White Chocolate Almond Truffles

Continuing in our week of chocolate, I thought I'd share a white chocolate recipe. These are rich, quite sweet little treats, that don't taste strongly of almonds or white chocolate. The flavor seemed almost caramelly to me. But not even exactly that either. :) Still, these would make a unique addition to your holiday treat repertoire.

I did find the rolling of these to be incredibly tedious. Truffle rolling is always messy, but somehow these just didn't want to be rolled. See my note below the recipe with a possible alternative finish to these candies.



WHITE CHOCOLATE ALMOND TRUFFLES

1 pound white chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup natural almond butter
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 cup blanched almonds

Break chocolate into pieces no larger than a lima bean. Either pulse chocolate in a food processor fitted with a steel blade or chop by hand.

Heat cream, almond butter, sugar, and salt in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring frequently, until mixture comes to a simmer. Stir in chocolate. Remove the pan from the heat, cover the pan, and allow chocolate to melt for 5 minutes. Whisk mixture until smooth, and transfer to a 9 x 9-inch baking pan. Chill mixture for at least 4 hours, or overnight.

While mixture chills, preheat the oven to 350°F. Place almonds on a baking sheet, and toast for 5 to 7 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove the pan from the oven, and in a food processor fitted with a steel blade, pulse to finely chop the almonds. Or chop finely by hand. Set aside.

Place chopped almonds in a bowl. Using a spoon, scoop out 2 teaspoons mixture, and gently form it into a ball. Roll balls in chopped almonds, and then refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm.

Cook's Note: If I make them again, I think I might grease my square pan, sprinkle in a layer of finely chopped, toasted almonds, pour in and spread the hot truffle mixture, and then sprinkle the top with the remaining chopped toasted almonds. Then, instead of little truffle balls, you could cut truffle squares.

Variation: Substitute natural peanut butter and dark chocolate to make chocolate peanut butter truffles.