Creamy caramel, crunchy roasted cashews and a decadent chocolate liqueur truffle filling all coated in premium chocolate for a truly blissful experience. If you make this for gifts, your loved ones will treasure every bite!
Recently I got an email from Jenny at Chocoley, saying they were looking for talented bloggers that are interested in creating a delicious chocolate recipe with Chocoley chocolate. She offered no payment, but they would send whatever ingredients I would need to create the recipe from Chocoley’s full line of products. I looked through their web site and debated internally … working for free isn’t really all that cool, but eventually I caved. Hey, I’m going to be making chocolates for the holidays anyway, and it’s really hard to say no when free gourmet chocolate is involved!
So what convinced me to try Chocoley? I looked into it and was intrigued when I read about their high quality gourmet traditionally Belgian crafted chocolate. Also, because I often post recipes for special diets and I want my foods to be fair trade, I like that all Chocoley brand chocolate is peanut free, tree nut free, egg free, gluten free, made in America, contains NO hydrogenated oils and all made with ethically traded ingredients. They also offer caramel, flavorings, molds, colorings and almost everything you can imagine that is chocolate related. I loved reading their story of how they got started: it’s a true family-owned business.
I was super excited when my box of chocolate arrived and in that box I discovered 2 lb. of dark chocolate, 1 lb. each of milk and white chocolate, a 1 lb. tub of caramel and a little bottle of maple flavoring. I couldn’t wait to get started experimenting! First off, I wanted to create a new truffle experience, something with the same blissful dark chocolate decadence of my Bailey’s truffles, but involving that lovely caramel and some nuts (because I totally love the contrast of creamy caramel and salty crunchy nuts). I had mixed nuts in mind originally, but when I saw that cashews were less expensive than mixed nuts (and cashews are my absolute favorite), I ditched the mixed nuts idea and went with cashews. How can you go wrong with cashews?
What equipment do you need to make these truffles?
Aside from the ingredients, you’ll need a small new paintbrush (one that has never been used for paint), a medium mixing bowl, a small bowl or double boiler for melting the chocolate and, most importantly, you need a silicon mold! I recommend a mold for large chocolates that is a bright contrasting color (NOT brown). This is my favorite mold for making large truffles … it’s inexpensive, the bright pink color clearly identifies any “missed” spots … and it’s served me well for years.
(Note: if you purchase this from Amazon using the link above, I will receive a tiny commission. I’m recommending this product because it seriously IS (in my experience) the best for making large homemade truffles.)
How to Keep Chocolate Truffles from Blooming?
The risk with melting chocolate is it sometimes “blooms” (gets ugly white spots) and although it’ll still be edible, it’s definitely not as pretty and also doesn’t taste quite the same. In my experience, it honestly depends on the chocolate. When you order from Chocoley, they send you an email with printable product instructions. The preferred method for melting is to use a double boiler … I don’t have a double boiler, and I like the ease of the microwave, so when Jenny sent me an email to recommend how to do it with a microwave, I went with that: if using a microwave, melt the chocolate to microwave on 50% power until it’s 75% melted, then stir the rest of the way. I totally blundered through it and guessed and my truffles turned out mostly beautiful. I had some bloom on the first batch (before I went looking for those instructions …), so yeah, you know what? It pays to listen to the people that made the chocolate.
It was really interesting, though, when I woke up the next morning and looked again at my Chocoley chocolates that had “bloomed” when they first set to find that the white parts had faded and the chocolate was looking really quite lovely and shiny and edible. THAT’S what really impressed me about Chocoley. Oh, and their caramel worked SO beautifully in the truffles!
I’ve given these truffles to two friends for holiday gifts so far and they were both SO delighted by them.
TOTALLY HELPFUL TIP: If you have a heating pad, turn on and cover with a towel. Set your bowl of melted chocolate on top of the towel to keep your chocolate in its ideal melted state for longer. (Thanks for the awesome tip, Chocoley! I wish I’d seen it BEFORE I started making my truffles, but I’ll be keeping it in mind for next time.)
