Firstly, a HUGE apology for the gap in-between blog posts and thank you for your patience with me! It has been my busiest baking time ever, together with a house renovation project and school commitments for my children it's just meant no time to blog about all the baking I've been doing. However I have been enjoying some hugely exciting corporate projects with launch events for Secret Life Of Pets, Star Trek Beyond and Absolutely Fabulous The Movie plus some wonderful celebration cakes. But that's also meant I've become a slight recluse of late!
So it's almost Christmas and we are massively excited in our house. We have a couple more weeks of builders in our home (the kitchen has been my safe haven throughout!) but we've managed to squeeze in our Christmas tree and the festive baking is slowly unfolding. And my boys are beyond excited about what Santa's going to bring them this year!
I love Coconut Truffles (they are little homemade bites that taste deliciously like Bounty Bars) and decided to make them into festive little polar bears and reindeer. They look homemade and that's okay as this is a great project to share with others, especially little fingers who enjoy dipping themselves into melted chocolate! You can, of course, make whatever festive creations you like but I think bears and reindeer are our favourites :)
The base of the truffles is the Chocolate Coconut Truffles I've posted about before, a delicious white chocolate, coconut milk and desiccated coconut base which tastes exactly like my very favourite chocolate bar. But the beauty of it is that it's all home made and totally delicious!
The festive part of these truffles is how you decide to decorate them. To make the polar bears and reindeers you need both white chocolate and milk chocolate for dipping, and then I used fondant, smarties and little black dragées to create the animals. You don't absolutely need the lollipop sticks but it makes them easier to eat and I think adds a touch of fun!
I hope you enjoy making these as much as we did. But I promise you, eating them is the most fun part :)
Christmas Coconut Truffle Pops
adapted from Ecole Chocolat's White Chocolate Coconut Ganache Truffles
Makes around 15 truffles (6 polar bears, 6 reindeer and 3 chocolate covered truffles)
Ingredients
- 230G WHITE CHOCOLATE
- 85ML COCONUT MILK
- 100G SHREDDED SWEET COCONUT
- 100G MILK CHOCOLATE
- 100G WHITE CHOCOLATE
- 60G WHITE SUGARPASTE
- 60G CHOCOLATE SUGARPASTE
- 6 RED SMARTIES
- 6 BROWN SMARTIES
- 24 BLACK DRAGÉES
- 12 LOLLIPOP STICKS
Method
- Place the white chocolate in a microwaveable bowl or over a bain-marie
- Melt the chocolate either in the microwave (on low & short bursts so as not to burn the chocolate) or gently over a bain-marie
- When the chocolate is fully melted, remove from the heat and leave to cool for 5 minutes
- Add the coconut milk and mix to combine
- Leave on the kitchen side for around 30 minutes
- After this time, heat the chocolate mixture either in the microwave or over a bain-marie until warmed through but not hot (around 30-40 seconds in the microwave)
- Beat until smooth and then add the shredded coconut
- Once this is completely combined, pop in the fridge for at least 30 minutes
- When the ganache has set, remove from the fridge and with little scoops of the mixture, make small truffle balls (mine were around 10g per ball) and pop a lollipop stick into each one
- Pop back in the fridge to firm up a little more (around 30 minutes)
- Then shape each one into a cone-like shape, wider at the bottom and thinner at the top
- Pop back in the fridge again until you're ready to make your chocolates
- I made my decorations the day before I needed them as we want the fondant to set up a little - you want to make 6 snouts (around 3-5g each) from the white sugarpaste and 6 snouts (around 3-5g each) from the chocolate sugarpaste
- Dampen the middle of the snout with a small amount of water and attach the brown smarties to the white snouts and the red smarties to the brown snouts
- Make 12 small white fondant balls that will be the bear's ears and 12 oval shaped balls that will be the reindeer's ears
- Then roll a small amount of fondant into a long tiny sausage shape for the antlers and curl them around at the top (see photo of the finished reindeer) - these will be too soft to stand immediately on top of the reindeer's head so ideally you would make them the day before and allow them to set
- Line a tray with greaseproof paper
- Melt the white chocolate in a small bowl and dip 6 of the truffles into the chocolate and cover the coconut mixture completely and stand upright on the lined tray with the lollipop stick upright from the top of each one
- Working quickly, add the additional decorations before the chocolate sets - the snout, the ears and the eyes
- Repeat with the milk chocolate, adding the snout, ears, eyes and antlers
- You'll have a few truffles left and I like to just coat these with the milk chocolate - if you like a textured effect, using the back of a fork, create little spikes
- Leave to set up in room temperature
- Enjoy each little bite :)