Tea Party Truffles

The main secret to a successful afternoon tea is the company and a never ending pot of hot tea.

The second secret is to try and achieve a balance between starchy foods and non-starchy foods. I love going to tea here, here, and I've even been here, but you really have to steel yourself for feeling overbreaded and bloated at the end of the tea that features sandwiches, tea cakes, and scones.

All three of the items are traditional to a tea, but I would recommend when throwing one at home, to choose two of the three traditional tea foods, and make the rest of it up with a combination of fruits and salad, and a sinful surprise (to make up for a lack of cake, or sandwiches, or crumpets).


My surprise treat of choice for my first tea party in our new home was the truffle. I remembered from my college days, when a friend made them for a dorm party (talk about an overachiever!) that they were supposed to be ridiculously simple. As one of the few recipes to make chocolates that does not involve tempering, a process I am sure to make a hash of when I finally get to it, I realized they would be perfect for the tea.


I found a simple recipe in this little cookbook - essentially, you make a ganache, melting fine chocolate with cream, then cool it in the fridge before rolling into balls (a messy business, as the chocolate does start to melt all over your hands). Then you can roll the chocolate in a topping - cocoa and coffee powders are popular, but I rolled mine in muscovado sugar for some added crunch.

Couldn't be simpler!