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Chocolate Caramel Cashew Truffles
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 15
- Total Time: 4 hrs
- Yield: 36 1x
- Category: Candy
Description
Creamy caramel, crunchy roasted cashews and a decadent chocolate liqueur truffle filling all coated in premium gourmet chocolate for a truly blissful experience. If you make this for gifts, your loved ones will treasure every bite.
Ingredients
For the creamy chocolate truffle filling:
- 4 oz. Greek cream cheese or Neufchatel, softened
- 6 – 7 oz. finely crushed chocolate cookies or chocolate graham crackers
- 5 oz. melted Bada Bing Bada Boom dipping and molding chocolate (milk or dark)
- 2 teaspoons good quality vanilla
- 1/2 cup Godiva chocolate liqueur (or Bailey’s or, for a non-alcoholic option, heavy cream)
- 2 Tablespoons dark cocoa powder (dutch process)
For the truffles:
- About 2 lb. Bada Bing Bada Boom dipping and molding chocolate (milk or dark), melted
- About 1/2 lb. Chocoley caramel cream center
- 2 – 4 oz. chopped roasted cashews
- Light sprinkle of sea salt (optional, but recommended)
Instructions
In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the filling ingredients until smooth. The mixture will thicken as the cookies soak up the liquid. If not completely smooth, process in a mini food processor until it’s nice and smooth. Set in the refrigerator until well chilled and firm.
Meanwhile, melt about 6 oz. of chocolate. Pour a bit of the melted chocolate in the bottom of 6 of the spots in the mold and tap several times on the counter to release any air bubbles. Using a small clean paintbrush (one that has never been used for paint), “paint” the chocolate up the sides of each of the molds until the 6 molds are fully coated. Then paint the other 6 spots in the mold. Set the mold in the fridge until the chocolate is set. Inspect and brush chocolate to fill any bare spots. Set in the fridge again until set. Do a second inspection and brush melted chocolate over any bare spots. The chilled mold should help the added chocolate set very quickly.
While the chocolate mold is chilling, use a spoon to prepare 12 small “discs” of caramel with your fingers about the size of the bottom of each chocolate mold. (Don’t worry about the shape … it’s all going to get mushed into the mold.)
Taking care not to touch the sides too much, gently press a caramel disc in the bottom of each hole. If any of the sides of the chocolates break off in the process, fix it by painting with a bit of melted chocolate. Once your chocolate cream filling is cooled, use a spoon to scoop up a bit of filling and fill each hole about 3/4 of the way. Add some chopped nuts to each one, and press gently on the nuts to help you smooth the top so it’s just below the top of the mold. Sprinkle lightly with sea salt (if desired).
Melt more chocolate and drizzle chocolate over each of the truffles so it’s roughly coated. Tap the mold on the counter to smooth the chocolate. If any bare spots remain, use the brush to coax the chocolate into the hole. Tap again. Set the chocolate mold in the fridge again until the rest of the chocolate is fully set. (It will happen quite quickly this time.)
Release the truffles from the mold by gently pushing up from the bottom until the chocolate truffle pops out. Store in an airtight container in a cool place.
Notes
Total time is estimated as it will vary depending on how long you chill things and how long you spend on painting the chocolate on the molds. If you want to make these truffles without the molds, I would suggest making a small ball of caramel, then make a “cup” of the chocolate truffle filling by making a ball and poking your finger in the center. Put the caramel in the cup, then use your hands to close the hole, encircling the caramel with chocolate caramel filling. Roll in the chopped cashews, then dip in melted chocolate and set on a silicon baking mat.
HELPFUL TIP: If you have a heating pad, turn on and cover with a towel. Set your bowl of melted chocolate on top of the towel to keep your chocolate in its ideal melted state for longer.
RECIPE SOURCE: http://www.sumptuousspoonfuls.com/ ~ © Copyright 2019, Sumptuous Spoonfuls. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to publish any of my images, please ask first. If you want to republish this recipe as your own, please re-write the recipe in your own words or link back to this post for the recipe.
Keywords: Chocolate, Truffles, Caramel, Nut, Cashew, Liqueur
This recipe was shared at Full Plate Thursday.
5 comments
This sounds so good. I like the new look of your blog. Good job!
Thank you so much, Christine! It was a little scary, making the plunge to a new blog theme, but I’m really glad I did it.
Good recipe
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