Makes about 35 truffles

Ingredients

For the truffles
200ml double cream
75g light muscovado sugar
Pinch of sea salt
250g best-quality dark chocolate, finely chopped
To coat
150g best-quality dark chocolate, finely chopped
Flavour variations
For orange: 5g candied orange peel, finely chopped
For ginger: 25g stem ginger in syrup, drained and finely chopped

For cherry and coconut: 25g desiccated coconut, lightly toasted, and 50g dried morello cherries, chopped

Method

1 Line a baking tray with non-stick baking parchment. Put the cream, sugar and salt into a pan over a medium heat. Bring to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar, then reduce the heat and simmer very gently for 1 min.

2 Put the chopped chocolate in a bowl. Remove the pan from the heat and pour the mixture over the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has melted and the mixture is smooth.

3 Divide the mixture evenly between two bowls and add whichever flavour you have chosen. Mix thoroughly, then leave to cool and set in the fridge for about 2 hours.

4 Scoop 1 tsp of set truffle mixture into the palm of your hand. Roll it quickly into a ball and place on the lined baking tray. Repeat with the remaining mixture. Chill the truffles until firm.

5 To temper the chocolate for coating the truffles, place 100g of the finely chopped chocolate in a small bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water. The bottom of the bowl should not come into contact with the water, or the chocolate may scorch. Stir the chocolate until melted and smooth.

6 Remove the bowl from the pan and add the remaining 50g of chopped chocolate. Stir until melted and thoroughly combined and the chocolate has cooled and thickened slightly. Return the bowl to the pan and warm the tempered chocolate over the water once more. It is now ready to use.

7 First, lay out a clean sheet of baking parchment. Taking one truffle at a time, drop it into the tempered chocolate. Using a fork and working quickly, roll the truffle to coat it in the chocolate, then lift it and allow the excess to drip back into the bowl, tapping the tines of the fork on the edge. Carefully slide the truffle off the fork on to the clean baking parchment.

8 Repeat with the remaining truffles and leave to harden before packaging into pretty boxes. Stored in a cool place, truffles will keep up to a week. If kept in the fridge, bring them out 30 min before serving.