Chocolate Truffle Box: Dark Raspberry and Milk Orange

For my next trick, moulded chocolate shells filled with truffle and fruit jam! I made my Dad a box of these for his present, and he really appreciated them.

A few weeks ago, I was in Dealz (PoundLand) and I found a lovely sillicone mould with shapes of various tea time things, like cakes, teacups and teapots, and I thought this would be ideal to make some nice truffle filled moulded chocolates for Christmas. Over the next few weeks, I designed what would go into each chocolate.

Seeing as the mould had 15 holes, of 5 different designs, I thought I could do 5 different fillings, but in the end I thought of a better idea: to use the mould to make one whole batch of dark chocolate truffles, and one whole batch of milk chocolate truffles, then just make a box including one of each shape and colour, making a box of ten in total.

I filled the dark chocolate shells with raspberry jam and dark chocolate truffle, made with what I like to refer to as a faux-ganache, and then the milk chocolate shells where filled with orange marmalade and milk chocolate truffle. To make the chocolate shells, I needed 3 1/2 ounces (100g) chocolate per tray.

I melted the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over simmering water until almost completely melted, then I removed to bowl from the heat and continued stirring until fully melted; this is the lazy man's way of tempering, and has served me well so far. I put one teaspoon of chocolate into each shape in the mould, then using the tip of the teaspoon, spread the chocolate up the sides; if it spills out a bit, that's okay.

Put a sheet of non-stick baking paper underneath a wire rack, then put the mould upside-down on the wire rack; the chocolate will dribble out of the mould, through the rack, onto the paper. This will coat the sides completely. When the dripping stops, turn the mould right-side up again; scrape the excess chocolate off the surface of the mould with a palette knife, or the back of a normal knife. Put this in the fridge to set for about 10 minutes before filling. On removing from the fridge, fill each hole leaving a eighth inch (3 millimetre) gap at the top.

To make the fillings, you will need:

RASPBERRY DARK CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE

• 2 ounces (55 grammes) chocolate, broken into pieces
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) butter or margarine
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) raspberry jam
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) raspberry jam, sieved

Heat together the butter (or margarine) with the tablespoon of jam until melted and just starting to bubble. Remove from the heat, and stir in the chocolate until smooth. Leave to cool slightly before using, so as not to melt the shells. Use the sieved jam and the ganache to fill each shell.

ORANGE MILK CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE

• 2 ounces (55 grammes) milk chocolate
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) butter or margarine
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) milk
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) caster sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) orange marmalade, sieved.

Heat together the butter (or margarine) with sugar and milk until the sugar and butter have melted together and the mixture is just starting to bubble. Remove from the heat, allow to cool slightly, then stir in the chocolate until smooth. Leave to cool slightly before using, so as not to melt the shells. Use the sieved jam and the ganache to fill each shell.

I put a quarter teaspoon of jam (for dark) and marmalade (for milk) into each shell, then topped each one off with about a half teaspoon of ganache. Allow to stand for ten minutes. There should be some melted chocolate left over from making the shells, and the chocolate that dribbled onto the paper should be a little bit set by now, so take all the chocolate off the paper, add back into the heatproof bowl, and re-melt very gently over simmering water as before until almost melted.

Stir until completely melted, then spoon onto the tops of the filled chocolates, gently spreading it into the corners. Allow to set completely at room temperature for an hour, or pop into the freezer for 10 minutes. Gently turn each hole inside-out to get the chocolates out, and put into little paper cases.

These turned out really well for my first, and I hope that future attempts will only improve!