Twelve Days of Irish Recipes: Jane's Chocolate Truffles
Written by Ciaran on Dec. 10, 2025 | 0 Comments
We're sharing one of our own recipes each day as part of our 12 Days of Christmas offers, inspired by that traditional carol and the funny Irish version, Christmas Countdown.
Day 10: Something sweet
We’ve already covered the Christmas dessert on Days One and Two of our twelve days of festive treats. But we would be telling a lie if we said that was it for Christmas sweets in Ireland!
Tables will be groaning under the weight of mince pies, trifles, and all manner of confections, and no house in Ireland is without a box of chocolates held in reserve for visitors! Cadbury’s Roses are traditional, and there is an annual heated debate over which of the selections are the best. It’s the purple ones, obviously!
Roses these days typically come packed in cardboard or plastic, but tins like this one were the norm in my childhood. They were often repurposed to house things like sewing kits once emptied of their chocolaty contents! Very disappointing to open a tin hoping for sweets and instead find needles and thread!
Photo Credit: Kiliweb (CC BY-SA 3.0)
As well as the obligatory Roses, we also like to have a few homemade bite-sized sweets on hand for Christmas. Jane and our kids made these chocolate truffles a few years ago, and they went down a treat. Perfect with an after-dinner coffee, Irish or otherwise. Of course, they are not traditionally Irish themselves, but with the addition of an Irish cream or whiskey, perhaps they just about pass?
They also make excellent host gifts wrapped in a small bag or placed in a festive jar, and look far more challenging to make than they actually are! Our kids enjoyed giving them as gifts and all the praise they received for their hard work. It was mostly bowl licking, but it's the thought that counts, right?
Photo Credit: J. Chadwick
You can play around with the toppings and the flavors, and exclude the Irish cream or whiskey for the kids, obviously! Jane also made a vegan-friendly version, as many of our family members don’t eat any dairy! So all in all, a versatile recipe to have in your festive arsenal!
Ingredients:
- 400 g good quality dark chocolate - If you are making the truffles vegan-friendly then make sure there are no milk fats in the ingredients!
- 150 ml or half a cup of fresh cream or cream alternative at room temperature. For a vegan-friendly version, Jane used a small tin of coconut cream, and that worked well.
- 1 to 2 tbsp honey or maple syrup (optional, but add if you like a sweeter truffle!)
- 2 to 4 tbsp or 1 to 2 generous shots of Irish cream or whiskey if you are going for the boozy variety - this isn't much, but you can taste it. You can also leave it out if you want them family-friendly.
- Small bowls of different Truffle coatings - we've tried:
- cocoa powder (a classic choice)
- toasted desiccated coconut (delicious - especially if you use coconut cream for the truffle)
- dried raspberries chopped up (gives a nice festive flash of red)
- chopped toasted hazelnuts (chocolate and nuts are a match made in heaven)
- Powdered sugar or Sprinkles (my kids' faves! No surprises there!)
Method
- Cover a sheet pan or baking tray with a few sheets of wax paper, making sure to cover the lip of the pan.
- Set up a bain-marie by bringing 2 inches of water to a simmer in a saucepan, then placing a heatproof glass bowl over the simmering water. The water should not touch the bottom of the bowl.
- Using a large knife, roughly chop the 400 g of dark chocolate into small to medium pieces, about 3 cm or 1 inch square.
- Place the bowl above the boiling water. Stir gently with a spatula to make sure all the chocolate melts.
- Once all the chocolate is melted, remove the bowl from the bain-marie (take care to use an oven glove or similar, as the bowl will be hot!).
- Wipe the bottom of the bowl to dry off the steam, then place it on a heatproof surface, such as a chopping board.
- If you are adding a sweetener or alcohol, now is the time! Gently stir through
- Gently and gradually fold in 200 ml of room-temperature cream or a cream alternative into the chocolate. Make sure it is room temperature, or your chocolate will cool down too quickly, and you will get lumps.
- Use your spatula to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl to ensure everything is well mixed. The mix will now look a little glossy when it is ready, almost like icing. Try to keep stirring to a minimum. It can cause the cocoa butter in the chocolate to separate out into a layer of oil. If this happens, just leave the mix to cool for a minute or two and then gently stir once or twice a minute to recombine.
- When you are happy with the mix, pour it out onto your wax paper-lined tray and spread it out, squaring off the edges, so you have an even thickness of around 1.5 cm or around ½ an inch.
- Leave in a cool, dry place to set for several hours (this will depend on how warm your room is. Not a job to do in a hot kitchen. Don’t use a fridge (the moisture in there can cause the chocolate to separate). But do pop it in there for a quick chill if the mix still has not set after 4 or 5 hrs, or if you are in a hurry!
- When the mix feels cool and firm to the touch, you are ready to roll your truffles! You want small bite-sized round balls. Depending on the size you make, you should get 30 to 40 truffles.
- Slide the wax paper from the tray onto a chopping board and cut the chocolate into 2cm / ¾ inch squares. Roll the squares with your hands and then roll them in your preferred bowl of toppings. A melon baller also works great for getting perfectly round little bites, but you can also use two teaspoons if you don’t want to use your hands. It will just take a little longer.
- Once you have balled and added toppings to all of your truffles, you can put them in a sealed container for up to 1 week, or in your fridge for 1 month. The vegan version should last a little longer! If the truffles look a little wet when you go to serve them, just coat them in a little more topping, and they will be ready to go.
- You can also put your truffles in little treat bags for gifts - but do this right before you intend to give them as a gift, as they can sweat in a bag if they are in there for more than a day or two! They will still taste great… but they might not look as appetizing!
Photo Credit: J. Chadwick
What's Next?
Check back in with us tomorrow for our penultimate Day 11 of our Twelve Days of Irish Christmas, or open door number 10 of our 12 Days of Christmas offers! And, of course, if you need any help selecting a gift for yourself or a loved one, please do get in touch.
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Ciaran
My Irish Jeweler
Born in Co. Antrim and reared in Dublin, I was fascinated with Gaelic culture from an early age. I suppose it's not surprising given my mother inherited a grá for the Irish language from my grandfather, an Irish school headmaster. And that grá continues! My brother and sister are now Gaelic teachers here in Ireland, my niece is an award winning Irish dancer, and I proudly work to share Irish culture through our Irish and Celtic Jewelry at My Irish Jeweler!
I love researching and reading about the history of Irish design. It's at the core of what we do here at My Irish Jeweler. I find much of it so interesting that I have to share what I find. I hope you enjoy it!
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