This recipe for lemon loaf cake is just fantastic. In just a few hours, it was gone. It’s much better with the frosting on top!
| Prep Time: | 1 hr |
| Cook Time: | 10 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 10 mins |
| Servings: | 24 |
| Yield: | 24 truffles |
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup white sugar
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
- 6 ounces dark chocolate, chopped
- 14 ounces whole chestnuts
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ cup brandy
- 8 ounces white chocolate, chopped
- ⅓ cup confectioners’ sugar
- 2 teaspoons milk, or as needed
- paper candy cups
- 1 drop red food coloring, or more as needed
Instructions
- Cream sugar and butter together with a spatula until light and creamy. Set aside.
- Heat an inch of water in a pot set over low heat. Melt dark chocolate in a heat-proof bowl placed over the pot. Stir with a small spatula.
- Place chestnuts in a food processor; pulse on and off until very finely ground. Add chestnuts to the sugar-butter mixture and stir until combined. Add salt, cayenne pepper, vanilla extract, and brandy. Stir well. Pour in the melted chocolate and mix again until filling is well blended.
- Scoop filling onto a silicone-lined baking sheet and smooth out if necessary. Cover the balls in plastic wrap and refrigerate while you prepare the white chocolate coating.
- Reserve about 20% of the white chocolate to stir in later. Melt the rest in a heat-proof bowl over a pot of simmering water until an instant-read thermometer inserted in to the chocolate reads 105 degree F (41 degrees C). Add the reserved white chocolate and stir until melted.
- Place 1 chocolate truffle on a fork and hold it up above the white chocolate coating. Spoon on the white chocolate until ball is well coated. Use another fork to push the truffle onto a lined baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining truffles and coating. Place the bowl of coating back over hot water if it chocolate starts to harden.
- Mix confectioners’ sugar with enough milk to make a very thick paste that will hold together well. Dye it pink with red food coloring. Transfer into a piping bag and pipe a small dot on top of each truffle. Serve truffles in paper candy cups.
- If you must, another nut like almond, or hazelnut, should work about the same, especially when you consider your guest, or guests, will be fairly distracted by the eye-opening appearance.
- Substitute cognac for the brandy if you prefer.
- You can easily make the filling ahead of time, freeze, and add the coating any time.
- This is more white chocolate than you need for coating, but that’s how this stuff works. Just eat the rest.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 169 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 21 g |
| Cholesterol | 9 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 1 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 18 mg |
| Sugars | 15 g |
| Fat | 8 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
These came out great until the white chocolate phase. I made the mistake of going to a market that although had high grade bar chocolate there was no white. So to anyone who makes this recipe DO NOT use the Nestles White Chocolate Bits. They don’t work despite what the video says. They melt to a degree where it doesn’t become fluid. What you get is a consistency of cake frosting. So get the good grade bar chocolate. I also took a look at chestnuts on Amzon and thought they were too expensive. I purchased chestnuts in the store, scored them, soaked them in boiling water and roasted them in the oven. much cheaper and as a side note use something like a small espresso spoon to remove any nut meat that doesn’t slip out. Oddly enough one would think any store that sells chestnuts would sell white bar chocolate but alas no. So happily I popped these back in the fride, went out and found the proper white chocolate and was very pleased with theresults.
MUST SEE video! Totally delicious, and SO entertaining. Bravo!!!