chocolate rum truffles with rosemary, bay leaves, sea salt & crushed pretzels

chocolate rum truffles with rosemary, bay leaves, sea salt and crushed pretzels

Quick and easy chocolate rum truffles, infused with bay leaves and rosemary, finished with a sprinkling of sea salt and crunchy pretzel. If you are still in the festive mood, and not detoxing yet these make a delicious food gift or festive dessert. Great with a strong black coffee after dinner.  

I love cooking with herbs, and infusing my cream and milk based desserts with their flavours. I often add bay leaves to rice pudding and custards. Rosemary is great with chocolate too - and adds a sharp, herbal flavour in contrast to the sweetness.  I recently added rosemary to my brown butter chocolate chip cookies with orange and rosemary sea salt . Although plain sea salt works fine in this recipe you could always use my orange and rosemary sea salt from the recipe. 

I have included a few of my chocolate truffle variations below, but the list of flavour combinations is endless.  What's your favourite chocolate truffle? 

preparation time: less than 30 minutes (& 4-5 hours chilling time) 

cooking time: less than 10 minutes 
makes 30-35 truffles

ingredients:

300ml double cream

300g dark chocolate finely chopped (minimum 60% cocoa) 

1 tsp unsalted butter

3-4 tbsp dark rum - or to taste (optional) 

2 bay leaves

small sprig of rosemary 

To cover the truffles: 

2-3 tbsp cocoa powder

1/2 - 3/4 cup of crushed pretzels 

method: 

gently heat the cream in a sauce pan with the bay leaves and rosemary, remove from the heat just before it reaches boiling point

remove the bay leaves and rosemary and add the chopped chocolate, mix well and add the butter and rum to taste (a small amount at a time) 

leave to cool for a minimum 4-5 hours/overnight

use a melon baller/teaspoon and shape in walnut sized balls. Roll in either plain cocoa powder or crushed pretzel mix. Finish the plain chocolate truffles with a sprinking of sea salt

store in the fridge until ready to serve and eat.  

these also store well in the freezer for up to a month.  

variations: 

chocolate orange - add the zest of 1 orange to the melted chocolate and cream mixture

whiskey/brandy/vodka - in fact most spirits/liqueurs could be used here instead of the rum. 

cardamon/cinnamon sticks - instead of the bay leaves and rosemary infuse the cream with 3-4 cardamon pods and 1 cinnamon stick - strain before adding the chocolate

chopped hazelnuts - roll the shaped chocolate truffles in chopped hazelnuts

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 with Honey & Birch

cooking with herbs with Lavender & Lovage