Pecan Pie Truffles

My birthday, 2pi day, 6.28, is tomorrow, and so in that honor we held a pie party last night. Therefore the next several posts will be about the things I prepared for that party.

Mmmm, bite marks.

We all love pecan pie. Especially one make with fresh Texas pecans. Mmm. Pecans, when they're fresh are a light golden color. The dark ones you see in the grocery store, are probably several years old by the time you get them. And they're fine, but the honey colored fresh ones are just that good. But how can you make pecan pie even better? Make it into a delicious, alcohol laden truffle. Yes. Truffle. Yes. Alcohol.

Warning: These Gotcher Alcohol

Speaking of the alcohol, my local liquor store laughed at me when I asked for a mini bottle, which is almost exactly the 1/4 cup needed for this recipe, and then laughed at me again when I pulled out my chico sack, a reusable grocery bag. I was evidently too much a of a yuppie-hippy for the likes of that store. Then, you can't even buy just one. They come in two packs, so now I have an extra mini bottle of Maker's Mark sitting in my pantry begging me to make these truffles again and soon. Evil.

I've adapted these truffles from a wonderful New York Times article about a Vegan Thanksgiving meal. I've had them both ways, the original recipe and my adaptation, and I have to say, I like mine better. Of course.

Pecan Pie Truffles
Adapted from VegNews food columnist Hannah Kaminsk


Truffle Filling:

2 1/2 cups pecans, toasted and finely chopped (fresh pecans preferably)

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1/2 tsp salt
2 TBsps maple syrup (the real stuff)
1/4 cup bourbon
1 tsp vanilla

Truffle Coating:
10 ounces Semisweet Chocolate
2 TBsp Dark Corn Syrup
2 TBsp Vegetable Oil
2 TBsp Water

Start by either using a food processor or a blender to pulverize the graham crackers into a fine powder. Using the same appliance, grind the pecans almost into pecan butter, almost. Mix the pecan butter, graham cracker dust, brown sugar, salt maple syrup, bourbon, and vanilla until completely combined and able to form a nice ball. Using the ever handy cookie dough scoop which I raved about earlier, form very nice truffle sized bits and place on wax paper.

Throw these in the freezer to allow them to harden up for the chocolate dipping process. To make the chocolate coating, over a low flame, double boiler, or microwave, melt the chocolate, corn syrup, oil, and water and mix until completely combined. This acts to thin the chocolate so you don't get a giant thick layer on your truffle. Although I'm not sure that would necessarily be a bad thing...

Carefully, coat each truffle center with chocolate and tap off the excess. I usually do this with two forks. The flat side of the truffle center is down on the fork, and then I just tap the fork on the side of the pan and the extra chocolate falls nicely back into the pan. Using the second fork, I slide the truffle off the first fork and back onto the wax paper.

Dip, dip, dip, all day long...

Place back in the fridge or freezer to set. Enjoy!

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Om nom nom.