Coconut and Red Velvet Truffles

This is mostly a Donna Hay recipe from the December  2013 Donna Hay Magazine, but I adapted it because I didn’t want my truffles to have alcohol in them.  If you do want them to have alcohol in them, simply substitute the cream cheese for ½ a cup of coconut flavoured liqueur.  These truffles were a huge success and they look beautiful too.  Great for a party, baby shower, afternoon tea, after dinner treat or just have them handy for when people pop by! 

I found that the trickiest part of this recipe  was coating the truffles in the chocolate so hopefully the detailed description I have included will help you with this!

What you need

150g unsalted butter, softened

¾ cup (165g) caster sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

1¼ cups (185g) self-raising flour, sifted

¼ cup cocoa, sifted

½ cup buttermilk

2 tablespoons red food colouring

¼ cup (20g) desiccated coconut

225g cream cheese

300g white chocolate, chopped

3 teaspoons vegetable oil

2 cups shredded coconut

How to make them

Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F).  Place the butter, sugar and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat for 8-10 minutes or until pale and creamy.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure all the mixture is combined. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add the flour, cocoa, buttermilk and food colouring and beat on low until just combined.  

Spoon the mixture into a lightly greased, lined cake tin.  I used a 26cm round tin but, if you have one, you can use a 20cm x 30cm tin.  Smooth the top of the cake with a palette knife.  

Bake for 40 – 45 minutes if until cooked when tested with a skewer.  Remove cake from oven and allow to cool in tin for 10 minutes before turning it out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Break the cake into pieces into either a food processor or the bowl of an electric mixer.  Add the desiccated coconut and cream cheese and combine.

Roll the mixture into balls that are the size of a walnut or larger if you wish.  I prefer to make them in bite-size rather than too big.

Place the balls on a lined baking try and put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes until they are set.

When the balls are set, prepare your chocolate.  Place the chocolate and oil in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.  Make sure the water is not touching the bottom of the bowl.  Stir until smooth.

This is the tricky part…  I started coating the truffles by trying to use two forks to dip and coat the truffles, I then tried spoons… In the end I decided that sticking a skewer into the truffle and then coating it chocolate was easier. 

Roll the chocolate-coated truffle in the shredded coconut while it is still on the skewer and then carefully remove the skewer, placing the truffle on a lined baking tray.

When all the truffles are coated and covered in coconut, place them in the fridge to set completely (at least for an hour, overnight is good too).

Serve and enjoy!

Tip:  Be careful when heating the chocolate that you don’t overheat it.  If you do, the chocolate will begin to become lumpy and once this has happened, you really need to start again.  For this reason, it is always good to have a spare quantity of chocolate at hand in case!