Sunday, January 6, 2013

White chocolate coconut truffles


I had flagged this recipe a year ago but I didn't make it until this year, when I was looking for quick recipes I could make during the holidays. This seemed ideal because I could make it in steps - besides, I'd been eying it for a while since my friend Amy Lewis (whose recipe for chocolate chip cookies I've blogged about) had passed it on to me.


The recipe for these recipes comes from Canadian Living, and you can find it here. In the past, I'd made truffles and they'd melted pretty much as soon as I touched them. And that was years ago. But when I saw that the Amy's recipe called for some shortening in the coating, I decided to try it out.

You'll notice the Canadian Living recipe doesn't call for shortening, I'll have more on that below.
It was easier to make these truffles than I thought, but a couple of things didn't sit well with me. I wasn't bowled over by the taste. The coating of sweetened shredded coconut was delicious - at first. But unless you ate them all in one sitting (which is impossible), you'd have to store them.

I kept them in an airtight container in the fridge and by the next day the coconut coating felt a little stale, and I had only just purchased it. Also the sweetened shredded coconut you buy in the store seems a little too large to coat these truffles. I would consider giving them a quick whiz in your food processor to make the coconut shreds finer and to give the truffles more of a refined, delicate finish.

Substitutions:
The recipe Amy sent me was from Canadian Living, but she melted a teaspoon of shortening when she melted the chocolate for the coating - which was a very smart addition on her part. If I were to make this again, I would do the same, to give these truffles longer shelf life.

Would I make these again?
Probably not. When it comes down to it, white chocolate is never my first choice.

Grade: 3 stars out of 5.


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