By Francis Kuijk

Chef Francis Kuijk loves sweets and recently made chocolate truffles filled with cream from Bandoeng’22 Pandan Liqueur. Chocolate, pandan (Asian vanilla) and alcohol are a worldly combination!

Francis is happy to share her recipe:

Ingredients (Approx. 24 pcs)
125 ml thickened cream
80 g caster sugar
2 drops pandan essence
¼ tsp vanilla essence
1 pandan leaf, knotted (optional)
100 ml Bandoeng 22
150 g unsalted butter, at room temperature
Cocktail sticks
400 g milk couverture chocolate
100 g cacao powder

Preparation
Heat the cream, sugar, essences and pandan leaf in a saucepan. Stir the mixture and as soon as the sugar has dissolved, remove the pan from the heat and allow it to cool completely.

Beat the butter light and fluffy with a mixing paddle in a mixer.

Remove the pandan leaf from the cream mixture and stir in the Bandoeng 22 liquor.

Replace the mixing paddle on the mixer with a wire balloon whisk.

Turn the mixer to a medium-high setting and add the cream mixture in a very thin stream gradually, ensuring to whisk well. Continue until all the cream mixture is incorporated. Transfer the mixture to a piping bag.

Place a sheet of baking paper on a tray. Pipe dollops of filling about the size of a walnut and push a cocktail stick into each one. (The cocktail stick serves as a handle for dipping the filling into the chocolate and will be removed at the end.) Place the tray of fillings into the freezer until completely frozen solid, preferably overnight or at least 8 hours.

Temper the chocolate (see further instructions). Place the cacao powder in a bowl.

Dip each heap of filling into the chocolate en allow as much chocolate to drip off as possible. Place it immediately into the cocoa powder and spoon the powder on top. (Do this immediately as the chocolate will harden quickly as the filling is frozen.) Repeat this for all the filling. Once all truffles have been coated, remove the cocktail sticks, press down the hole a little and fill the gap with cocoa powder.

Tip! For a thinner layer of chocolate around the truffles, don’t insert any cocktail sticks into the filling. Instead, wear gloves en spoon some tempered chocolate into your hand and roll the frozen filling in the chocolate in your hand until completely covered. Roll it in cocoa powder.

Tempering Chocolate

For this recipe we will temper chocolate in a simple and easy method. The chocolate will set and have enough snap, and is sufficient for rolling through cocoa powder.

Method 1 (microwave);
– Place the couverture chocolate in a plastic bowl (not glass as it retains too much heat).
– Heat for 1 minute on high setting and stir.
– Heat incrementally for 10 seconds each time thereafter, stirring well each time.
Your chocolate is ready to use once everything has melted after stirring.

Method 2 (seeding);
– Set up a saucepan and bowl au-bain-marie style and bring about 2 cm of water to a simmer. Make sure the water does not touch the bottom of the bowl.
– Place 2/3 of the chocolate into the bowl of the au-bain-marie and melt it over gently simmering water.
– Remove the bowl and add the last 1/3 of the chocolate a little at a time and stir well and slowly until melted. Once the added chocolate no longer melts, your chocolate is adequately tempered.

About Francis Kuijk

The Dutch-Australian TV chef Francis Kuijk has Dutch-Indonesian roots and is a textbook example of what someone with passion and drive can do. She became a crowd favorite and finalist of the 4th season Heel Holland Bakt. Francis gives demos and workshops throughout the country and is the author of cookbooks such as ‘Francis Bakt & Kookt Thuis’ and ‘Basisboek Indonesian’. More about Francis, click here.