Mint Chocolate Truffles - by Summer

This recipe I had originally picked as one of the ones that Lisa and I were going to bake together when I visited in October.  But then she had commented that she wanted to do this one in December because that is the perfect time to make truffles - with the holidays and all.  And I agree, so we moved it to this month.

I was very excited to try making these.  I have heard that truffles are pretty easy to make.  The only ones that I have ever made are the Oreo Truffles which are so easy, it seems like you are cheating when you are making them!

I chose to make them this week because friends of ours are baby-sitting for us on Thursday night while my husband and I have a rare date night (so excited - going to see the musical Billy Elliot!)  My friends love the Oreo Truffles, so I thought I would make this for them to snack on while they hang out.

I had some problems assembling the ingredients for this recipe.  Even though I read through it a million times, I kept forgetting something (first peppermint extract, then the chocolate, and then I didn't have enough cream!)  But fortunately I was trying to plan ahead, so I was still able to get everything together in advance.  This recipe calls for a pound a semi-sweet chocolate.  I really wish they had pre-chopped baking chocolate.  I was seriously tempted to just use chocolate chips, but in the end I sucked it up and chopped up a pound of chocolate.

Messy!!!

After warming the cream and melting the chocolate, it needed to chill in the fridge.  That evening I set about actually making them into balls.  Here is where things got a little messy.  My hands were an absolute mess making these!  They didn't shape into balls very nicely either.  I think maybe they shouldn't have chilled for as long, so I could just use my scooper instead of rolling them into balls.  I was sort of frustrated by it.  They did rolls in the cookie crumbs and cocoa easily.  But I really hated shaping them into the balls.  Anyone else made truffles and knows some tips. 

My friends loved the truffles and they do make a great gift this time of year.  The taste was pretty amazing and with the exception of rolling into balls, they were really easy to make.  I would like to try them without the mint next time.  And I also ended up with a lot of cookie crumbs leftover.  Next time I would only chopped up half the cookies, so I could eat the rest of the them whole :-)