CHOCOLATE DIPPED WHOLE CHESTNUT TRUFFLES
This, ladies and gentlemen, is my offering for Christmas: a time-poor, decadent, homemade, see-I-did-make-an-effort delight for gifting or savouring with your eyes closed while you curl up on the sofa. A no-mix, no-roll, 2-ingredient “truffle” without a blender in sight.
After picking up a vacuum-sealed bag of ready-cooked chestnuts from a local deli (‘cause ‘tis the season), as much as I relished the starchy sweet morsels, they were even more melt-in-the-mouth teamed with some milky chocolate — a piece stuck in my mouth at the same time as a chestnut. That week I also met a friend from Austria who gifted me with an Austrian treat, Shoko Maroni, the smoothest blend of chestnut spiked with booze and wrapped in dark chocolate.
I was inspired to create something for Christmas and I mulled over the possibilities: chestnuts boiled and mashed from scratch, pre-packed chestnut purées, cooking up chestnut purée using dried and ground chestnuts and water, mixing with a sweetener and spices and then rolling it into balls or setting it in moulds to dip with chocolate?
I then pondered (with a chestnut in my mouth) that actually, a whole cooked chestnut is sweet and soft and special enough. So after all that calculating in my head I resorted to melting some chocolate in a bowl over a pan of hot water using a super helpful method to temper the chocolate and keep it glossy (otherwise the full bloom that overheated chocolate can experience ruins the look, texture and some of the taste) without the need for a thermometer and temp checks — and then covered my chestnuts with chocolate which ran into the natural chestnut grooves and was thick enough to give a desirable coating in one go. I used a coconut milk chocolate by Ombar (55% cacao) that is already creamy and sweet, set it out on a silicone mat (Mahi’s place mat!) and decorated with what I had to hand: dried raspberry sprinkles and a dusting of cocoa. You can also get sophisticated with a sprinkle of salt flakes. Then package them up, keep them in the fridge and serve at room temperature for a delicious, seasonal and adorable treat — enjoy!
INGREDIENTS
1 packet (180g) ready-cooked, peeled and packed chestnuts
140g chocolate (I used 2 x 70g bars of Ombar Coco Mylk 55%), broken into pieces
To decorate
Ideas include crushed freeze-dried raspberries (find them in supermarkets), white or black sesame seeds, toasted crushed pistachios or walnuts, desiccated coconut flakes, cocoa powder, baobab powder, tiny pinch of beetroot powder, toasted flaked almonds
METHOD
Prepare your work station, as you’ll need to work quickly with the chocolate. Set up a tray covered in baking parchment or a silicone mat and have two forks and your chestnuts ready (make sure they are at room temperature and dry).
Set up a bain-marie or double boiler by placing a glass, ceramic or stainless steel bowl on a pan filled with a couple of inches of water so that it is not touching the water.
Add all the chocolate pieces except two into the bowl and let them gently melt, giving a stir every once in a while.
Just as all the chocolate has melted, remove from the heat and add in the last two pieces of chocolate to melt, stirring to combine — this method keeps the chocolate shiny as well as thick so that you don’t have to double-dip your chestnuts for a nice thick chocolate coating.
Drop a chestnut into the chocolate and use two forks to make sure it’s well coated, then lift out using one fork and give it a wiggle to let the excess chocolate drip off. Gently place onto the baking parchment or silicone tray, then shake over any nuts or sprinkles you might want to add before the chocolate cools off too much for them to stick (any cocoa dusting can be done later). Continue with the rest of the chestnuts, placing the bowl back onto the still warm pan for a while if it all starts to get too thick and gooey.
When you’ve finished, dust some or all with cocoa powder, sprinkle a pinch with your fingers or for a more professional job use a tiny tea sieve.
Leave the “truffles” to cool and then package up in a container. Leave somewhere cool and away from light for a couple of days, or for longer storage, keep in the fridge. Enjoy!
East by West tip:
Due to the low sugar and unprocessed nature of these treats, I keep them in the fridge until needed as they do not contain any preservatives, though the chocolate covering should keep them well sealed.
If you want to add booze, add it to the chocolate, as you want to keep the chestnuts as dry as possible for the chocolate to stick well.
If you like the sound of these, you’ll also like the banana and date cookie dough bites, the chocolate orange barfi and the Christmas tree gingerbread cookies.
If you would like to cook your own chestnuts from scratch: rinse the chestnuts, then score on one side and boil for approximately 45 minutes depending on their size, until completely tender. Drain well and leave to cool on a dish cloth or airing rack, then, while still warm, remove the outer shell. Allow to fully cool and dry before coating them in chocolate.
