Sluttishly Sweet: Mojito and Margarita Chocolate Truffles

For me there are few things in the kitchen that cannot be improved by the addition of one of the following: booze, chocolate or cheese. This little gem contains two out of three so its all good in my book.

I love a good mojito and the combination of zesty lime and fresh mint really lightens this really rich chocolatey truffle, and well, rum and chocolate, whats not to love? Suddenly a whole world of cocktail chocolate delights opened so I had to try a margarita version. If you are a fan of salted caramel then you will love this, the salt actually brings out the flavour of the chocolate and the kick of tequila is all the more glorious!

Mojito and Margarita Chocolate Truffles (makes 15 of each)

You’ll need:

• 250ml double cream
• 300g good dark chocolate (70% ish) for the truffle mix
• 100g of the same chocolate to coat
• 15ml rum (golden or dark is best with chocolate but you can use white)
• 15ml tequila
• zest of 4 limes very finely grated
• 10 mint leaves very finely chopped
• sea salt flakes (really important that it is flaked salt not granular)
• about 6 pieces each of white and milk chocolate to drizzle.

Make it!

1. Break up the 300g of dark chocolate for the truffle mix into small squares.
2. Pour the cream into a glass bowl and set it above a saucepan of simmering water to warm.
3. Once the cream starts to bubble remove from the heat, add the broken chocolate pieces and stir until all the chocolate melts and add a small pinch of sea salt flakes.
4. Divide the mix equally between two bowls; to one bowl add the rum and the tequila to the other. Give both bowls a good stir and then leave for 20 minutes to cool a bit.
5. Saving some lime zest for sprinkling later, divide the rest between the two bowls then add another pinch of sea salt flakes to the tequila chocolate bowl and stir really gently trying not to smash up the salt flakes as you do. Pop both bowls into the fridge to chill, leave the spoon in the tequila mix so you don’t get them mixed up! At this point I generally make myself a mojito to celebrate all my good work so far!
6. When the hour is nearly up break the remaining 100g of dark chocolate into small pieces and melt. Pop on those sexy plastic gloves, remove the tequila mix and using a spoon scoop out enough to make a small ball of truffle to roll in your hands and set it on a plate.  Repeat with the rest of the mix.
7. Pop the truffle ball into the melted dark chocolate and roll in your hands to cover, repeat with the rest of the tequila batch stopping every 3 truffles to sprinkle the truffles with sea salt flakes and lime before the chocolate sets.
8. Roll the rum truffles into balls then roll them in the finely chopped mint before covering in the melted chocolate. Sprinkle the rum truffles with lime zest.
9. For the white and milk chocolate drizzles simple pop the chocolate pieces into bowls and melt in the microwave, use a spoon to drizzle the white chocolate over the rum truffles and milk chocolate on the margarita ones, give the truffles a final sprinkling of lime zest and a few more flakes of salt onto the margarita ones. 

Tips:

• If you want an even boozier truffle you can decrease the cream by 15ml and add an extra 15ml of booze.  
• Don’t like rum or tequila? Use whatever booze you like, swap lime zest for orange/lemon/chili flakes or even wasabi makes a really good truffle. There are so many things you can do with the basic recipe, just remember that the more liquid you add the softer the truffle will be and the harder it will be to roll.