These are Christmassy truffles, albeit rather loosely, although chocolate truffles are, quite frankly, for any time of the year in my book!
The filling is a white chocolate and raspberry ganache, into which a little spiced port reduction is mixed. This gets chilled until firmer and then it is simply a matter of taking small amounts, rolling into rough balls and dipping in melted or tempered chocolate.
I have used a lot of chocolate here as I wanted a firm ganache. You can use less chocolate (going down to about 200g) for a much softer filling, although this is best when used to fill chocolate shells.
Spiced Port Reduction:
This is essentially a simple variation on mulled wine, and it adds a subtle spice flavour to these truffles.
- about 200ml port
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- half a star anise
- 6 cloves
(1) Put the ingredients into a pan and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 5 minutes and remove from the heat. Leave to cool fully, by which time the spices will infuse.
(2) Strain through a sieve and bring to the boil again, this time simmering until the flavoured port has reduces to a thick syrup.
NB: you can just boil the port with the spices until it become syrupy but I found that gives too strong a flavour.
Raspberry Ganache:
- 150ml double cream
- 80g puréed & strained raspberries
- 400g chopped white chocolate
- the spiced port reduction – recipe above
- a couple of tablespoons of dried raspberry pieces, optional
(1) Simply heat the cream and raspberries in a small pan until it just comes to the boil. Remove from the heat and leave for a few minutes.
(2) Pour this over white chocolate and stir until the chocolate has melted. Add most of the spiced port reduction, adding more if you want a more pronounced flavour. Stir in the raspberry pieces, if using. Chill until firmly set.
Phil's Home Kitchen 
woah! These look delectable – and I reckon they are v Christmassy 🙂
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Thanks. Very rich and wicked but they need to be! 🙂
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