White Chocolate Passion Fruit Truffles Food

WHITE CHOCOLATE FRUIT AND NUT TRUFFLES

Steps:

• In a small saucepan bring the dates, cranberries, orange juice, zest, ground spices and honey to a boil. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 5 to 10 minutes.
• Finely chop the walnuts and combine with coconut. With damp hands combine the fruit puree with the processed nuts. Form mixture into 3/4 inch balls and place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Allow to cool completely.
• When the fruit balls are cooled, place 2/3 of the white baking chips into a microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high for 1 minute, stir and microwave at 30 second increments until melted when stirred. Stir in remaining chips and stir until melted and shiny.
• Dip the fruit and nut balls into the white baking chips and return to parchment lined cookie sheets. Allow to set. Should the melted chips cool during dipping, return to microwave for 20 to 30 seconds.
• When completely set, store covered for 3 to 4 days.
• Please note that standing time is not reflected in either the prep time or cooking time.

WHITE CHOCOLATE PASSION FRUIT TRUFFLES

Steps:

• Place 1 pound of the chocolate in a 2-quart mixing bowl. In a 1-quart saucepan over medium heat, bring the cream to a boil. Pour the cream into the bowl with the chocolate. Let the mixture stand for 1 minute, then stir together with a rubber spatula, whisk, or immersion blender until thoroughly blended. Add the passion fruit purée and stir to blend well. Cover the truffle cream, let cool to room temperature, and chill in the refrigerator until thick but not stiff (3 to 4 hours). Or let the truffle cream sit at room temperature for several hours or overnight until completely set and thick.
• Line 2 baking sheets with parchment or waxed paper. Fit a 12-inch pastry bag with a large, plain round pastry tip with a 3/4-inch opening and fill partway with the truffle cream. Holding the pastry bag 1 inch above the paper, pipe out mounds 1 inch in diameter. Or use a small ice cream scoop to form the mounds. Cover the mounds with plastic wrap and chill in the freezer for 2 hours or in the refrigerator for 6 hours.
• Dust your hands with confectioners' sugar and roll the mounds into balls. These will be the truffle centers. Cover and chill the centers for another 2 hours in the freezer.
• Remove the truffle centers from the freezer and bring to cool-room temperature so the outer coating won't crack when they are dipped. Line 2 more baking sheets with parchment or waxed paper. Melt and temper the remaining 1 1/2 pounds chocolate (see pages 25-30). Place a truffle center into the tempered chocolate, coating it completely. With a dipper or fork, remove the center from the chocolate, carefully shake off the excess chocolate, and turn the truffle out onto the paper. After dipping the truffles, place 2 tablespoons of the tempered white chocolate in a paper pastry cone and snip off a tiny opening at the pointed end. Pipe the letter P on top of each truffle.
• Let the truffles set up at room temperature, or chill them in the refrigerator for 10 to 15 minutes. When the truffles are set, place them in paper candy cups. In a tightly covered container wrapped in several layers of aluminum foil, the truffles will keep for 1 month in the refrigerator or 2 months in the freezer. The truffles are best served at room temperature.
• VARIATION
• Instead of dipping the truffle centers in chocolate, roll them in a small bowl of confectioners' sugars as soon as they are formed.

PASSION FRUIT TRUFFLES

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• If you are using passion fruit puree, pass it through a mesh strainer to remove the solids from the juice, and discard the solids.
• Place the 2/3 cup of juice in a small saucepan with the light corn syrup and the heavy cream over medium-high heat.
• Bring this mixture to a boil.
• While waiting for the passion fruit mixture to boil, finely chop the white chocolate and put it in a heat-safe bowl.
• Once at a boil, pour the hot liquid over the white chocolate and immediately begin gently whisking to melt the white chocolate and emulsify the mixture.
• If you have a handheld immersion blender, use it to blend the passion fruit ganache together. Otherwise, just continue whisking until you have a silky smooth mixture with no bits of white chocolate remaining.
• Press some cling wrap over the top of the ganache and refrigerate the bowl until the ganache has cooled and can be spooned, about 2 hours. Alternately, you can refrigerate it overnight, and then take the bowl out of the refrigerator the following day and let it sit at room temperature until it loosens up.
• Use a spoon to fill the clean, dry candy molds with the tempered chocolate, all the way up to the top. Once full, turn the molds upside down and allow the excess chocolate to drip back into the bowl.
• Take a bench scraper or metal spatula and scrape it across the top of the molds, removing the excess chocolate.
• Refrigerate the molds to speed the setting process of the chocolate, for about 10 minutes.
• Once the chocolate lining the molds is set, spoon the passion fruit ganache into each mold, leaving some space at the top for a layer of chocolate to seal up the truffles. It is better to have a little less ganache and a good chocolate seal, as opposed to more ganache that leaks from a poorly sealed truffle.
• Spoon some of the semisweet chocolate on top of the ganache in each mold, and spread it until it completely covers the ganache and seals in the sides.
• Again use the bench scraper or metal spatula to scrape across the bottom of the mold, removing any excess chocolate from the edges.
• Refrigerate the molds to set the bottom layer of chocolate.
• Once set, gently turn the molds upside down and pop out the truffles.
• Enjoy.