A sweet surprise of carrot truffles

Carrots do go with anything. Either slightly crunchy or attractively creamy, it's possible to smuggle them into most dishes. I smuggled them into chocolate. And no, I don't feel guilty.
I remember eating carrots in the garden when I was little. I pulled some out of the ground, threw the leaves just over my shoulder behind some bushes, rinsed the vegetables in some rainwater (gathered into an old bath) and champed them happily, possibly together with some soil. It's time for carrot eating to become elegant.


Carrot truffles

500 g carrots
200 g raisins
1 dl sugar
50 g butter
150 g sliced almonds
1/2 tsp ground cardamum
chocolate for coating

1. Shred the carrots and and put them together with the raisins into a pot, add water to only cover them.
2. Boil the mixture, uncovered, until the water has evaporated and remove from heat.
3. Add sugar, butter, almonds and cardamum to the mixture and puree it until almost smooth
4. Return to heat for some more time to reduce liquid content
5. Let the mixture cool, shape into balls and cover with chocolate


I actually wanted to use white chocolate but didn't have the chance, so I substituted it with a mixture of dark and milk chocolate. It worked as well, but I believe that the version with white chocolate could be much different. Some lime or orange peel could also be added for an extra twist. The original inspirational recipe actually called for figs instead of raisins (I do have a budget, you know).

No-one I offered the truffles to actually understood what was in them at the first place. Nifty, isn't it? The filling was soft and silky, the raisins somehow deepened the taste. Definitely a make-again.