Treat #3 - Chocolate Cream Cheese Truffles

These were especially good, and of course have endless possibilities but they required a little trial and error on my part. The first few that I tried, the chocolate wasn't hard enough so they ended up kind of flattening out on me. Then I put the chocolate in the freezer for 30 minutes or so and went back to it and they did much better.

I dipped mine in white chocolate - and I wouldn't recommend it, at least not on the first try. The chocolate in the truffle kind of melted when I 'quickly' dipped it in the white chocolate and then it would get kind of gritty and messy. I think if you dipped it in regular chocolate or even dark chocolate it wouldn't make as much of a difference. The ones that I did in the Cocoa Powder like the recipe calls for are definitely not as good as the ones dipped in the chocolate bark.

Also... one other change I made, is that I used semi-sweet chocolate instead of unsweetened. I've had bad experiences with unsweetened in the past where it turned out kind of bitter, even after adding all the sugar. So I was worried that they may turn out too sweet, but that wasn't the case. I just only used 2 1/2 cups of powdered sugar instead of 3 1/2.

Enjoy! (Sorry so many pictures, I got a little carried away!)

Ingredients:

3.5 cups powdered sugar
8 ounces softened cream cheese
4 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/2 cup cocoa powder, for rolling
Preparation:

1. Pour the cocoa powder into a shallow pie pan and set aside.

2. Chop the chocolate into small pieces and microwave it until melted, stirring after every 45 seconds to prevent overheating. Set the chocolate aside.

3. In the large bowl of an electric mixer, combine the softened cream cheese and powdered sugar. Beat the mixture on medium speed for a minute or two, until well-combined.

4. Stop the mixer and add the melted chocolate. Beat until combined, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

5. Remove the bowl from the mixer, cover it with cling wrap, and refrigerate until the candy is firm enough to scoop, about 20-30 minutes. (I put my in the freezer because the first time it wasn't hard enough).

6. Once the candy is firm but not hard, scoop it into small balls using a teaspoon or candy scoop. Roll the balls in the cocoa powder and place on a plate or into an airtight container. When stored properly in the refrigerator, these truffles will keep for up to a week. For best taste and texture, serve these truffles at room temperature.