Ingredients
Chillichocolate truffle pops
Method
1.Preheat oven to 150°C (130°C fan forced). Finely chop one of the chillies.
2.Stir 1⅓ cups (200g) of the chocolate and cream in a small saucepan over low heat until smooth, stir in the chopped chilli. Transfer mixture to a small bowl, refrigerate 3 hours.
3.Meanwhile, thinly slice remaining chilli. Place on a baking paper-lined oven tray, cook about 10 minutes or until chilli is dehydrated but still has its colour. Cool on tray. Combine sugar and the water in a small saucepan, stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved. Bring to the boil, boil, uncovered, without stirring, about 10 minutes or until mixture turns a toffee colour. Remove from heat, allow bubbles to subside, tint red. Pour toffee mixture over chilli on tray. Cool.
4.Working with one-quarter of the chilli-chocolate mixture at a time (keep remaining mixture in the refrigerator), roll heaped teaspoons of the mixture into balls. Place on a baking paper-lined tray. Refrigerate truffles about 1 hour or until firm.
5.Stir remaining chocolate in a medium heatproof bowl over a medium saucepan of simmering water (don’t let water touch base of bowl). Dip the end of one cocktail fork into chocolate, then push it halfway into a truffle. Return to tray. Repeat with remaining forks and truffles. Refrigerate 30 minutes.
6.Dip one truffle pop into the chocolate, rocking back and forth to coat, don’t swirl the pop, or it’ll break. Allow excess chocolate to drip back into the jug. Stand pop upright in a styrofoam block until almost set. Repeat with remaining truffle pops. Re-melt chocolate as necessary.
7.Break chilli toffee into small shards, push two or three pieces of toffee into the bottom of each truffle, just as chocolate coating begins to set. Using small tweezers, decorate truffle pops with pieces of gold leaf, taking care not to touch leaf with hands. Serve within 2 hours of making.
Undecorated truffle pops can be kept refrigerated for up to one week in an airtight container. If making ahead, melt a little extra chocolate to attach toffee. Truffle pops must be served within 2 hours of being decorated with toffee. Once decorated with toffee shards, the truffle pops cannot be refrigerated.
Note
