Espresso Football Truffles

Football season isn’t complete without “football food.” I don’t mean food food. I really mean football food. As in food that looks like footballs. If you need more explanation, please refer to my football deviled eggs, which have been pinned and repinned over 1,660 times, thanks to the gods and goddesses of social media! For all you football fans out there, my football truffle looks just like The Duke, which is the professional football they use in the NFL. Therefore, it doesn’t have the white rings that encircle the pointy ends of football. Do whatever you think looks best.

Click here for the recipe for ‘Espresso Football Truffles’

These football truffles also aren’t your ordinary truffles. They’re decadently espresso flavored. Amaze your senses with some deep coffee flavor as you sit back, relax in front of your TV, and enjoy these kickbutt chocolate-y and intensely aromatic truffles. They should keep you awake all day Football Sunday.

Here’s what you need:

Two kinds of chocolate: bittersweet and semisweet. Also grab some heavy cream, instant coffee powder, and store-bought white decorating icing.

In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, add your cream.

As soon as it starts to bubble, pull it off the heat. Don’t walk away from the pot because dairy tends to over-boil pretty quickly!

Turn off the heat and whisk in some instant coffee powder. This will make your truffles rock.

As soon as the coffee powder dissolves, pour the entire mixture over your chocolate chips. Make sure you’re working with a heat-proof bowl.

Let the hot cream mixture rest for about 1-2 minutes in the bowl until all the chocolate is melted.

Then whisk away, but don’t overmix. We don’t want to add many grainy air bubbles to this mix! Just mix gently.

Now that. Looks. Awesome. Wrap the bowl with plastic wrap and set it on the counter to set up for about 1.5 hours or so. If it’s a warm day, you can definitely put it in the fridge for about 30 minutes, but not too long because we want the chocolate to be pliable.

When the chocolate sets, it’ll have a moldable texture like this. Grab a tablespoon and scoop a ball out. Shape the balls into footballs. It’s best to form logs basically and then pinch the ends of the log to make the pointy football ends.

Place your formed footballs on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Now. Onto more chocolate! Of course. Melt about 8 ounces of semisweet chocolate in a double boiler. Make a double boiler by placing a heat-proof bowl over a pot of gently simmering water (make sure it’s not rapidly boiling or you’ll burn your chocolate). The bowl should fit over the pot, but make sure the bottom of the bowl is a few centimeters from the surface of the water.

Let’s cover these awesome footballs. Use a spoon, fork, or wooden skewers to help you. We just want to coat the footballs, and then shake off all the excess chocolate. Don’t coat them with too much chocolate or it’ll get really messy really fast.

Shake shake shake all that excess chocolate off.

Okay, not bad. Looks sorta borderline obscene, but we still need to add the white lines.

Place them in the fridge so the chocolate shell can harden up!

Now, the fun part. Here’s where preciseness is important. You need to have very sharp straight lines, otherwise your football truffle will just look like… so not The Duke. Start with one long line in the middle, and add the little stitches after.

Add the stitches to the outside, then one in the middle. Then two more lines. That’s a total of five stitches.

Like this!

Even an ugly espresso truffle looks great once you add the perfect stitches. Enjoy!

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Espresso Football Truffles

Total time: 3 hours
Prep: 3 hr
Cook: 0 min
Yield: about 2 dozens
Level: Medium

Ingredients:
1/2 lb semisweet chocolate chips + another 1/2 lb for coating truffles
1/2 lb bittersweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons instant coffee
1 cup heavy cream
Store-bought white icing with small piping tip (recommended: Wilton brand)

Directions:
Place 1/2 lb semisweet chips and all of bittersweet chips in a large heat-proof bowl. Set aside.

In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, heat heavy cream just until it gently simmers, being careful not to over-boil. Remove from heat immediately, and add in 2 tablespoons of instant coffee powder and whisk until it dissolves.

Pour hot coffee cream mixture over chocolate chips to submerge them, and allow to sit for about 2 minutes until all chocolate is melted. Then carefully whisk together chocolate and cream until combined, being careful not to over-beat chocolate. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside at room temperature for about 90 minutes until chocolate firms up.

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. With a tablespoon measurement, scoop balls of truffle mixture and form into a football shape. Place formed footballs on parchment paper.

Melt remaining 1/2 lb of semi-sweet chocolate in a double boiler. Remove from heat. Coat each football in melted chocolate using a spoon or fork and shake excess chocolate off. Place back on lined baking sheet and store in fridge until chocolate coating hardens, about 20 minutes. Using white icing and a small piping tip, pipe football stitches on truffles. Serve immediately, or store in airtight container in refrigerator for up to one week.

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