Isolation Chocolates

ISOLATION CHOCOLATES 

Mmmmmm hmmm. (finger lick), I invented a recipe. I feel like I just found out how to spin straw into gold. Yum!

I’m a goal setter and I have a goal to stay healthy and not let that pesky virus get anywhere near me. I hope you have the same goal, not just to protect yourself, but to protect. your friends, family and even strangers you may accidentally infect.

In order to reach my goal I am in total isolation. I always have plenty of dry and canned goods around because I was raised in post war scarcity, followed by the cold war. I know how to survive on the smell of an oily rag so to speak. If services start to shut down I even have a nice mountain stream nearby and plenty of blankets. I have no reason to come into contact with anybody. I’m lucky. Or maybe it’s just well planned.

So my goal within a goal is to use all my stored supplies even if I don't like them. Today I used two things I really dislike, white sugar and bitter cocoa powder. I was driven by the fact that I’m a huge chocolate lover and for some time now I’ve been limiting my intake. Now I’m out of supply and can’t go to the shops, I’m pacing. Then I remembered the delicious truffles a friend gave me last Christmas. Long gone of course, but I recall the taste. I looked in the cupboards for any kind of chocolate. Hot Chocolate mix, too sweet, no cookies, no cereal, no pudding cups. However, at the back of my baking cupboard there was some icing sugar left over from Mum and some Blooker Dutch Cocoa Powder, also given to me by a friend. I surmised that if I mixed the two and added something to bind them together I may have something resembling a truffle.

Heres what I did

ISOLATION CHOCOLATES
1 cup icing sugar
1 cup Blooker dutch cocoa powder
Small amount whipping cream to bind

1. Mix the dry ingredients thoroughly
2. Slowly add un-whipped cream a few drops at a time, keep mixing by hand with a metal spoon until it barely holds together. Keep pushing the ingredients together, but don't add more cream. It must be a stiff paste. If too wet add more icing sugar and cocoa. (If you’ve used fat to bind you may even be able to roll it out on a dusting of cocoa powder.)
3. Place a few spoons of cocoa powder or icing sugar in a small bowl
4. Holding a small teaspoons in each hand, scoop a candy sized portion with one and scrape it off with the other so it falls into the powdery bowl.
5. Depending on the size of the bowl you can coat a few at a time, but don't let them touch.
6. Coat fully by picking up the bowl and swirling till the blobs are coated.
7. Place a sheet of wax, bakers or brown paper on a small plate or baking pan
8. Pick each blob up and roll in your palms until you have a small ball coated in powder. 1/2” to 3/4”
9. Place balls on the paper. Make sure they don't touch.
10. Place plate or pan with balls into the fridge and chill for an hour or more till harder.
11. Sprinkle an airtight container with the same powder you used on the balls and store them in the fridge. If you make a large batch you may need to sprinkle powder between layers like Turkish Delight.

Although there is fresh cream in the recipe, sugar is a preservative, so they will last a long time in the fridge if you keep your fingers out of the container. Ingredients can be substituted for other types of sugar, dairy, non dairy fluid and chocolate powder, just bear in mind you need to bind it, so a few drops of oil, butter, or whipped egg white may be required if you are using coarser or more liquid ingredients. You can even add fine coconut, nuts, oatmeal etc. and each will give a slightly different flavor. You can even form the paste around a glace cherry or roasted chestnut. Let your creative juices run wild.

Enjoy!

The recipe made 34 delicious ISOLATION CHOCOLATES and I am rationing myself to one a day.

Do you have a fab, back of the cupboard/end of the month recipe? Please share.