Death by Truffle

Christmas is coming, which means of course that it's time for me to try making all sorts of desserts that I'd never make at any other time of year.  Now that I've discovered these ridiculously easy and delicious truffles, however, I think I'm going to have to make them year-round.  Or maybe just eat so many before Christmas that I'm content not to look at them again for the rest of the year.  I got the original recipe here and then played around a little bit to try out my own flavor combinations.

Ingredients:
1 c. cake mix (I started with a good old classic white)
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp sweetened evaporated milk
a splash of vanilla (let's face it, I never actually measure vanilla.  I think the original recipe called for 1/2 tsp)
1/2 to 1 cup chocolate chips

Combine cake mix, evaporated milk, and vanilla.  Stir until completely mixed.  The mixture should be nice and dry, but not flaky.  If it's too dry, add more milk.  If it's too runny, add a little more cake mix.  Refrigerate mixture for 15 minutes.

Once the batter has firmed up in the fridge, scoop it into rounded balls.  Remember, the chocolate coating is going to make them bigger, so make them slightly smaller than the size you'd like for your final product.  I think mine were roughly the diameter of a quarter.  Refrigerate again for about 15 minutes.  It's important to get the dough nice and firm so it won't flake apart when you roll it in the chocolate.  (Trust me, I speak from experience!)

Now it's time to make the chocolate coating!  I just tossed a handful of chocolate chips into a bowl and threw it in the microwave for a minute or two, checking on it every 30 seconds.  If you wanted to be fancy I suppose you could use nicer chocolate and/or a double boiler, but in my humble opinion that's totally unnecessary.

Roll each dough ball in the chocolate until it's completely coated.  The tricky part is that the chocolate gradually solidifies at room temperature, so you have to do this rather quickly.  I found that it helps if you do this in two or three batches so you don't have to melt all the chocolate at once.  Also, I found that the easiest way (for me) was to use a spoon to roll the dough around in the chocolate and then quickly scoop it out onto the tray.  This might be even less messy if you used a toothpick so you could just lift the finished truffle right out of there.  But what's life without a little chocolate all over your hands, am I right?

mmm...what could be more inviting than a bowl full of melted chocolate?!

Put each finished truffle on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper (or aluminum foil if you're like me and realize halfway through a recipe that you don't have everything you need!)...then back in the fridge they go for another half hour or so. 

So simple, so delicious...and open to all sorts of flavor possibilities!  For my second batch I used chocolate cake mix and Hershey's mint chocolate chips.  Nothing says Christmas quite like some mint chocolate! 

I don't think I own any cookie tins that aren't Christmas themed.

I'm thinking of doing white chocolate coating next, and maybe adding some sprinkles inside for a bit of a festive look.  Let me know what flavor combinations you think of!