From Local Chef Tanya Young – Peanut Butter Fudge Truffle.

At the moment I am serving peanut butter fudge truffles with the coffee and tea at Knife & Fork and the main reason is because I love them! Also, I trailed them one weekend and everyone else loved them too and since then many diners have asked me for the recipe.

Deciding what to put on the menu is one of the many things I enjoy about running my little home restaurant; usually it is based on what’s in season and what I fancy making and eating. But when it comes to petits fours, seasonality doesn’t really come into it and I go for the combinations that I love; chocolate and orange for truffles, apricot & toasted almonds for marshmallows and so on to make a naughty nibble to round off the meal.

Any variety of peanut butter is fine by me but I do have to admit to liking the ‘cheap’ stuff made from peanuts and far too much added sugar and salt; it’s a childhood memory of peanut butter and jam sandwiches. I have, of course, become far more sophisticated over the years and I have moved onto almond butter and such like but good old Sunpat still has a place close to my heart and that is what I use in my peanut butter fudge truffles.

I am sure I will get round to substituting peanut butter for cashew or almond butter to make a slightly more sophisticated version one day. If anyone else has a go at this recipe and uses the posh stuff please let me know what they are like.

Peanut Butter Fudge Truffle Recipe

Makes approx 25

Ingredients:

• 397g condensed milk
• (or 250g ready bought caramel sauce such as Carnation caramel/dulce de leche – if using go straight to point 6)
• 170g smooth peanut butter
• 100g dark chocolate

Method:

• Pour the condensed milk into a glass Pyrex dish. Cover tightly with foil.
• Put this dish into a larger roasting tin and fill the outer tin with hot water so it comes to half way up the sides of Pyrex dish.
• Bake in the oven at 220c for 1 to 1 ¼ hours. Keep an eye on it and add more water if necessary – it will depend on the size of the outer container.
• Once the condensed milk is brown and caramelised let it cool.
• Once cooled – whisk it until it is nice and smooth. It is best to do all of the above a day before.
• Mix the condensed milk mixture or bought caramel, whichever you are using with the peanut butter in an electric mixer until all mixed together.
• Line a high-sided baking tray (a tray-bake tray is good) with cling film.
• Pour the mixture into the tin, level the top and pop it in the fridge for about two hours until set.
• Once set, take pieces of the mixture and roll into equal sized balls – you should be able to make about 25. Place on a baking sheet lined with greaseproof paper and put in the freezer for an hour. This will make dipping the balls in chocolate much easier.
• Break the chocolate into a glass bowl and place it over a saucepan of hot water on a medium heat. Make sure the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl or get into the bowl.
• Leave until the chocolate has melted.
• Take the peanut/caramel balls out of the freezer and dip them in the chocolate.
• I use two teaspoons to cover them and pick them back out of the chocolate.
• Place them back on the tray and once they are all covered put them in the fridge.
• Once set I transfer them to an airtight container and they will keep for 3 days – not that they last that long here!

I’ve decorated mine by sprinkling pralines over the top.

Enjoy

Tanya Young.

Owner and head chef at knife and fork home pop up restaurant in Deddington Oxfordshire

 

---

Fancy yourself as a bit of a cook?

Then why not send us YOUR recipe with some photographs. You never know, we could publish it. and we will take a look.