Aniseed Truffles

Dark chocolate ganache with aniseed oil, dipped in white chocolate
and rolled in 100% cocoa flakes

Chocolate making only really got going in the run up to Christmas 2011. I started by developing a festive menu of butterscotch, cinnamon, cranberry and tangerine which was lovely and full of festive cheer.

… Until suddenly I found myself obsessing about pairing aniseed with chocolate. 

The thought of the pungent sweet aroma kept leaping about like Jack Frost until I broke with my festive theme and ordered the first bottle of aniseed essential oil I could get my hands on.

I had smelled notes of liquorice in fresh ground coffee and I had a very strong sense that aniseed and dark chocolate would be a fantastic flavour combination. Opening the essential oil when it arrived was a powerful experience and a good indication that this was a flavour to respect and treat with care.

To me, aniseed tastes incredibly sweet with a slightly metallic menthol quality. It would be a resonating peel of a high pitched church bell (if it made a noise).

I wanted to warm it and earth it. It worked well added to the dark chocolate in the ganache. The final balance was achieved by dipping the aniseed ganache in the warm vanilla tones of white chocolate and then finishing off the truffle by rolling it in the earth dryness of 100% cocoa flakes.

Aniseed Truffles are the first recipe I really ‘have down on paper’ so to speak.

They are also my favourite.