{The best ever chocolate truffles. Almost}
We were sitting at Chikalicious dessert bar in NYC and chat about sweets, Per Se, Momofuku and chocolate truffles.
“I travelled to Belgium and sampled their truffles, in search for the best one“, said Chika, the owner of that lovely dessert bar. As we spoke, she continued plating our desserts with the sweetest smile and grace – the famous chocolate tart with pink peppercorn ice-cream, the warm apple soup with biscuits and buttermilk sorbet. And of course, a plate of petit fours with the melt-in-your-mouth chocolate truffles.
“We had it better here [NYC]. Better.”
If you have tasted Chika´s sweets, you will believe her. I´ll be over the moon if she publishes her recipes. One day.
Back to my home in Melbourne, I went through a month of no chocolate and not too much sweets after the said NYC trip. After a short while, I start craving for chocolate again. Something chocolaty, smooth and creamy. And when I saw the Peter Gilmore (of Quay´s fame)´s chocolate and hazelnut petit fours recipe, I knew it was the one to try. In fact, I bought that particular edition of Master Chef magazine just for that one recipe.
The formula is elegantly creative – caramelized nuts + white chocolate crumbs + chocolate garnache. It is the combination that will always work, and it tastes delicious. I cannot praise the white chocolate crumbs enough – an interesting way of adding milky richness to the petit fours. Finally, the chocolate truffles which will please fans of both white and normal chocolate.
I admit my petit fours look far from prettiness. The white chocolate crumbs, I think I chose the wrong product for it (mine was a very rich chocolate with smooth center bar from Lindt). More solid chocolate perhaps will yield drier looking crumbs.
Before reading the long recipe, I gotta say that this post is prepared for `Bake A Difference fund-raising´event, hosted by Penny from Jeroxie. Come, take a look and join us!
You can wrap the truffles individually and place in a small box for gifts! i found the pattern of this cute cloud box here, and it’s extremely easy to make. So cute, too 
Adapted from Peter Gilmore (Quay´s restaurant) recipe
Chocolate garnache:
300g milk chocolate, finely chopped
125ml pouring cream
30g unsalted butter, finely chopped
Caramelised nuts
70g castor sugar
1 tbp pouring cream
60g roasted and peeled macademia (or nuts of your choice)
White chocolate crumbs
100g white chocolate, finely chopped
100g coconut palm sugar
Method
The day before
Making the chocolate garnache: Place milk chocolate in a heat proof bowl. Heat cream until almost boil and pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Whisk until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth. Gradually add in the butter until the mixture is glossy and smooth. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Making the caramelized nuts:
Line a baking tray with baking paper. Place sugar in a small saucepan with 1 tbp water over medium heat. Swirl until the sugar is dissolved, simmer until you have a nice caramel color.
Stir in the cream (be careful the mixture will split). Remove the pan from the heat. Add in the nuts and coat them well with the caramel mixture. Place the nuts onto the baking tray and let them cool slightly. Use a fork and your hands to separate the nuts. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Making the chocolate crumbs
Preheat oven to 170C. Place the white chocolate onto a lined baking tray. Bake for 12 mins or until golden. Cool until the chocolate is firm up, break them to pieces.
Add in the sugar and process the mixture in a food processor. Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Assembling the petit fours
Line a baking tray with baking paper. Use a teaspoon, scoop a healed teaspoon and mould to a small ball. Insert the caramelized nut and place on the tray. Refrigerate for about 2 hours.
Place the chocolate crumbs in a bowl. Smooth the chocolate balls with your hands, and coat them with the crumbs. Refrigerate for about 1 hour or until firmed up. Serve chilled.
Ooh I can just imagine how delicious these would be to eat!
Look at your tasty treats in those lovely wrapping! That's an "AW" in my heart echoing. Did you hear it? Should be a gorgeous gift for this festive season!
My head hurt when I read that you went a month without chocolate! Heavens, that would be unbearable for me 😉 I agree with Chika – I wasn't much impressed with Belgium's truffles either. And America has got some amazing artisan chocolate-makers these days.
Looks gorgeous and I love the presentation.
Oh YUM!! Those petit fours look beautiful & I'm completely honored that you would choose to package them with my little boxes!!
This is a fantastic recipe. No wonder you bought the magazine just for this recipe. It would make a great gift to give for Christmas.
Marvelous! A wonderful treat.
White chocolate crumble? nom NOM!! Thanks lovely for joining and supporting. Much appreciated
These sound so good, and I love the packaging!
I love edible gifts at the holidays – getting them and (mostly) offering them and these are perfect! Delicious, chocolate and beautiful! And I do love the cloud box! Mmmm.
You're so crafty Anh! That cloud box is gorgeous. And the white choc crumbs do sound enticing (I'm not really a fan of eating white choc "neat" but I use it to bake with). Great edible gift idea, thanks!
How can you survive a month without chocolate?!
These look so pretty. I love this kind of sweet bites! Perfect for a holiday gift!
These look simply beautiful and perfectly perfect as X'mas gift!
Beautiful blog. Regards
These look really marvelous, Anh, and the little cloud box is adorable! The warm apple soup with biscuits and buttermilk sorbet that you mention in the first paragraph sounds fantastic too!
I think yours look great
Just found your blog via Tasteologie… we have so much in Common! I am Vietnamese, lived in Melbourne, love NYC, now an expat in Amsterdam and have a food blog! Funny… :))
I love your lovely gift box!
I love these edible goodies. Looking forward to baking up a batch in about 3 weeks!
The new Fantastic Four? To me, it is. 😀
What a marvelous treat. I am not too fond of white chocolate. I think I would love them better with more dark chocolate. Just the sound of the desserts at Chika's is making me want to go there
Those petit fours look stunning! and love those boxes hee hee mmmm chocolate clouds
OMG… fantastic recipe and breathtaking packaging.
I also love giving and receiving edible gifts during the holiday season. I know I would be tickled pink to receive a box of these petite creations! Thank you so much for sharing! I hope you have a peace-filled day.
Ooh, that cloud box is gorgeous, and your petit fours look very cute in it.
It does look the best ever truffles. Cute and lovely, hope it tasted awesome too.
Gorgeous cookies. It's a good start for this Christmas season.
Love them Ahn, love them so…and the crafty box too! Will have to check the link, and the link to Jeroxie's fund raiser! What a great idea…I would have bought the mag too! Pretty pictures…so festive!
This is a "melt-in-the-heart" gift any girl will dream of. The cloud box is such a perfect match for the truffles. 😉
Oh, your petit fours look amazing and putting them into such a charming package make a heart-melting gift! Thank you for the link
I love gift wrapping, cute boxes, ribbons and the like – your gift box is adorable! Definitely checking out the link – and the contents too of course!
Anh, these pictures are worth the cover of a cookbook. Just adore your photo composition and how you always manage to pick the prettiest background
No Ahn! I LOVE your photosss
and such a cute box! I love anything chocolate. So this totally impresses me!
Thanks for the link to the cloud box – it's so cute! Your petit fours look delicious too.