Ingredients: 1/2 cup cocoa,2 tablespoons rich cream,130 grams dark chocolate, (compound or couverture) (about ¼lb),1/2 tablespoon Grand Marnier,20 whole hazelnuts with the skin,1 tablespoon milk
Instructions:
- Preheat oven to 220 C/450 F.
- Place hazelnuts on an oven tray and roast until the skin cracks and the hazelnuts colour a little but not too much.
- Place hazelnuts in a tea towel or kitchen paper and rub them against one another to remove most of the skin.
- Place hazelnuts in a food processor and blend to a powder.Bring cream and milk to the boil in a saucepan and on a low heat, stir in chocolate until it has all melted. Stir in hazelnut powder and Grand Marnier.
- Transfer preparation to a bowl and refrigerate for about 30-40 minutes, during which time you need to stir it two or three times with a wooden spoon. It will stiffen like thick icing.Stir chocolate mixture again before spooning it into the piping bag. Pipe small mounds of chocolate, about the size of a twenty cent piece or shape the mixture with a teaspoon. It is easier to do this on baking paper. Refrigerate truffles for about 30 minutes.
- Place cocoa in a bowl. Using a spatula, lift each truffle and roll in the cocoa. To obtain a round shape, roll the coated truffles rapidly between the hands without pressing too hard. Then roll the truffles again in the cocoa and refrigerate until required.
