Bailey's Bear Truffles

I'm sure you've noticed the lack of posts these past 2 months, all due to computer woes and the lack of a decent kitchen. But no worries, I was recently home for spring break, and I finally had the time to create some desserts!

Actually, I've made these Bailey's Truffles a few times already, with rave reviews. The great thing about truffles is that they don't require a lot of ingredients and are rather easy to make, yet everyone always thinks they took more work than they did ;). Being without a kitchen has made it hard to get any baking done this year, but with a microwave and a mini fridge, these truffles were definitely doable.

Usually truffles are just rolled into balls and either dusted with cocoa powder or dipped in chocolate, but I wanted to play around with the shape of my truffles just to see if it could be done (without any molds or any fancy equipment)... and somehow I ended up with truffle bears. But then I figured, everyone likes bears, what with teddy bears being so popular, so why not?

To give them a pop of color and to spiffy them up, I gave my bear truffles bow ties (plus I just really like bow ties). The ties also allow for a bit of customization. The first time I made these bears, I gave them green bow ties for St. Patrick's Day, while for this blog entry, I gave them classic red ones. But of course, these truffles don't have to be shaped into bears. Rolled into balls, dipped into chocolate, and topped with whatever you want: sprinkles, a white chocolate design, or even left plain, they're still equally delicious!

Bailey's Truffles
adapted from Pie with Sparkles

8 oz white chocolate chips*
pinch of salt
2 tbsp Bailey's Irish Cream
2 tbsp heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Melt the white chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave. Heat the cream in a small saucepan until simmering, then add to the melted white chocolate. Stir in the salt. Mix in the Bailey's and vanilla extract. Stir until everything is incorporated and it smooths out. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the mixture cool to room temperature.

Chill for a few hours in the refrigerator until solid enough to roll. Then either proceed to the instructions below to make bear-shaped truffles, or just roll the truffles into balls and dip them in melted semisweet chocolate and decorate as desired.

Makes 18 truffles.

Bear Truffles
8 oz semisweet chocolate
black nonpareils
semisweet chocolate chips**
dark chocolate chips**
1/4 of the sugar cookie icing recipe
black food coloring
red food coloring

Roll out the truffles to form 9 balls. Place them on a baking sheet lined with wax paper and chill them in the refrigerator until firm. Remove them from the refrigerator and use a knife to cut each ball in half to make 18 hemispheres. Place them back on the parchment paper and chill them until firm.

Take a dark chocolate chip and press it into each hemisphere to leave a dent for the snout. Keep the truffles chilling in the refrigerator while you melt the 8 oz semisweet chocolate. Dip a truffle in the melted chocolate, shake off excess chocolate, and place it on a baking sheet lined with a new piece of parchment paper.

Place a dark chocolate chip into the dent made earlier for a snout. Take 2 semisweet chocolate chips and press them to the top sides of the truffle to form ears. Add 2 black nonpareils above the dark chocolate snout for eyes. Repeat with the other truffles. Remelt the semisweet chocolate if it begins to solidify.

Once finished dipping the truffles, let them rest while the chocolate hardens. While waiting, make the sugar cookie icing (not that much is needed, so divide the recipe by 4). Split the icing in half. Color one half black and the other half red (or whatever color you want the bow tie to be). Use a toothpick to draw on two red triangles below the snout for the bow tie. Use the black icing the draw a nose and a mouth on the large chocolate chip. Lastly, add a dot between the two red triangles to finish the bow tie.

*Note: For best results, use Nestle brand white chocolate chips (Nestle White Chocolate Morsels).
**Note: I also used Nestle semisweet and dark chocolate chips, but any brand is fine. Basically what you need are standard sized chocolate chips for the ears and a larger size chocolate chip for the snout (Nestle Dark Chocolate Morsels or Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Baking Chips.