Mole Truffles
Advanced Raw Chocolate Recipe (makes 50 bit sized truffles)
Wine Pairing with ‘Demeter’ certified biodynamic Alsace wine – France. No sulfites added since 1999. White. (www.pierrefrick.com)
- Pierre Frick Gewurtztraminer 2008 Grand Cru Steinert Vendange Tardive
Natural Wine from South Africa with small amount of botrytis (noble rot), natural yeasts, no fining or filtration. Red. This wine is dedicated to Amy Levin, raw chocolatier.(www.charlieherring.com)
- Charlie Herring Tau Syrah 2007
Frey Organic – Natural Wine – No Sulfites added Wine – USA Mendocino County, California. Red (www.freywine.com)
- Frey Organic Late Harvest Zinfandel 2007
Wine pairing by Carmen Shelton – Wine Connoisseur & The French Raw Coach (Email: cs@carmenshelton.com)
Recipe and Photo by kind permission of Amy Levin – Chef & Ooosha Raw Chocolatier (Email:sweetcntr@yahoo.com) September/October – USA tour – Philadelphia and San Fransisco area. Dates to be announced. (www.ooosha.co.uk)
Ingredients:
- 250g/9oz raw almond butter (or make your own in Vitamix)
- 50g/1/4 c pumpkin seeds – soaked, rinsed and dehydrated75g/ 1/2 c raisins + 100g soak water
- 50g/ 3 tbsp maple syrup
- 2 tsp nama shoyu
- 1 1/2 tsp whole cumin seeds – ground in a mortar and pestle
- 2 ancho chilis -de-seeded and soaked with the raisins
- 2 tsp chipotle pepper – de-seeded and roughly chopped
- 35 g/ 2 tbsp cacao powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract or 1 vanilla bean, scraped and empty pod reserved for other uses
- 1/8 tsp grated nutmeg
- 1 tbsp cinnamon powder
- pinch cayenne pepper or smoked hot paprika (optional)
- 225g / 8oz 78% Ooosha dark chocolate or a high quality raw dark chocolate of your choice
Method
1 – Soak the chipotle, anchos and raisins in enough water to cover for 4 hours or until soft.
2 – I made my own almond butter by using my Vitamix; Put 250g of soaked and dehydrated almonds in the Vitamix, turn the blender on high speed and, using the tamper stick, push the nuts into the blades until you have reached a nice smooth consistency. Be aware that the blender conducts a fair bit of heat, so you want to really use the tamper stick to keep things moving and finish the butter within a minute of blending and it’s best to cool the butter in the fridge or freezer before proceeding with the rest of the recipe. This will keep the heat down.
3 – Add the remaining ingredients except the melted chocolate and blend like fury, using the tamper stick to help you. Don’t add more liquid as it will change the recipe completely in the end. However if you choose to add more liquid then you will need to also add a bit more chocolate to keep the consistency right.
4 – Turn the mix out into a large mixing bowl, pour in the melted chocolate and whisk it all to combine. At this stage you could also add some textures, like cacao nibs or chopped pumpkin seeds, if you wanted textured truffles
5 – Cover with cling film, press the film right on top of the mix so it doesn’t create a skin while it cools. Set in the fridge or freezer. Best thing to do is leave it in the fridge overnight as this allows it to slowly set and the flavours will develop more, in fact, over the coming days the flavours will continue to develop.
6 – Finally, with cacao dusted hands, roll the truffles into balls. Alternatively, you can set the mix into silicon moulds, pop them out and then roll in chocolate. If you choose to roll into balls, then don’t coat with powders as this will not allow the chocolate to adhere. You could, however, roll them in chopped nuts and then dip in chocolate for a nice underlying texture
About The Chef
Amy attented a 3 year culinary arts course and at the age of 18 she began her career as a chef. Her interest in health led to her attending an intensive Holistic Health Counseling program in NYC. During this time she was first introduced to raw food and chocolate.
‘The Food Clinic’ was where she was able to bring her holistic approach into her career as a chef by providing nutritional balance to dishes. Following this, Amy began her path of working with and studying raw chocolate as Chocolatier at the ‘Raw Chocolate Company’ in Brighton. Since then Amy has worked along some top chefs, including world renowned raw food chef, Chad Sarno and created exceptional and truly unique chocolates.
© 2011 Carmen Shelton – The French Raw Coach
