Recipe: Cranachan Truffles

Decided to make some truffles for my friend Simon for his birthday (late as well!) and thought, what does he like? When we used to live together we'd get through a fair amount of whiskey in front of our (working!) fireplace so I thought I'd try for something to evoke that. Cranachan in its traditional form is raspberries in honey and raspberry jelly or coulis with whisky infused whipped cream and toasted oats. Looks really pretty in a glass. I tried whiskey truffles by Matthieu de Gottal at the London Chocolate Festival in Islington in December and although mine are by no means as sophisticated as his, it really is a great combination of flavours.

These are simple truffles and I really would recommend using the best ingredients you can.

200g very dark chocolate (something like Green and Black's is ideal for this)
50g butter
50ml whiskey (Glenfiddich single malt in my case!)
2 tbsp dried raspberry pieces
2 tsp honey (I went outrageous and used Manuka honey as I happened to have some in)
50g rolled oats
4 tbsp cocoa powder
edible gold spray
gold draguees

Melt the chocolate and the butter together in a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of water. Make sure the water doesn't touch the chocolate or it will go grainy.

Heat a small frying pan and toast the oats until slightly browned. Keep a close eye on them, they will burn very easily if not moved around the pan. Once they're done, grind to a fine powder with a pestle and mortar.

Slowly add the whiskey and the honey to the chocolate mixture and stir in the dried raspberries. Mix in the oat powder and leave in the fridge for a few hours until more or less solid. Break up with a spoon and roll small truffle sized balls in the cocoa powder until coated. Place each truffle in a petit four case and spray with the gold spray (for that added bling!) I topped mine with a gold draguee as well.