Green Tea Truffles

Last February I made these cute little bags of truffles for a Valentine's dinner at church. I made two different types of truffles, one was the Green Tea Truffles I got from a recipe in a South Beach Diet cookbook. They definitely don't taste like something you would expect to find in a diet cookbook! I love chocolate, so I love these, and luckily they are pretty easy and look really nice presented. They are rich though, so one usually is enough, but luckily they store for up to 2 weeks so you don't feel like you need to eat them all in one sitting. They do make nice little gifts or a fun 'fancy' treat. Maybe a gift for your Valentine?



Green Tea Truffles
From: South Beach Diet

Ingredients:
3/4 cup fat-free half-and-half
4 decaffeinated green tea bags
1/2 pound bittersweet chocolate (the cookbook said to use 65% cocoa but as you can see I used 60%), finely chopped
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

Directions:
1. Heat half & half in a small saucepan over medium heat. When it comes to a simmer, remove from heat and add tea bags; allow tea to steep for 5 min.

2. Gently squeeze bags over half & half to extract extra flavor and discard. Return to a simmer and pour over chopped chocolate in a medium bowl. Stir to combine.

3. Place bowl in freezer until set, about 10 minutes, removing and stirring every 2 minutes. Chocolate is ready to roll into truffles when it is no longer a pudding-like consistency and is starting to harden.

4. Scoop out about 2 teaspoons chocolate mixture and roll in the palms of your hands to form a 1-inch ball. Repeat with remaining chocolate.

5. Place cocoa powder in a shallow dish. Roll balls in the cocoa powder to coat. Shake off any excess cocoa powder. Serve or store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.