Dessert Recipe: Delectable Irish Cream Truffles for St. Patrick’s Day

by Alisha Webb on February 24th, 2016 | 1 Comment »

St Patrick's Day is the most famous celebration of all that is Irish. It is a day associated with the color green, the patron saint of the Emerald Isle who brought Christianity to that land, and copious amounts of alcohol consumption.

Many don't realize however, that the origins of this merriment celebrate the lifting of eating and drinking restrictions observed during Lent. For those not overly partial to a little tipple, St. Patrick's Day means that you can enjoy a great feast of the food that you have chosen to deny yourself throughout this period.

Irish Cream Truffles Dessert Recipe

There is no better way to take advantage of this break than with a tasty treat. Bear in mind that this particular sweet takes advantage of the lifting of the ban on both sweet foods and alcohol in one fell swoop, making this a dessert that should only be shared with the adults!

The preparation time should only be around 20 minutes, and cooking time won't be much more than 30 minutes.

Ingredients

Bittersweet chocolate 110g
Dark chocolate 50g
Heavy cream 2 tablespoons
White chocolate 50g
Irish cream liqueur 2 tablespoons
Butter 25g

Directions

Prepare the base of our scrumptious dessert by melting the dark chocolate. You can do this in a microwave or by using a hot-water bath. It's a good idea to use plain chocolate here rather than any that might contain artificial additives or sweeteners.
Now that you have your chocolate all nice and gooey you need to add your cream, which you will have pre-heated in a small saucepan. The cream should be hot but make sure you don't bring it to a boil. Pour this hot cream into your chocolate and mix it all together thoroughly until you have a nice smooth consistency. Now let it stand and thicken for about 15 minutes.
Add your butter and Irish liqueur to the mix. (It should be noted that the liqueur is not essential, but it wouldn't be very Irish without it!) Stir it all together nicely, then cover your mixing bowl and place it in the fridge.
Your mix is going to stay in the fridge for around 30 minutes. It needs to be very cold and close to being sit, but still pliable, so just have a little check on it about 15 minutes in just in case you've got one of those especially cold fridges!
Once the wait is over, scoop up your mix with a tablespoon and roll it into nicely rounded balls. Place these onto a baking tray and then put them back in the refrigerator for another 10 minutes.
Ground up the milk chocolate and dark chocolate and place them in separate small trays or plates. Take out your chocolate balls from the fridge and roll them in the powder to give them a nice soft coating. You can choose to cover them completely in dark or milk chocolate, or you can give them a combination of the two. Put them back on the baking tray and leave them out sitting proudly on your finest piece of handmade kitchen furniture until your hungry guests arrive.

So there you have it, an easy to make, but highly enjoyable little treat to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. Why not double up on the measurements if you want to really take advantage of the lifting on those Lenten restrictions; it's another two full weeks until you can enjoy the sweeter things of life again. Great craic, as the Irish almost certainly would say. Enjoy!

What is your favorite St. Patrick's Day treat?

The article was written by Alisha Webb. Alisha is a British writer and a content developer for Kitstone.com. She holds an MA in Creative Writing. Her poetry and short-fiction have been published extensively across the world. She is a keen traveler, reader, and moviegoer.