(Valentine's Day?) Chai Truffles

At the end of January I said I would spend February blogging Mark Bittman Minimalist recipes. Though my original intention remains, the opportunity to make my own chocolate presented itself and I could not ignore such an occassion. Really, the spirit of the Minimalist is making cooking easier than you think it is and then pushing yourself to cook things you would not usually cook. Hence homemade the pasta, the truffles in this post, and the next blog post, fried chicken.

I have a killer sweet tooth...one that will probably kill me through either diabetes or choking on a piece of hazelnut in a chocolate bar when I'm seventy. As I have stated earlier, I am not a great baker and as I learned last night, I'm also not a great confectioner, but I did have fun making the truffles. The truffle making process was too sticky, too messy, and did not yield (in my opinion) a very aesthetically pleasing product. Though, I have to give a shout out to my boyfriend, he is an excellent truffle maker and ended up rolling up most of the truffles and certainly made all the pretty ones.

The idea to make these truffles came from my boss who wanted to make them herself but didn't have the time. She kindly provided me with the spices required for this recipe, so I could make these truffles as a Valentine's day treat for my lab. I was intrigued by this recipe, because I only recently learned how to make authentic chai tea. Chai tea, for those who have only ordered it at Starbucks, is black tea simmered with a combination of aromatic spices that usually includes cinnamon, fennel seed, ginger, cardamom pods, and cloves. Using the same spice and tea mixture with a base of chocolate appealed to my taste buds.

Chai Truffles (adapted from the Washington Post)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoons loose black tea leaves (I accidentally used green tea; it tasted fine)
2 cinnamon sticks, broken in half
10 whole cloves
10 whole green cardamom pods
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons butter
1 pound dark chocolate, if you can't find dark just buy unsweetened
about 1/2 cup cocoa powder, mixed with a few tablespoons of cinnamon for rolling the truffles

1. Coarsely chop the pound of chocolate. Then run the knife through it a few times so it has a shaved consistency. Place all the chocolate in a large mixing bowl.

2. In a small sauce pan combine the heavy cream, tea, cinnamon sticks, cloves, cardamom pods, fennel seeds, and salt. Break open the cardamom pods (I wrap them in a paper towel and then hit them with a ladle a few times) and break the cinnamon sticks in half before adding them; this allows the spices to release more of their flavor.

3. Cook mixture over medium heat until bubbles from at the edges where the cream meets with the pot. Remove from heat, cover the pot, and let the mixture steep for 30 minutes.
4. The simple directions are to return the saucepan to medium heat, add the butter and stir until it has melted. Only cook the cream mixture until it is heated through and bubbles have formed around the edge of of the sauce pan. Strain the cream and spice mixture through a fine mesh strainer into the bowl with chocolate. Discard the spices in the strainer and use a spatula to stir the chocolate until it is smooth.

(While those are the general directions, I found that the tea leaves had actually absorbed about 1/8 cup of cream. First, I strained the cream mixture into a measuring cup so I could ascertain how much liquid I had lost and also get rid of the bulk of the spice debris. I then added more cream to bring the total liquid volume back to 1 1/2 cups, poured it back into the sauce pan, added the butter to melt, heated the cream through, and then strained the cream again when I poured it over the chopped chocolate.)

5. Add all of the cream at once and the chocolate will start to melt immediately. Use a spatula to fold the cream and chocolate together, and stir the cream and chocolate until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

6. Place the bowl in the refrigerator; stir the chocolate every twenty minutes until the chocolate stiffens enough to roll into truffles. The hardening process should take about an hour or a bit longer.
7. To prepare for the truffles: Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Mix together the cocoa powder and cinnamon and spread it on a plate.
8. The mixture is ready when it is hard enough that a spoon stands up independently, but still soft enough to mold into a shapes. With a tablespoon, scoop out a chunk of chocolate and use your hands to roll it into a ball. When you're satisfied with the shape, roll the ball in the plate of cocoa powder. Place the truffle on the baking sheet to set. Repeat until all the chocolate is used.