Homemade Christmas sweets & treats

Cardamom and white chocolate truffles

Ingredients

• seeds from 4 cardamom pods
  
• 175g good quality white chocolate, broken into small pieces
  
• 25g unsalted Butter
  
• 200ml whipping cream
  
• 50g icing sugar

Method

1. Crush cardamom seeds into fine powder in a pestle and mortar.

2. Add cardamom powder into large bowl with the chocolate and butter.

3. Heat the cream in a saucepan until it is just boiling and instantly pour over the chocolate. Stir until the chocolate has completely melted and then using an electric hand whisk, whisk until the mixture has thickened enough to leave a trail when the whisk is lifted, this will take about 5 minutes.

4. Put truffle mixture in fridge for a couple of hours, remove when mixture is firm enough to shape into balls.

5. You need cold hands for this part - roll mixture between hands into a smooth ball. Keep going until all mixture has been used.

6. Seive some icing sugar onto a plate and then roll the truffle balls around, evenly coating it. (If mixture seems to sticky - it will need a little more time in the fridge - around 15 minutes)

7. Voila! Eat straight away or then can be refrigerated for up to 4 days.

Ingredients

• oil, for greasing
  
• 300ml Milk
  
• 350g caster sugar
  
• 100g unsalted Butter
  
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. You will need an 18cm cake tin and then grease.

2. Heat milk, sugar and butter slowly in a heavy bottomed pan, keep stirring until the sugar has dissolved and all the butter has melted.

3. Stir constantly for 15-20 minutes whilst bringing mixture to the boil.

4. You'll need a sugar thermometer....once mixture has formed a soft ball and reaches 115°C on the thermometer, remove from the heat and slowly stir in the vanilla extract.

5. Leave to cool for 5 minutes.

6. Beat the cooled mixture until it thickens and the shine disappears. You will need to use a spoon. A bit of elbow grease for a few minutes is a must!

7. Once mixture has set, cut into small pieces and store in an air-tight or sealed container. Do not place in fride.

** TIP - How about using different flavours like strawberry extract or adding dried fruit and nuts **