Vegan Christmas truffles

Step 1

Place 250 g / 9 oz of broken-up chocolate (I tend to whack an unopened packet against my workbench to break it up) and coconut milk in a glass or metal bowl over a water bath and melt on the lowest setting (chocolate does not tolerate overheating very well).

Step 2

Once the chocolate has almost completely melted, remove the bowl from the heat and let the remaining chocolate melt fully in the residual heat. Gently whisk the mixture with a wire whisk.

Step 3

Add spices, salt, vanilla extract and maple syrup.

Step 4

Let the mixture come to room temperature and place in the fridge overnight for it to harden. If you are in a rush, place it in the freezer instead for an hour or so, until solid.

Step 5

Before taking the mixture out of the fridge, prepare the orange maple cranberries, if using. You could skip this or dried cranberries instead.

Step 6

Scoop portions of the mixture. Use kitchen scales to measure out equal sized portions of the mixture first (my truffles weigh 16 g each) or just eyeball the portions if you don't have kitchen scales.

Step 7

Flatten each portion in the palm of your hand, place a roasted cranberry in the middle and then close the truffle mixture around it. Quickly roll between the palms of your hands (that's one area where permanently cold hands help a lot). Work in small batches as the mixture will get messier to work with the longer it sits around. Place rolled truffles in the freezer to firm up.

Step 8

Melt remaining chocolate gently over a water bath.

Step 9

Allow the melted chocolate to cool down a bit. Remove the rolled truffles from the freezer in small batches and coat them in the melted chocolate using two forks. Place on a cookie rack, sprinkle with candied orange threads and, once the chocolate coating hardens, with gold dust if using.

Step 10

Store in an airtight container, in the fridge. These truffles should keep for 5-7 days.