A new favorite Christmas candy...

This past weekend my girlfriend and I, along with my Mom, spent hours making candy for Christmas and to sell at the holiday church bazaar next week. We made all of our favorites, Turtles, Pralines, Peppermint Bark, Toffee, Toffee Bark, Chocolate and Caramel covered Pretzels and this year my new favorite, Eggnog Truffles. Actually I am not much of an eggnog drinker unless I am served up someone’s homemade eggnog with a hit of rum or brandy but these wonderful little candies are fabulous. They taste wonderful and truly melt in your mouth. I know they will all sell at the church bazaar and we will have to make another batch the week before Christmas just for us. Try these, they are not difficult to do and they are worth the effort!

Ingredients

Note: I doubled this recipe with no trouble at all.

1 pound white baking chocolate, divided

4 ounces (1/2 package) cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg. Fresh is best if you have it.
1/4 teaspoon McCormick® Imitation Rum Extract or ½ teaspoon Rum or Brandy
(I used the real Rum)
About two tablespoons of ground nutmeg for sprinkling. I use the fresh nutmeg

1. Melt 8 ounces of the chocolate as directed on package. Beat cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, nutmeg and extract in large bowl with electric mixer on medium speed mixer until well blended and smooth. Add melted chocolate; beat until well mixed. Cover. Refrigerate 4 hours or until firm.

2. Shape into 24 (about 3/4-inch) balls. Place on wax paper-lined tray. Refrigerate until ready to dip.

3. Because when you drop each cold truffle into the melted white chocolate to coat you can only coat 12 truffles at a time. The temperature of the coating drops to cold to coat more than 12. I found just doing 10 at a time worked best. Then melt 4 ounces of the remaining chocolate in small microwavable bowl on MEDIUM (50% power) 1 1/2 minutes, stirring after 1 minute. Using a fork, dip 1 truffle at a time into the melted chocolate. Tap back of fork 2 or 3 times against edge of dish to allow excess chocolate to drip off. Place truffles on wax paper-lined tray. (If there are any “bald” spots on truffle, cover with melted chocolate that remains on the fork.) Sprinkle truffles with nutmeg between each batch while they are each still wet from dipping. Repeat with remaining 4 ounces chocolate and remaining truffles.
4. Refrigerate 1 hour or until chocolate is set. Store truffles between layers of wax paper in airtight container in refrigerator up to 1 week.

Don't be afraid of making any kind of truffles, they are easy to do just takes a little extra time. These are delightful and not an overwhelming eggnog taste so anyone will love them.