12 days - tuxedo truffles

12 days til Christmas- are you freaking out?I am not freaking out...yet... :)I have bought ONE present for Christmas...and it's sitting in a Target bag closed shut waiting to be wrapped. I had bought some gifts for my mom & mother in law, but ended up returning them. So I am back at square one.Sunday I'm meeting some friends in NY for the day, so I'm hoping to just do one giant swoop (with the rest of those 50,000,000 tourists)...we'll see.I don't know why I'm not in the Christmas mood this year, and honestly you Connecticut folks might want to slap me, but this northerner desperately wants some snow on the ground (and NO I haven't forgotten our lovely Halloween snowfall!) Honestly, I am thinking more about Christmas food. Desserts, cookies, family traditions, appetizers for parties, anything Christmas+food equals.Gift giving is not my thing. Trust me, I have given you all gifts many times over in my mind. When I shop, I usually see something I would like to give... but I don't end up buying it because it doesn't seem like a good enough gift! It feels like I'm just buying "stuff"...and that's not how I want to show my love for those I'm buying for. As I have gotten older, I have started to make food for Christmas gifts...concentrating most on treats I'm guessing my gift recipients would never make themselves.Last year (and probably 15 pounds ago due to it!) I made these truffles for the gifts along with a few other things (to be revealed later!). It was days of testing different ganache, going through quite a bit of cream, and scooping/ dipping hundreds of tiny chocolate balls that resulted in a whole lot of love and chocolate.Hopefully these are gifts to you...special things you and I will only  (dare?) make this time of year. Hooray...the holiday's are here!Side note: Also, as you may have noticed I take pictures of everything...unfortunately, these are the only a few photos I could find from Christmas last year. See below, you'll understand my confusion...no truffles but a man in full snowsuit riding a bike and some potato chip sunglasses.

tuxedo truffles

The inside of these tiny bites of glory is a soft, delicious, smooth ganache. You can choose to "dress" them in a hard chocolate coating or roll them in powdery delicious dark chocolate cocoa powder. Mmm...enjoy.

makes 24 truffles depending on your scooper size..I use a smaller one

ingredients1/3 cup of cream1 bag white chocolate chips1 tablespoon unsalted butter1/2 bag of dark chocolate chips1. take a small sauce pan in heat the cream over very low heat2. put your white chocolate chips in a bowl (I prefer glass I don't know why)3. once the cream is hot, pour over chocolate chips & wisk until chocolate has melted.4. Add butter and wisk until it's smooth and beautiful.5. refrigerate your ganache for 1-2 hours or until firm.6. While you're waiting (or when your ready to scoop the truffles), put a silicone mat or parchment paper on a baking sheet to get ready for the next step.7. Use your favorite scooping tool (this is mine) and scoop out as many little ganache balls as you can get out of the white chocolate. If you don't have a scoop, you can use a spoon. Roll the ball between your palms to make them perfectly round. Do this quickly though, as the heat of your hands can melt the chocolate and then you have a mess (!) Refrigerate on the lined baking sheet one more hour to harden (or my favorite, stick the pan out on the porch or in the garage...hey..it's cold out there!)8. Put dark chocolate chips in a microwavable bowl, and microwave in 20 second increments (stirring inbetween) until melted. Stop microwaving when there are a few chunks left in the chocolate and stir until they melt along with it. It makes the chocolate look nicer in the end.9. Dip each ball in the melted chocolate (2 forks make it easier to fish out dipped chocolate balls). If you like to get fancy, immediately roll in cocoa powder after dipping in the melted chocolate (I prefer Hershey's dark chocolate cocoa powder...but any kind you'd like). OR you can roll in anything that sounds tasty! (coconut, chopped hazelnuts, sprinkles, rainbows)10. You can place them back on the parchment or on a cooling rack to harden.11. Wait 10 minutes before eating them all to regain your composure to devour them ALL. And to let the chocolate set. :)