BRONTE TRUFFLES

I enjoyed the joyful BBC series Sweets Made Simple and wish they would bring it back. Perhaps the recipe which most impressed me with its genius and simplicity was the one for gin and lime truffles. I wanted to try it, but unfortunately I can't drink alcohol any more as it's incompatible with my medication. I don't let this stop me sloshing wine into my casseroles or Maraschino into my "tipsy cake" but I was scared I'd find a bottle of gin in the house too much temptation!

This, then, is my take on the truffles and I really want to thank Miss Kitty Hope and Mr Greenwood for the inspiration and especially for pointing out that you can roll truffles in any coating you want. I don't think I'd have thought of the pistacchi otherwise! As I've mentioned before, Bronte near Catania is the pistacchio town and you may be interested to read of its connections with a certain British admiral and of his possible link with three very famous British sisters.

Modican chocolate and lime truffles

100 gr chocolate, broken up - I used half cioccolato fondente [dark chocolate] and half cinnamon-flavoured Modican chocolate
2 tablesp panna da montare if you are in Italy, or double or whipping cream [but don't whip it!]
zest of 1 lime and juice of 2
50 gr unsalted butter in pieces
farina di pistacchi - very finely chopped pistacchi - to coat the truffles

First I must confess that I've lost my double boiler so I decided to melt the chocolate in the microwave:  if you are going to do this, put it in a small Pyrex-style basin with the cream and microwave for 2 minutes on medium low [but keep an eye on it - your microwave may be more powerful than mine.] Give it a good stir.

Add the pieces of butter and stir well to melt.

Add the lime zest and juice and stir till mixed. Refrigerate overnight.

The next day, scoop out coffee-spoonfuls of the mixture and roll into balls. Put on a tray lined with baking paper and refrigerate again for about an hour.

Now roll the truffles in the chopped pistacchi, known as farina di pistacchio [pistacchio flour] here.

Even without the gin, I think these taste quite exciting!