These chocolate truffles are the star of this Christmas at home, and one of the things that I like to give away on these dates is chocolate. I have several recipes that I repeat and this is one of them.

My father loves it in addition to toffee chocolate, and this year I sent him from Madrid a box with both delights that put a smile on his face as long as I tried them.

As they can freeze, he still has some left and told me they're the best he's ever taken. I'll leave you the recipe to tell me what you think, see if you love them too.

To give them a different air I have used a stamp that has other times served me to make chocolate coins. The first time I saw them decorated like this was my friend. Sandeea and they're so pretty!

(The initial I bought on one of my trips to London many years ago and I have used it many times to make chocolates and to lacquer boxes and letters).)

Ingredients

• 280g knife-chopped dark chocolate I've used 54% mixed with 70%
• 200ml cream with at least 35% fat
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 65g butter
• 1 pinch of salt
• 24 hazelnuts
• pure cocoa powder for sprinking

Directions

In a saucepan we heat the cream over a high heat. Add the salt.

When it breaks to the boil, turn off the heat and add the chopped chocolate. We leave half a minute untouched and with the help of a spatula we move until we have a uniform cream.

Add the chopped butter and mix well until no piece remains. Add the vanilla and we've got the cream ready.

Move to an airtight container with lid and allow to cool to room temperature until it is not hot.

We go to the fridge for at least 8 hours. It is best to do it one day and form the balls the next day.

With the help of a teaspoon we form balls the size of a coin of about 1 euro. we put in the center a hazelnut making sure it is well covered with chocolate cream. we pass them for pure cocoa powder and place them on a tray (we can also pass them through cocoa after being in the freezer but I prefer to pass them through the cocoa powder before freezing them)

When we have the balls ready, we put them in the freezer for an hour or two along with the seal we're going to use to decorate them.

We took the chocolate truffles out of the freezer.

To decorate the chocolate truffles I used a stamp that I bought on my last visit to London. In order to use it I followed Sandra's advice to freeze both the truffles and the seal so that it does not stick and is left with the well-defined mark.

Once the chocolate truffles are ready, I put them in a taro and make them and to give them the things in boxes or in glass jar

Tips and Tricks

• You can flavor the chocolate truffles with cinnamon and if you want you can replace a tablespoon of cream with a cognac
• if you still can smear the chocolate truffles in icing sugar
• Preparation time: 15 min more cold weather
• Difficulty: easy
• Rations: approximately 24 truffles