I love chocolate. Who doesn't? And Easter is the perfect excuse to eat more of it than usual. But it is important to get the good stuff. Forget those cheap Easter bunny chocolates made from sickly sweet, plasticky tasting chocolate - yuck. And it's important to try to avoid chocolate that is not Fair Trade as well. (Which cuts out Lindt and Ferrero Rocher this Easter!)
This year we're not buying Easter eggs or bunnies... we're just making our own chocolate treats that are healthier and happier. (Happier because they don't involve child slave labour. Okay, they may involve a little... but at least my
This chocolate truffle ice cream was inspired by UK chef Chris Horridge's delightful, dairy free, naturally sweetened, chocolate truffles. He was kind enough to give me his recipe for making truffles using the Thermomix, with permission to share it here. It's so easy. Maybe too easy... although they're very rich so I can only eat one or two at a time. (I just come back many times a day. Ha ha! Dangerous!)
I was thinking the other day about an ice-cream I loved as a child. The one that's chocolate with chocolate malt balls mixed through it. I imagined chocolate truffles would be even more perfect mixed into homemade ice-cream for a decadent treat... and they are! Little, chewy morsels of cocoa-covered chocolate in a dairy free, coconut cream ice-cream. So good. But be warned - you don't need much of this ice cream, so serve it in small bowls!
So either make the truffles on their own and serve a couple after dinner with coffee, or try this ice-cream for something a bit decadent!
(This recipe makes a little over a litre of ice cream.)
Coconut Chocolate Ice Cream:
1. Place chocolate in bowl and grind on speed 9 for a few seconds:
- 100g 70% cocoa Green & Black's organic chocolate, broken in pieces
(or you can use 80g raw cacao powder, or organic cocoa powder)
2. Add remaining ingredients and cook for 10 minutes at 80 degrees on speed 4:
- 4 egg yolks
- 500g coconut cream *
- 500g coconut milk
- 100g Rapadura or coconut sugar (or 50g xylitol)
- 2 tsps vanilla bean paste, or vanilla extract
- pinch of fine sea salt
* [Note: I use Spiral organic coconut milk fat 18+% for the milk and cream. It can be bought in bulk 3 litre tins through Fitness Products, or in the usual 450g tins. I freeze what I don't use in ice-cube trays for quick ice-creams.]
3. Pour mixture into a stainless steel bowl and cover; place in freezer to set for 3-4 hours or until firm but NOT frozen solid. Take ice-cream out of freezer, cut into pieces and place back in Thermomix bowl. Mix for 30 seconds on speed 9, using the spatula to help it along, then on speed 4 for 10 seconds. Return to bowl, cover, refreeze.
You can obviously make this ice-cream without the chocolate truffles - here's my super rich version with 80% cocoa chocoalte and Rapadura to sweeten...
Chocolate Truffles:
(Chris's recipe uses xylitol as a sweetener - I often use Rapadura instead)
1. Place all ingredients into the Thermomix bowl and cook at 60 degrees for 5 minutes at speed 1:
- 240g thick coconut cream (preferably organic)
- 80 g of xylitol or 120g Rapadura
- 270g 64% cocoa solids chocolate (or 70% cocoa Green & Black's organic chocolate - it's Fair Trade and has no dairy products added)
- 1 vanilla pod, scraped (or a tsp vanilla bean paste)
2. Whiz up on speed 4 for 2 minutes until smooth.
3. Pour into a dish. Leave it out (covered) in a cool spot to set naturally (about 10-12 degrees C), and you will get a lovely shine on your chocolate. It will be very smooth, like this:
It will be medium soft at this temperature - if you want it firmer, add more chocolate, or the same amount of chocolate but a higher percent of cocoa solids. If you want it softer then add less chocolate, or use a lower percent of cocoa solids. If the weather's too hot to let it set, put it in the warmest part of the fridge for a little while. You're just trying to avoid cooling it too quicklly, as this can cause the chocolate to crystallize.
4. Once the chocolate is set, you can take two teaspoons and scoop out the truffles, shaping with the spoons, then dropping into a bowl of cocoa to coat. Okay, I'm not an expert at shaping truffles, so I didn't take a photo of how mine turned out - don't want to embarrass myself! But I don't think anyone will complain if they're not perfect. Keep them in a container in the fridge. Hidden in the back would be best, I think. ;)
If you need some help figuring out how to make the truffles, check out Dani Valent's 'Chocolate Masterclass' video clip on her new In the Mix: Great Thermomix Recipes app, available for free from the iTunes app store. It's very helpful. (Thanks Dani!)
Now back to the ice-cream...
Take the ice-cream out of the freezer, cut into pieces and re-mix in the Thermomix as before. Scoop back into the bowl or a pretty dish, and stir through some chocolate truffles - as many as you think you can handle. Refreeze until you're ready to eat.
To serve, spoon into small dessert dishes, dust with cocoa, and top with another truffle.
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