Chocolate and Rosemary Truffles

On the menu for tonight is quite a strange sweet concoction - chocolate and herbs, rosemary to be exact. Why not?

A few months ago, I tried an Ancient Roman dessert recipe for 'Sweet Pepper Cake' from the book of Apicius. I was surprised to find that the Romans used a lot of rosemary in their sweet food. It turns out to be quite the pairing actually! The smoothness of the chocolate works well with the freshness of rosemary.

This recipe will make about 20 truffles.

You will need:

200ml Single Cream

250g Good Quality Chocolate (I used Green & Black's Organic Milk Chocolate)

1-2 Sprigs of Fresh Rosemary

Cocoa for topping

Another topping of your choice (I used crushed Cadbury's white buttons)

Directions:

Boil kettle. Break chocolate into squares. Melt in pyrex dish over saucepan of water you've just boiled. There's no need for any additional heat: the heat from the water below will melt the chocolate slowly. Stir until smooth and glossy. Mmmm.

Now, grab a small saucepan and pour in the single cream and add your sprig(s) of rosemary. Bring the cream to the boil, take off heat and allow to rest for 2 mins. Repeat this step. This will give you a nicely infused cream. 

Grab a sieve. When your cream has cooled slightly, pour gradually through the sieve into melted chocolate mixture, stirring until the mixture is combined. Push the cream through with the aid of a trusty spoon (leaving rosemary behind). The combined mixture should leave you with a dark, glossy consistency. 

Refridgerate your chocolate until set. This took about 2 hours.

Now for the fun part: rolling! If you have a melon ball scoop, this will come in very handy for this step. Otherwise, just use a spoon. Scoop out some chocolate and roll into a ball shape in the palm of your hand. I find it useful to keep some ice water nearby (hot hands and truffles are not friends). The rolling process seems to work best with cool, dry palms! When you're happy with your rolled chocolate ball, dunk them in a bowl of sieved cocoa (or topping of your choice). Ensure complete coverage.

Place in a nice little gift box, on a nice serving plate...or gobble up in a highly undignified manner! I did the latter (note four truffles missing from the second picture above) but saved some for gifts. I made a simple little origami box for this purpose. You can find great instructions here.

Rosemary and Chocolate...what a match!