Throne of Glass and Hazelnut Dark Chocolate Truffles

Throne of Glass is probably one of my favorite series of all time. Like any series, it has its problematic moments (why do I have to say this about every book?) but it also has moments that are knock-your-socks-off new and beautiful. I am a hardcore Rowaelin shipper and NO ONE CAN STOP ME.

These truffles were born out of Rowaelin love. We know our girl Aelin loves her some chocolate. And the time Rowan ate a whole piece of disgusting hazelnut chocolate cake that Aelin made and pretended to love it has gone down in fandom history.

Thus: hazelnut dark chocolate truffles!

I started out trying to straight up mix Nutella with dark chocolate ganache filling, but the dark chocolate completely wiped out any flavor of Nutella no matter how much I put in. I got to thinking I might have to resort to milk chocolate (please no) when I watched an episode of Great British Baking Show and somebody said how dark chocolate by nature overpowers more delicate flavors. In that same episode (or did I watch five at a time again? It’s possible) somebody uses molds to make little chocolate candies. So I tried the molds.

They also did not work. Frustration!

Finally, I caved and went on a quest to find some actual hazelnuts. I found mine at Whole Foods, but you can also find them at Sprouts, where they are surprisingly more expensive. Hazelnuts worked–so today you get an extremely hazelnutty truff.

I want to talk a little about tempering and cooling too. The method I use here is the simplest, but it’s not foolproof. You can also mess up by cooling the chocolate wrong, which is why my guys are a little freckly. I cooled them partly in the refrigerator because I had to drive somewhere else, and they got some speckles.

So, some things to be careful of:

Microwave your 7oz of chocolate only in 30-second intervals and stop before all of it is melted. Stir to melt the rest. The key here is to get to know your microwave, honestly. Once you do, this method becomes pretty reliable.
Let the chocolates cool at room temperature.

Have fun 🙂

Rowaelin’s Hazelnut Dark Chocolate Truffles

Makes 18 truffles

Ingredients

10oz dark chocolate, divided
9oz raw hazelnuts
6 tbs butter, softened
1 tbs almond milk
3 tbs sugar
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4+1/8 tsp nutmeg
3/4 tsp vanilla

Directions

Prepare the Hazelnuts

Spread the hazelnuts out on a cookie sheet and bake at 350F for about 10 minutes.
Wrap them in a clean kitchen towel while they’re still hot and let them sit for a minute.
Leaving the nuts wrapped in the towel, rub them all over to get as many skins off as you can. It’s okay if there are skins left, and you can take some off with your fingers if it bothers you.
Using a food processor or chopper, grind/chop the hazelnuts until they are very fine. (See picture above.) You could also chop them by hand, just know your filling might be a little chunky.

Make the Filling

Put your chopped hazelnuts in a medium bowl.
Using a spatula, smoosh in the softened butter until fully incorporated. Make sure no large pockets of butter remain.
Add the almond milk, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla and mix until incorporated.
Taste and adjust the flavors as you like. After the fact, I felt like some mint would be nice in here.
At this point, the mixture should be moldable. Roll it into ~18 1 1/2-inch balls or smaller if you prefer. Set these out on a cookie sheet.
Chill for at least 1 hour.

Temper the Chocolate

When the truffles are ready, temper your chocolate.
Put 7oz of the chocolate in a medium microwave-safe bowl. Heat in 30-second intervals, stirring after each. When you see that only a few half-melted chunks remain, stir until they melt fully. Then add in the other 3oz of chocolate. Stir vigorously until all of that chocolate has melted.
Your chocolate is in temper!

Make the Truffles

To retain the truffles’ structures, take batches of six or so truffles out of the fridge at a time for dipping.
Drop the balls of filling into the tempered chocolate one at a time. Using two forks, make sure each ball is fully coated. Then lift it out of the chocolate on the forks. Move it gently up and down and/or between the two forks to let the excess chocolate drip off. Place on the cookie sheet and repeat with the remaining truffs.
Cool at room temperature until chocolate has hardened.