Home baking ingredients retailer LemonVanilla sent over a product that's ideal as a stocking filler or Christmas present - a kit that lets you create your own chocolate truffles at home. That's right, you can become a chocolatier for a few minutes and fashion your own dusted salted caramel milk chocolate truffles!
Chocolate truffles are easy to make and are a great family activity. My six-year-old loves getting his hands messy rolling balls of chocolate.
You can make your own chocolate truffles from scratch, but this kit contains the dry and ambient ingredients you need to get going. It makes a great gift for a budding foodie or chocoholic, or for kids and teenagers. It's a fun activity that'll keep them quiet, and gets them involved in home baking.
Packaging
The packaging is fairly minimal. An orange cardboard band forms a tall triangle, with sachets of milk chocolate drops, caramel flakes and chocolate powder affixed inside, with a metal stud that holds everything together.
It's got hollow sides so you can see the bags contained within.
On the front is the explainer of what this product is all about. It's got everything you need to make 11 "creamy [32%] milk chocolate [truffles] with crunchy salted butter caramel pieces" - except 40ml of fresh double cream which you can buy in your local supermarket.
The base contains a barcode, expiry date, and a note that Chocolate at Home is a division of Keylink. On the rear of the cardboard frame you'll find the ingredients and nutritional information.
Make Your Own Salted Caramel Truffles Kit ingredients:
Milk chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk powder, cocoa mass, emulsifier (soya lecithin E322), flavouring, vanilla extract), caramel flakes (sugar, glucose syrup, sweetened condensed milk, salted butter, water), chocolate powder (cocoa mass, skimmed milk powder, sugar, fat-reduced cocoa powder (6.5% cocoa butter), emulsifier (soya lecithin), flavouring (natural vanilla). Cocoa solids: 32% minimum (milk chocolate), 60% minimum (chocolate powder); Milk solids: 21.2% minimum (milk chocolate).
These chocolate truffles contain 53.8% sugars (plus the sugar content of the additional 40ml of double cream you'll need). The kit is produced in a factory that handles nut, wheat, gluten, egg and sulphur dioxide ingredients.
Importantly, there's a notice that says this product is "suitable for making with children under adult supervision." This, I firmly believe, is one of the key markets for this product.
Make Your Own Salted Caramel Truffles Kit Review
Carefully peel one side of the card off the metal stud and you'll find detailed step-by-step instructions printed on the reverse side of the cardboard band.
The recipe reckons it'll take about 20 minute to make the ganache and around two hours to firm up in the fridge.
The equipment and extras you'll need are:
- A plastic bowl
- A spatula
- A jug
- A teaspoon
- Two small plates
- 40ml of fresh double cream
Making the ganache is a five-step process. It involves heating the cream in the microwave which takes around 40 seconds.
To this, I added the 70g of milk chocolate chips and stirred until they had all melted. They're small chips so it only takes a minute or two to get a glossy emulsion. Next, I stirred in the 20g of salted caramel pieces.
Two hours in the fridge and they're ready to ball up. Using a teaspoon, I scooped out chunks of the firm ganache and turned them into balls (or as close to as I could get) using my fingertips. I rolled them around in the 8g of chocolate powder.
Et voila.
I managed to get 11 truffles out of this mix. I could have made them slightly smaller to get a perfect dozen, but the packaging reckons 11 is the magic number here.
These truffles keep for a few days in an airtight container in the fridge, but taste best fresh.
Sweet and creamy, these chocolate truffles make a great pick-me-up treat. The outer dusting of chocolate powder is grainier than the cocoa powder I normally use to dust truffles, but this helped to add texture to the soft milk chocolate ganache, as did the crunchy salted butter caramel pieces. Unusually for me, I felt these caramel pieces could do with a touch more salt, just to balance out the sweetness a little better.
Overall, it was a fun and quick item to make and I can see this being a hit with people who rarely venture into the kitchen, as well as kids and teenagers. It's a great value way to spark a little bit of culinary flair - with tasty results in just a couple of hours.
Eating chocolate truffles is one thing, but they taste different when you've made them yourself. This 'make your own' kit is ideal for beginners and can spark a passion that lasts long beyond these easy-to-make chocolate truffles.
Your Own Salted Caramel Truffles Kit Review
RRP: £3.50 | Chocolate at Home | Shop now
This gift set is ideal for chocoholics, budding chefs, and those with a sweet tooth. Easy to make, this foolproof kit makes it a doddle to create your own salted caramel chocolate truffles at home. It's an excellent gift idea for birthdays or Christmas, especially for kids and teens.
Where to Buy Online
LemonVanilla stocks both the Milk Chocolate Truffle Kit (£3.50) and a Salted Caramel Truffle Kit (£3.50).
Many independent chocolatiers and chocolate shops around the country also stock these fun kits. Cocoa Amore stocks them (£4.50) as does Not on the High Street (£5.70).
Find your local chocolate shop.
Sainsbury's is also listing the Milk Chocolate Truffles Kit for sale in selected stores (£2.50) as well as the Salted Caramel Truffles Kit (£2.50). If you find them locally, don't forget to add in the pot of double cream too if you're planning on making them when you get back home.
Have you tried this kit? What were your results like? Would you recommend it? Let me know in the comments section below.
