Simple Homemade Gifts: Raspberry Truffles

Last week, I promised you something special. Something in the form of baked goods and recipes and a gift guide. Well, each day this week, I'll be blogging a particular recipe that makes for a great gift--and that packages nicely, too. Many of them will even be health conscious, seeing as that my bosses highly restrict their intake of white flour, butter, or sugar (which means I had to find recipes to accommodate their uber-healthy parameters). Of those, I don't think anyone would object to Chocolate Covered Raspberry Truffles. The recipe, closely adapted from Gourmet, follows.


Chocolate Covered Raspberry Truffles

What You Need:

• 1/4 cup heavy cream
• 7 oz fine-quality bittersweet chocolate (about 70% cacao is ideal)
• 6 oz fresh raspberries (1 package, buy organic to save time washing and drying)
• 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

What To Do:

If your raspberries aren't organic, wash them and allow them to dry completely. Bring the cream to a simmer over medium heat. Once it's there, remove it from the heat all together and add in your chocolate. The smaller the pieces, the better, because it'll melt in the residual heat. Stir until smooth.

About 6 at a time, fold in your raspberries. Be really gentle with them so that they stay whole. Use two forks to remove each raspberry from the chocolate, passing them from fork to fork to drip off the excess chocolate (this better preserves the shape of the truffle, too). Place them on a tray lined with aluminum foil, parchment paper, or wax paper, whatever is available.

After you've covered all of the raspberries (there are about 40 to a container, and there's enough chocolate for all of them), let them cool in the fridge for 1 to 2 hours. Put the cocoa powder in a plastic ziplock bag, add the berries in, and shake! Out come your truffles, perfectly dusted and almost too pretty to eat.

Enjoy!


Pssst... For wrapping ideas, check back on Friday!