

Besides loving citrus flavors – something you already know – I also love white chocolate. I know it’s not considered real chocolate and all that, but I don’t care: I’m a huge fan. And the best thing is that it goes extremely well with my other favorites: yes, the citrus.

The initial idea was making caipirinha truffles – a recipe I got from a chocolate class I took ages ago; the truffles were served in the end of class and they were oh, so good. But the truffles I was making had a destination already – the girls who work at the beauty salon I go to – and I did not want to take risks adding cachaça. It would be pretty possible that some of the girls might not take alcohol and then the gift would make no sense at all.

That is why I adapted a basic truffle recipe from this book and added a sour zing with lemon.

I was wondering about the flavor being much too sour, but now, more than 2 weeks after the “delivery”, I’m sure it wasn’t: the girls keep talking about the truffles and two of them have asked me for the recipe.

Lemon truffles
adapted from The Art of Chocolate

500g white chocolate, finely chopped
grated zest of 1 lemon
¼ cup (60ml) lemon juice
1/3 heaping cup cream*
cocoa powder

Combine cream and lemon zest a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until the cream starts to bubble – don’t let it boil.

Remove from heat and add the chocolate at once, whisking vigorously until the chocolate is melted and you get a thick, smooth and silky mixture. Add the juice, mix well, transfer the mixture to a glass bowl and cover with plastic wrap/cling film. Refrigerate until firm enough to form balls - I let it sit in the fridge overnight.

Scoop out rounded mounds of the mixture (while it’s still cold and firm) and form balls – you don’t want your truffles to be perfectly rounded. Roll the truffles in cocoa powder and place in small fluted paper cases or on a plate. Keep refrigerated.

* I used a type of cream we have here that is packaged in small Tetra Pak boxes; it contains 25% fat. I did it to avoid having almost 400g heavy cream in the fridge for nothing – it would end up in the garbage can and I don’t like wasting food.

Makes about 60 truffles (10g each)