Chocolate Espresso Truffles

My husband is not a sweets eater.
(If you're thinking "What's wrong with him?"
Don't worry... I think the same thing on a daily basis!)

Since he loves chocolate covered espresso beans, and cheesecake, I figured maybe he'd like chocolate cheesecake espresso truffles? I decided to give it a try for Valentines day. I couldn't find a recipe for them... So I had to create my own. IT WORKED!

(Although my husband insists that I cant include "cheesecake" in the name...
He says "having cream cheese in something does not make it cheesecake"
... Yes, that made my sad :(

I basically found a plain chocolate truffle recipe and altered it to include coffee.
I kinda threw together several ingredients I had on hand, so my measurements may sound a little uneven. Don't worry- I really don't think you can mess these things up! (They are surprisingly WAAAAY easy!)

What you will need: 

• Approximately 60 chocolate kisses (I'm sure you could use a bag of chocolate chips or something... I happened to have chocolate kisses on hand.)

• 7 ounces of Sweetened Condensed Milk.
  (I used 1/2 of a 14 oz can... the top half of the can was used in our coffee!)

• Approximately 6 oz of cream cheese
  (Yes, I know it's sold in 8oz sizes... I made my husband a bagel with cream cheese the day before.. this is what was left!)

• 1/3 Cup of espresso (If you make too much, it's okay- just drink it!) ;D
• 2 Tablespoons of espresso powder (a.k.a finely ground coffee)

For the shell:

• Chocolate pieces. I think I used about 1/2 bag of chocolate chips, and 1/4 of a bag of white chocolate for decorations

("Espresso Powder?" That's what my husband said too... But my logic behind it is simple: When you eat a chocolate covered espresso bean... the bean becomes grounds in your mouth. They obviously aren't going to hurt you.. and hey, why not? No... They were not used coffee grinds, in case your wondering that too... :/

 

Here's How You Do It:

Combine all the ingredients and cook them in a heavy saucepan until well blended and creamy.

 The mixture will be kind of runny while hot. I put the whole pan in the refrigerator for an hour or so until it was thick and gooey. 

You will be able to spoon them onto a plate or pan layered with waxed paper. 

 Don't worry about shaping it into balls yet.

Place the pan in the freezer for at lease 30 minutes. (You can freeze for longer if you need to, I had a couple balls in the freezer for 2 days!)

Now you can roll your "goops" into balls. :D 

Once you have all your balls formed, place them back in the freezer just while you melt your chocolate for the coating.

I didn't bother with a double boiler... the microwave is so much faster!
Be sure to keep stirring your melting chocolate until it's smooth.

Then... simply dip your freezing balls into the melting chocolate. It was extremely messy until I used a tooth pick to hold each ball.

 Place your truffle balls back on the waxed paper for the the chocolate to cool down and firm up. I stuck mine back in the fridge to to expedite this process (yes, I made them ON Valentines day!)


I had a tiny hole in the top of each truffle from the tooth pick, but it was easily covered with a drizzle of the white chocolate.
(sorry... I forgot to take that picture.)

And... WHALA!
A batch of extremely yummy, caffeinated truffles!

(My husband even liked them!!!!)

(oh... and if you are having "one of those days" the truffles are also delicious with a bowl of chocolate ice cream... yes, I tried. :D