Ethical Advent Day 4: Fairtrade Truffles

This post was originally written by fellow ethical blogger Hannah from lifestylejustice. Truffles were on of the first gifts I started making people a few years ago, and when I saw Hannah’s 3-ingredient recipe, I just knew I had to share. Hannah’s blog covers everything from fashion and beauty to home and health; she has a little something for everyone whilst being incredibly wise and relatable, I can’t recommend her enough! Hannah’s truffles are luxurious yet easy and cheap gifts to make (aka the perfect holiday combo). Make sure to go check her out for a whole lot more ethical goodness on her site!

Below are Hannah’s words…

I have made an excellent discovery. Making basic truffles is super, super easy. What if I told you that you were JUST three ingredients and a few hours away from decadent, velvety-smooth chocolate swirling across your tastebuds? I’m very much regretting not giving truffles a try sooner… I guess I just assumed that they would be time consuming and complicated?

Handmade truffles are a wonderful gift (for someone else, or for yourself… probably for yourself) and you can get so creative with different flavor infusions! As an ethical-chocolate-only consumer, I’ve found that my truffle options are limited (I’ve only found a few easily accessible fair trade products in this category) so it’s nice to be able to take matters into my own hands. Literally, because I rolled these truffles with my hands. But we’ll get into that later.

For 12-16 truffles (depending on how large you roll them), you will need:

8 oz fair trade chocolate (I used a mixture of my favorite Divine Dark chocolate baking bar and some Green&Black milk chocolate)
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream*
1/4 cup loose Numi aged earl grey tea

*Side note from Fran, if you’re vegan you can sub in coconut milk for cream!

Coatings of choice ( I used fair trade Equal Exchange cocoa powder, Green&Black white chocolate, and a little sprinkle ofNumi’s loose leaf earl grey tea).

How to make truffles:
Break chocolate up for easier melting and place in a glass bowl
Add loose leaf tea to cream in a small pot and heat over low heat to just before boiling, stirring with a wire whisk. A great way to judge when your cream mixture is hot, but not too hot, is by watching for it to begin to “move” without breaking into bubbles.

Pour hot cream mixture over chocolate through a wire strainer to remove the tea solids. Let sit for a few minutes.

Stir until chocolate, cream, and vanilla are completely incorporated. You now have ganache!Pour ganache into a shallow, parchment lined dish. Put in the refrigerator and chill for several hours until it is cold, firm, but still pliable- it should feel almost like children’s molding clay.

Once ganache is set, scoop it out of the dish by the teaspoonful and mold it into balls with your hands. Work quickly, as it will begin to melt! I wiped my hands with a towel in between every few balls to cut down on the stickiness factor. Roll balls in the coatings of your choice!Cocoa is the easiest, but I think truffles look fanciest (and taste the most delicious) when they are dipped in more chocolate! To do that, freeze your truffles and then dip them quickly in melted chocolate for a hard outer coating.

Enjoy your fair trade, handmade truffles!

Until next time, stay magic y’all.