Hot cross bun truffles

Ah, Easter. Nowhere to rush to, no list of presents to buy, no work ... and plenty of time for baking. It really is my favourite holiday of the year and I am counting down the minutes to 3 o'clock! Being a huge hot cross bun fan, I realised today that I haven't bought a single store-baked hot cross bun this year but instead have baked several batches of my own. Woo hoo!

Wandering through The Pantry at Kirk's recently, pieces of hot cross bun fudge on display caught my eye. I got to thinking about how I could make these myself. The base recipe is the one I've use to make cookie dough truffles from the fabulous Baking Makes Things Better blog. The truffles were a huge hit when I last made them, so I wondered how they'd turn out moulded into squarish shapes with piped white chocolate crosses on them. Very well, it seems!

The truffles last about one week in the fridge in an airtight container. A double batch has seen me through today's office shout, with some left over for a family Easter dinner and the occasional snack during the week.

Hot cross bun truffles

Ingredients

• 100 grams butter, softened
• 80 g white sugar
• 140 g brown sugar, tightly packed
• 50 ml cream 
• ½ teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1¼ cups all purpose flour
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ cup chocolate drops or chunks (milk and/or dark)
• white chocolate buttons, melted

Method

1. Beat the butter and sugars with the paddle attachment of your mixer until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Mix in cream and vanilla essence.
2. Sift in four and salt. Mix on a low speed until combined.
3. Stir in chocolate chunks.
4. Mould teaspoonsful of dough into squarish (or round, if you prefer) shapes. Place on a tray lined with baking paper and freeze for at least 30 minutes or put in the fridge for a few hours.
5. Pipe melted white chocolate over truffles to form a cross. Makes 30.

Hot cross bun truffles

Buona Pasqua a tutti!