Almond Joy Truffles | cooking ala mel

One of my mom’s favorite candies is an almond joy. My sisters and I got my dad a Wii Fit for Christmas, and while I wanted to also include my mom as part of that gift because she’s been wanting to find a good exercise video to do, I wanted to do something else too. As I was perusing some recipes, I found a recipe for almond joy truffles…I had to make them.

When I got home from school for Christmas break, my dad had already gotten a few of the ingredients for me (seeing as I’m not 21), so all I needed was a day my mom wouldn’t be there. Since she works from 12-6 every day, that was pretty easy. The day I made them, I made a bunch of other things as well, so she wouldn’t be suspicious of me being in the kitchen if she got home before I was finished. She asked me several times what the heavy cream was for, but I just passed it off saying it was for a recipe I wanted to try. I was surprised she accepted that as an answer.

I had some of the nut/coconut topping left over from coating the truffles in them, so I topped my yogurt with some of it and left the rest in a bowl on the counter, planning on continuing to use it for my yogurt instead of tossing it. The next day, I was searching high and low for those nuts, but they were just gone. When my mom got home from work that day, I asked her if she’d seen them, and sure enough, she’d eaten them. Wondering why I made them, I told her I toasted it all to put in my yogurt, which she seemed satisfied with. At least I knew she liked the nuts!

Almond Joy Truffles
from Sweet Tooth
(yields about 18 truffles)
1/2 cup sliced almonds, chopped
1/2 cup sweetened coconut, chopped
9 whole almonds, cut in half
5 oz. semi sweet chocolate
2 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 T hot coffee
1 T coconut rum
1/4 t vanilla extract
1/4 t almond extract

In a pan over medium heat, toast coconut and sliced almonds until the coconut starts to brown and is fragrant. Chop the mixture finely. Set aside in a small bowl.
Chop the chocolate and place in a bowl. Heat cream over medium-high heat until it reaches a boil. Immediately pour hot cream over chocolate and whisk until smooth. Whisk in coffee and liqueurs. Cover mixture and refrigerate for about 1 hour. Using a small ice cream scoop (or cookie scoop), make scoops of chocolate mixture, placing half an almond in the center of each, and place on lined cookie sheet. Return to the fridge for about 20 minutes.

Remove truffles from fridge about four at a time (I did it one at a time) to precent unnecessary melting. Roll the chocolate dollops into balls with your hands and roll into coconut/almond mixture. Package as you wish and store in the fridge until ready to serve.

I found it useful to wash my hands with cold water in between every four truffles to ensure they wouldn’t melt so quickly in my hands.

Related