Narrative Self

Did you see Kirstie’s homemade Christmas?  Well, first of all I need to get this off my chest: homemade my arse, ha, ha!!!! What she means is ‘let’s visit a real craftsperson, or even better get one to come to my home, let me have a fiddle about with what they do and then they can finish it all off.  And deliver it to my door .’ Aaaaw, I did enjoy it though, got me feeling all festive it did.  I love Kirstie!  (Especially the way she sniggers like a school girl at every double entendre coming her way!!!) And despite her lack of actually doing too much herself in the way of making stuff,  I applaud her for bringing our attention to the lovely unique gifts we can all give, whether we buy them from a local craftsperson or actually make crappy salt-dough ornaments ourselves.  It’s all good isn’t it?   Phew, said my piece now.  Almost.

Did you see her making those delicious looking chocolate truffles?  Well,  I make some every year to give to friends and family, and this year’s been no exception.  It’s one of my Christmas rituals, and I love it.  I’ve made three batches so far.  And have probably eaten two batches worth.  Doesn’t do to make them too far in advance…

Sticky mess!

Unlike our Kirstie, I don’t really see the need to wear latex gloves when I’m rolling out me truffles!  I like the sensory experience of all that chocolate softening in the palm of my hands…

Rolling, rolling, rolling!

and then giving them a good rolling in some nuts

Chocolate and nut covered versions

before laying them out to harden them off a bit

mmmm, tasty!

while I lick the divinely warm chocolate ganache off my fingers…

Like me actually-hand-made labels?

before wrapping them all up in sweet little bags to put in the fridge before I eat them all!

Oooh!  So goooood!  Want the recipe?  It’s really easy:

Chocolate truffles

• Bring 6 fl oz of double cream to the boil
• add 10 oz of dark, broken up chocolate pieces to the cream
• then add 1 oz of butter
• stir until all is melted
• pour into a bowl and leave to cool before refrigerating (covered) overnight.
• Next day roll out teaspoons of the mixture and  then roll in chopped hazlenuts or cocoa powder.
• If you want to dip them in chocolate to make a hard shell, pop them in the freezer for an hour.  Melt some dark chocolate in a bain marie (or the microwave), put a truffle on a fork and dip into the melted chocolate.  Stand on grease proof paper until cool. (PS I haven’t found a white chocolate that actually works well for this, I find it goes thick and lumpy too quickly after melting, so much so that it’s un-useable – not sure why this happens)
• Once hardened, package up in cellophane bags.  Then unwrap them and eat them before anyone else notices! Enjoy x.

Oh  by the way, if you like a good home made Christmas you should also take a look at this BBC page which is packed with ideas for a Victorian Christmas – including food and decorations too.