Each bite of these is a hit of boozy, Christmassy, chocolate wonder.
I don’t know about you but in the run up to Christmas I am fully of festive baking ideas but then with friends to see, carol services to sing at and presents to wrap I never find the time.
That’s what’s so great about these- you hardly need any time or very much in your shopping basket and they are the perfect thing to take with you to friends.
I like to put a fair bit on brandy in my mincemeat and it definitely comes through in these. If your mincemeat isn’t boozy and you’d like the hit substitute 10ml of the the cream with 10ml (2tsp) of brandy, Cointreau, whiskey or any fruit liquor you have open.
I definitely advice re-chilling the mixture before rolling into balls if you want to avoid completely coating your hands in chocolate and then again before rolling in the cocoa powder. Keep these in the fridge and nibble away until they are all gone.
Recipe
Makes 20
100ml cream
200g dark chocolate
70g brandy soaked mincemeat
2tbsp cocoa powder
- Heat the cream in a saucepan until it is steaming, but before it boils. Pour over the dark chocolate, stirring constantly, to melt the chocolate and form a thick ganache. (If some lumps of chocolate remain put the bowl over a pan of simmering water until it is all melted). Stir in the mincemeat and pour into a tub to set in the fridge for a couple of hours
- Once set line a tray with greaseproof paper and portion the ganache into 20 balls (mine were 10g each) and pop back in the fridge for 30mins or the freezer for 15mins to harden up again
- Sift the cocoa into a bowl. Remove your ganache from the fridge/freezer, roll into balls and coat in cocoa. Enjoy.
If kept in the fridge these should last a couple of weeks.