Mayan Chocolate Truffles

Dear readers,

Early last year during my Study Abroad Exchange at UC Davis, California, I visited Mexico during my "Spring Break". I went on a day trip to Chichen Itza and bought some real Mayan Chocolates (unfortunately, I don't have a photo of them). They were quite dry and crumbly but the flavours were delicious - dark and spicy. I tasted black pepper, chilli, cinnamon, bitterness from the cocoa and a slight sweetness of honey.

I really enjoyed these flavours so I decided to create my own version of these chocolates. I wanted to keep the same flavours - black pepper, chilli and cinnamon, but I wanted the chocolates to have a smooth, melt-in-the-mouth texture, rather than dry and crumbly. Fortunately, a very simple ganache of chocolate and cream makes wonderful melt-in-the-mouth truffles.

As I have mentioned before, I prefer my sweets to be on the bitter side. My father and I enjoy the creaminess in milk chocolate but not the sweetness from the added sugar. Also, we both love the deep bitterness of high-cocoa content chocolates but, unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be a creamy chocolate available with high cocoa and low sugar. Most creamy chocolates  have even more added sugar! So, I find that these truffles perfectly suit my taste - just cream and blissful dark bitter chocolate, with a few added spices to mimic the wonderful flavours that I discovered in those Mayan chocolates.



Mayan Chocolate Truffles
200g 80% dark chocolate
300ml double cream
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
2½ teaspoons cinnamon (or mixed spice)
2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
50g cocoa for dusting

This recipe makes approximately 60 truffles.

Break up the chocolate and place in a heat-proof bowl. Slowly heat the cream in a saucepan until it starts to bubble. Remove the cream from the heat, pour over the chocolate and stir until all of the chocolate has melted. Mix in the spices and pour the mixture into a cling-film lined bowl. Allow to cool for 3 hours. Once cooled, use a spoon to cut out some of the truffle mixture and roughly shape into a ball using your hands. Roll the ball in cocoa. Repeat with the rest of the truffle mixture and serve. Store the truffles in the fridge for up to one 1 week.

Notes:
These are quite hot - the odd one or two are enough to satisfy! So, please reduce the amount of cayenne pepper if one prefers less heat. I chose the rustic look of the rough ball-shaped truffles, as they look similar to the Mexican chocolates. If you look closely, you can see that I also mixed some edible bronze lustre with the cocoa to give the truffles a little sparkle!



I have also included a couple of my favourite photos from my trip to Mexico - it is a truly beautiful place!

Mocha chilli cupcakes

Chilli and chocolate has become an increasingly popular flavour combination. The main reason I enjoy chilli is because it's heat takes mouth sensations to that extra level. Texture and flavour are the most important aspects of a food to be considered on an organoleptic level, so if you have incredible flavours and textures, why not excel the mouth party where possible?!

Chilli and chocolate have been presented in both sweet and savoury dishes. There is your simple chilli chocolate, chilli and orange chocolate, chilli and chocolate mexican sauces and many more. Recipe books of today include many chocolate-containing dishes accompanied by meat, poultry, chicken and vegetables.

But chocolate, chilli and coffee? At first I thought the flavour combination may be a little too much, should I just stick to chilli and chocolate? Or maybe just stick to mocha? I did a little research and found minimal recipes containing the three proposed ingredients. I did, however, find a treat produced by Whittards which contained all three flavours - chilli chocolate coated coffee beans.

This was a relief as I thought perhaps the prospective trio had been attempted and proved unsuccessful. These coffee beans are awesome, and pack quite a punch with the chilli. So I decided to go ahead and make mocha chilli cupcakes...

The cupcakes themselves had more of a mocha taste with a sublte trace of chilli that emerged a few seconds after your first bite. The chilli chocolate coated coffee bean provided the stronger kick.

Thai lime, chilli and coconut white chocolate slab

Thai has always been my favourite cuisine, and chocolate has always been my favourite food. My big brother Owen encouraged me to design my own Thai chocolate. I believe the three most significant unitaste (meaning could be combined in a sweet or savoury dish) Thai flavours are lime, chilli and coconut. White chocolate has always been the best out of the three for fruity chocolates therefore it will have the greatest affinity for my chosen combination.

Lime, chilli and coconut are used in all sorts of Thai cooking. Kaffir lime leaves are the true taste of Thailand, and if I were to make truffles I would have infused cream with lemongrass and kaffir lime, but for the chocolate slab I needed to add solid ingredients.

These are literally the only ingredients used for my chocolate slab; lime, dried chilli, dried coconut and creamy white chocolate.

I decided to add only the zest of the lime as I thought the juice may affect the composition of the chocolate and prevent it from setting. Lime zest carries a great deal of flavour and lime oil (very expensive and difficult to get hold of) so thought this would be enough to flavour the chocolate.


I decided not to add chilli into the chocolate as the dried chilli I had was prettttyyyy pungent - this one small chilli flake was enough to make my nose run!


I simply mixed the zest of one lime with 200g of creamy milk chocolate and poured it into a rectangular container. I then studded the zesty chocolate with flakes of dried coconut and chilli before letting it cool.

I was surprised how much I enjoyed this chocolate. I was concerned that the zest of one lime wouldn't be enough but there is a very noticeable lime flavour present. I was worried that the chilli would be too strong and overpower of the other more subtle flavours, but the creaminess of the chocolate seems to smoothen it out. If anything, a little more chilli could have been added but that would be to my personal taste and I generally like my food very hot! The coconut adds a contrast in texture by providing a little crunchiness against the velvety white chocolate. I enjoy the texture of coconut in many baked goods and I know that Fox's add desiccated coconut to some of their biscuits purely for added richness and texture. A chunk of this slab truly melts in the mouth like butter on toast, painting your mouth with a layer of refreshing creamy lime and a tickle of chilli.

Bliss!