You're in for a Treat

Now, normally, I don't give away my secrets when it comes to my truffles, but in the spirit of competition, I will release my new recipe, Riceball!

What competition, you ask? Well, the monthly We Should Cocoa chocolate challenge, hosted this month by Choclette, of course! Really, it's not a competition, but I tend to make these kinds of things competitive because that's how I am with my chocolate.

About the recipe.  You may recognize rice balls, or onigiri, as a Japanese dish.  And while the recipe tastes nothing like onigiri, I'm sure, it does have a very Japanese ingredient. This truffle features crisped rice in the shell and genmaicha-infused ganache. Genmaicha is green tea mixed with toasted brown rice for a nutty-tasting tea, and can be found at health food stores or, less expensively, at your nearby Asian market. The following recipe is for milk-free dark chocolate, so the proportions may vary slightly depending on the chocolate you use.

Dark Riceball Truffles (Vegan)

12 fl. oz. (1 1/2 cup) dark chocolate chips
2 bags of genmaicha
100 mL almond or soy milk
1 tbsp. margarine
At least 2 additional cups of tempered chocolate for dipping
About 1/2 cup crisped rice (Rice Krispies cereal works fine)

In a double boiler/bain marie, melt the first cup and a half of chocolate. While it is melting, steep the two bags of genmaicha in the milk, stirring or moving the bags often to keep a skin from forming over the milk as the tea steeps. After all the chocolate is melted, pour 50 mL of the infused milk into it, straining out tea leaves if necessary. Remove from the heat and mix; I get the best results using a spoon to mix it a little, then a whisk to incorporate it thoroughly. Once the mixture is smooth, add the margarine. Be sure to mix this thoroughly as well, or you may end up with a chunk of margarine in your ganache.

Cover the ganache and chill in the refrigerator for two to three hours.once it's firm, take it out of the refrigerator. In your double boiler, melt the rest of the chocolate.  While it's melting, spoon out your ganache and roll into balls with about a nickel's diameter. Temper the chocolate and stir in the crisped rice. Dip each ganache ball into the chocolate, making sure you get plenty of rice lumps over it, scrape the excess chocolate, and drop onto a cookie sheet. Allow the truffles to harden on their own; putting them in the refrigerator could basically undo all your hard work at tempering!

If you'venever made truffles, I'd recommend you practice making ganache first, then get good at tempering. The best way to learn how to make truffles is by experience.