Truffles (4 Star)

I made truffles again this year (see this post for last year's info--recipes used, tempering, etc.). I did mostly the same thing, but I also tried something new. I'll tell you at the end of this post because I am saving the best for last.

Here are the combinations I made:

Milk chocolate center, dark chocolate coating, finely shredded, toasted coconut (unsweetened) on top:

Dark chocolate center, white chocolate coating, finely chopped, toasted almonds on top:





Cinnamon center (I used Hershey's cinnamon chips), dark chocolate coating, topped with cinnamon:





Butterscotch center (I used Guittard butterscotch chips), dark chocolate coating, topped with finely chopped, toasted almonds:





Mint center (I used Hershey's mint chips), dark chocolate coating, topped with crushed candy cane:





Mint center, white chocolate coating, topped with crushed candy cane:





The mint truffles were my second favorite. But my absolute-favorite-new-obsession-in-truffles-and-don't-even-care-if-I-ever-make-or-eat-any-of-the-others-ever-again (except the mint, of course) are these peanut butter truffles. Wow, they were so creamy, perfectly peanut buttery and chocolatey. If you like Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, these are ten times better.



I made two batches because I made the first batch incorrectly--I didn't read the recipe very carefully. Instead of first mixing the melted white chocolate and peanut butter together and then adding the cream I just dumped it all together and mixed. It didn't work very well because the white chocolate lumped together and wouldn't smooth out. I heated the whole mess up a little in an effort to smooth out the chocolate and it worked, but then the whole thing seemed greasy. Some of the oils separated out. However, it was still usable after being chilled, so I coated these with dark chocolate so that I could tell what was inside, and I topped them with roasted, salted, crushed peanuts. You can see this first batch pictured below. The middle is fairly compact and dense.




I made them a second time, this time following the instructions, and they were so creamy, dreamy, smooth, and fabulous. You can see in the picture below that they are a lot more fluffy than the truffles above.



Click here for the peanut butter truffle recipe.
Click here for the Pioneer Woman's truffle recipe (I used it for all the other centers).

Here are some things I plan to do next year:

=I'm going to chop the nut toppings in bigger chunks.
=I'm going to try mixing more coarsely chopped nuts into some of the fillings.
=I'm going to try mixing some fruits like dried cranberries into some of the fillings.

Any other ideas?