Boozeday Tuesday – chestnut rum truffles

I would have preferred these to be brandy truffles, but I only had 3 tablespoons of rum left and less of brandy, so I went with the rum. The following recipe, which I’ve kind of made-up (but based on a plethora of similar ideas for tart fillings and desserts), was a bit of a gamble, since I don’t always get the ratio right in getting enough chocolate to set the truffles without them being bullet-hard. I figured, though, that if it didn’t set it’d be just as good spread on bread, and I’d just try again!

I got one of my tins of chestnut puree ( this stuff ) and weighed out what the scales told me was 200g. The tins are supposedly 415g and I’d definitely taken more than half out, so once again my need for new scales is apparent. I thought I would match the weight with some dark chocolate, so I weighed out the last of my open bag of 72% Plamil chocolate chips in a separate bowl, which came to 155g, and then made up the rest with some of a slightly lower cocoa content, I think 63%. I put the chips to melt in a bain marie, then weighed 50g golden syrup into the chestnut puree and mashed it in with a fork. Could have used a food processor to get it smooth but I didn’t want the extra washing-up and don’t mind a few lumps. I added the last 3 tablespoons of rum in my bottle (that sounds worse than I intended it to! I had eked a 70cl bottle of rum out over at least the last 6 months!), and by now my chocolate chips were melted so I added the chestnut mixture into the melted chocolate, and then poured it into a small Pyrex dish I’d lined with clingfilm.

If you thought my pictures were bad before, let me tell you that my laptop has just conked out and instead I’m working on a tiny tablet, so I’ve no idea how things are going to look on a larger-than-miniscule screen now, sorry about that!

I  covered the dish and left it to cool for a couple of hours in the fridge. When it was time to get the lump of truffle out for hacking up, it was surprisingly difficult to remove. I guess I should have oiled the dish before lining it, maybe? I did manage in the end though, and cut it into square-ish shapes.

Although I did intend to temper some chocolate to cover these with, and maybe get fancy with some decorative toppings, these really don’t need anything else. For such a simple and easy recipe, they really are delicious, with a little bit of fudge-like grainyness from the chestnut, just the right hint of rum without being overpowering, and enough chocolate to get a good truffly melt going on. I would think these would be absolutely perfect to end a dinner party with. Or just eat, really! I’m going to have to freeze most of these, otherwise they’ll be gone in no time.
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