MoFo Tuesday: Chocolate Truffles

In this final week of MoFo postings, I have abandoned any pretense of health and sensible nutrition, it seems, in pursuit of pure, unadulterated pleasure.

Of the 'Chocolate Truffle' variety, specifically.

I recently acquired - at the behest of My Dear Mama - a copy of the Artful Vegan, the cookbook from the Millenium Restaurant. It is splendid - full of juicy foodie images and beautifully elegant recipes. They are not exactly your typical 'mid-week, just got home from work, via the gym, still got to feed and walk the dogs and it's already 8:15pm' kind of fare, however. But, this weekend, I took the plunge in a very minor way by making these:



Chocolate truffles.

They are super simple but ridiculously delicious. Here's what you do:

Chop up 3/4 cup dark chocolate and 1/4 cup dried cherries, thus:




Melt them in a double boiler along with 1/4 cup soymilk and a 1/4 cup of rum. Stir gently until it looks like this...a marvelously melty choccie confection!



Add a 1/4 tsp chili powder for a bit of a spice kick. This is optional, but fun!

Refrigerate for about 2 hours.

Using a melon baller (or teaspoon), scoop out the thickened mix and drop into some cocoa powder, sweetened with a little powdered sugar. Roll into cute little balls, popping the first one into your mouth - just for 'Quality Control' purposes, of course.

Yeah.

The mixture should make about 16 truffles (-1 for the cook!) so there are ample to go around.

I substituted dried cranberries for the dried cherries as that's what I had in the cupboard, rationalising that - this way - there's a double serving of those wonderful antioxidents!

The end result was deep, dark and rich beyond words. The kick of cayenne (I had no chili powder as such) comes on afterwards, but it is unmistakable and surprisingly good.

If you want to try them for yourselves, this is the book for you:



Or come on over to my place - I have a whole batch just waiting for you!

Stay Vegan, Friends!