Chocolate Christmas Tree Lollipops with Chocolate Truffle Presents

These chocolates made up the second present that I took to the ‘Let’s Make Christmas’ food blogger event. My first gift was the Christmas Pudding Macarons that I wrote about here. For this gift I included some Chocolate Christmas Tree Lollipops and Chocolate Truffles in the box, with the idea that the truffles were the presents under the tree. I made the trees by placing a template underneath these chocolate transfer sheets, piping tempered chocolate on top and then placing a lollipop stick in the chocolate before it sets. Make sure you fully rotate the lollipop stick to coat it with chocolate all the way round before leaving it to set.

I wanted the truffle flavours to reflect Christmas and finally decided to make the following fillings;

• Gingerbread
• Brandy butter caramel
• Baileys and Vanilla
• Peach and amaretto

Maybe the last two aren’t necessarily traditional Christmas flavours but I always drink more Baileys and Amaretto around this time (sometimes both mixed together), especially as Baileys tends to be much cheaper in December. I made my truffles in moulds but all of these fillings have a thick enough consistency that it would be possible to refrigerate them and then roll by hand. Just scoop out even sized pieces, roll and dip in chocolate or roll in other ingredients such as cocoa powder or toasted nuts.

To make the chocolates in the moulds you can follow the method below. I think I will cover tempering chocolate in a future post but for now I would recommend following these instructions to temper using the seeding method. The only special equipment you will need is a good thermometer – I have had most success with this electronic probe thermometer , which costs just ?7.99.

Ingredients

1kg tempered dark chocolate (for up to four moulds)
150g – 200g of each filling per mould
Assorted moulds

Method

1. Place your tempered chocolate in a piping bag fitted with a narrow plastic nozzle. Place the nozzle near the bottom of each cavity (this helps to prevent air bubbles) and fill with chocolate. Once all the cavities are full tap the mould down on the worktop a few times to remove any air bubbles. If you are working with more than one mould complete step two before moving filling another mould.

2. Working quickly, turn the mould upside down over a bowl and tap with the handle of a large knife to remove the excess chocolate. Scrape the excess from the top of the mould with a large palette knife and leave to set.

3. While the chocolate is setting you can make your fillings. Once the chocolate is set and the fillings are cool you can pipe the fillings into the moulds. Fill the moulds about 4/5 full. Leave the filling to set (it is best to wait at least an hour).

4. To close the moulds temper your leftover chocolate. Pour the chocolate over the mould and spread using a palette knife until each cavity is filled. Scrape away the excess. Leave for the chocolate to harden.

5. Turn the mould over and tap lightly on the worktop to remove the chocolates. If some chocolates do not come out easily it can help to place the mould in the fridge for a few minutes.

Recipes {Click for printable recipes }

?Flavours of Christmas? Truffle Fillings

A. Gingerbread (small dome with gold glitter)

Ingredients

125ml whipping cream
25g dark brown muscovado sugar
250g white chocolate (chopped into small pieces)
15g butter (softened)
2/3 tsp ground cinnamon
2/3 tsp ground ginger
1/3 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/3 tsp ground allspice

Method

1. Put cream and sugar in a saucepan and heat until just starting to boil.

2. Pour over the white chocolate. Leave to sit for a minute then mix until well combined.

3. Add the butter and spices and mix until well combined.

B. Peach and amaretto (small dome with red glitter)

Ingredients

150ml whipping cream
100ml peach puree
50ml amaretto
700g milk chocolate (chopped into small pieces)
70g unsalted butter (softened)

Method

1. Put cream and peach puree in a saucepan and heat until just starting to boil.

2. Pour over the milk chocolate. Leave to sit for a minute then mix until well combined.

3. Add the butter and amaretto and mix until well combined.

C. Brandy salted butter caramel (large walnut shaped truffle)

Ingredients

200g sea salted butter
200g light muscovado sugar
200g whipping cream
500g white chocolate (chopped into small pieces)
100ml brandy

Method

1. Place the butter in a large saucepan and melt it. Add the butter and boil for 4 minutes.

2. Remove from the heat and pour on the whipping cream. Whisk until combined then add the chopped chocolate and mix in.

3. Allow to cool and add the brandy.

D. Baileys and vanilla (tall dome)

Ingredients

200ml whipping cream
4 vanilla pods
500g white chocolate (chopped into small pieces)
40g butter
75ml baileys

Method

1. Put cream in a saucepan with the vanilla seeds and whole pods. Heat until just starting to boil then take off the pan and let infuse for 15 minutes. Re-heat until just starting to boil.

2. Pour though a fine sieve onto the white chocolate. Leave to sit for a minute then mix until well combined.

3. Add the butter then the Baileys. Mix until well combined.