pocket espresso to go

Eek!  This is my late entry to this month’s We Should Cocoa Challenge, hosted this month by Choclette. She came up with the great idea of combining chocolate with chilli this month. I was up for the challenge but unfortunately time ran away with me.  So at the very last hour I made these.  They are very moreish.  At first bite they taste like a normal chocolate but then it hits you with a great big spicy kick.

These particular truffles have a secret ingredient.  Should I tell you? Oh, go on then.

My mum bought these for us when she was on holiday earlier this year.  They are a little pod of espresso with added cocoa.  You drink the contents with the attached straw and after that you whir around like the Tasmanian Devil for the next ten minutes. They are fab! Unfortunately they don’t seem to be available in the UK, so if you want to add the espresso element, which is there to boost the chocolate flavour of these truffles then just add 20ml of strong espresso.

I had various theories about how to get the chilli flavour – dried or fresh?  Minced or sliced? Should there be a bite of actual chilli in there? In the end I decided that I should use fresh and infuse the cream with slices of said chilli, seeds et al, and then sieve these out.  I thought it would need to infuse for an hour or so.  Let me tell you here and now it doesn’t!  Thankfully I checked after five minutes and that was enough to give the cream a sufficient chilli kick ( read definitely enough, any longer and it will blow your head off).

100g good quality 70% chocolate
200ml double cream
1 red chilli, sliced with seeds
20ml espresso
chocolate flakes for rolling ( I used chilli flavoured chocolate flakes)

Method

Place the sliced chilli and seeds with the cream into a pan and heat until just below boiling point.  In the meantime chop the chocolate finely, you can do this by whizzing it in a food processor, should you have one. Remove the cream from the heat and let it infuse.  Try it after a few minutes and if it seems to have enough of a chilli kick then sieve the cream over a basin to remove the chilli.  Return the cream to the pan and briefly heat just to warm through.  Add the chopped chocolate and the espresso and stir gently until smooth.  Place this in a bowl in the fridge to firm up.  Take teaspoonfuls and roll into chocolate flakes or cocoa powder.

The beauty of this ganache is that it also makes a mighty fine and warming hot chocolate for bedtime.

Just heat a cup of milk in a pan until warm.  Add a tablespoon of the ganache or about three of the truffles and whisk until well combined.  Heat to the desired temperature and enjoy.

Thank you Choclette, and I am sorry for being so rubbish at organising myself.