Well, we made it through January mostly unscathed. Ready for the home stretch of winter as we head into February! Our month long of lightened up January meals has come to a close. Time for a little indulgence this weekend. It is Super Bowl, right? Which I believe is the second biggest food day of the year! For this weekend we are going to sweeten things up a bit. Everybody brings heavy, cheesy, meaty, spicy, oh so good (but not so good for you food, balance y’all) to the super bowl party. Why don’t you be the guest that classes up the joint with some refined, maple, orange, duck fat truffles!
I have said this before and I will say it again. Every party or gathering needs something sweet. You should treat your sweet bites just like any another app. There needs to be some balance brought to the party with bite sized sweet reprieves! Plus, these are easy to make, but you look like you bought them from a fancy chocolatier. We are keeping with the fatty theme of super bowl parties though, with the addition of the duck fat. But in an oh so refined, elevated and decadent way, that will delight the partygoer’s senses.
The duck fat doesn’t overpower or create a strong flavor. It just provides an unctuousness and lusciousness to the ganache filling. The orange liquor and zest freshen it up, while the maple flavor rounds out the bittersweet chocolate perfectly!
Truth be told, I could care less about the Super Bowl. I don’t care about the commercials, the half-time show, or the actual game! Ahhh blasphemy! The one thing that could make it more interesting, is if you have some money riding on the game. Which I don’t. I did enjoy it one time many years ago when I did an office square. I won! I never win anything, so that was cool. I think it was around $350 bucks, which was great! But I think that was the last time I watched the entire game, which was a decade ago!
What IS fun about Super Bowl, are the parties, with all the food and friends. Isn’t that always the best part though? So why not bring these sophisticated truffles to your party as a nice palate cleanser between the wings, the chili cheese dip, the blue cheese and beer? Chocolate pairs great with all these things! 😉 Bring a bottle of bubbles along with them to really make it a party! Trust me, these little bites will be the MVP of the game! See, I can throw out some lingo!
Go your team and eat chocolate!
- 8 oz. of high quality bittersweet chocolate
- ¾ cup of heavy cream
- 3 tbsp. of grade B 100% maple syrup
- 2 tbsp. duck fat melted
- 2 tbsp. of orange liquor
- 1 tbsp. of orange zest
- 2 tsp. of vanilla extract
- 12 oz. dark and milk chocolate coating wafers
- Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place in a heat proof bowl.
- Place the cream and maple syrup in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Let mixture scald, then remove from heat. Add the vanilla extract and pour over chopped chocolate. Let hot mixture sit for 2 to 3 minutes. Whisk chocolate mixture slowly from the center outward until chocolate is melted, smooth and shiny.
- Add the orange liquor, zest and duck fat. Stir to combine. Let sit at room temp for 15 to 20 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing down so it's touching top of the chocolate. Refrigerate for at least two hours, until ganache is hard enough to roll into balls.
- Place parchment paper on baking sheet. Roll about 1 to 1½ tsp. sized balls between your hands that are lightly dusted with cocoa powder. Place rolled truffles on parchment lined baking sheet. Place in the freezer for about 15 minutes.
- Melt the chocolate coating separately in two heat proof bowls in the microwave in 30 second increments until completely melted and smooth.
- Dip your truffles into the chocolate coating with a fork or dipping tool and return back to baking sheet to set. Once set store covered in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
- Enjoy
Would love to try these as they sound fabulous! Not sure duck fat would be readily available in our small town, though.
Thanks! You can get anything online. I actually ordered mine on Amazon. This the brand I used, Rougie’.