Holi is the Indian festival of colour celebrating the triumph of good over evil. It is traditionally celebrated with Thandai, a milk drink flavoured with ground seeds, nuts, spices and rose petals. It is still, stone ground by hand to form a paste in India. Traditionally thandai has more almonds than pistachios but I love the pistachio flavour and the green colour so I use more pistachios instead of the almonds. This Modern Indian, no bake dessert combines traditional thandai masala (made of ground nuts, seeds and spices) with classic dark chocolate truffles to create a perfect combination of slightly crunchy, oh so creamy and fragrant truffle. I remember making my 1st truffles with my mom and grandma & calling my grandma for the thandai recipe when I first moved to Australia so this is just special.


Makes 20-24 Truffles.

Ingredients:

For the Truffle

  • Dark Coverture buttons 225g
  • Thickened Cream 155g

For The Thandai Powder/Masala

  • Pistachios - 1/2 cup
  • Cashews - 1/2 cup
  • Almonds - 2 tbsp
  • Melon Seeds - 2 tbsp
  • White Poppy Seeds - 1 tbsp
  • Fennel Seeds - 2 tbsp
  • Dried Rose Petals - 1 tbsp
  • Native Black Peppercorns - 1/2 tsp
  • Cardamom - 5 pods
  • Nutmeg Powder - 1/4 tsp
  • Saffron Strands - 10 to 15
  • Sugar- 4 tbsp
  • Sea salt flakes 1/8th tsp


Method:

FOR THE TRUFFLE

  • Place the chocolate in heat proof bowl set aside .
  • Heat the cream until just simmering on medium heat.
  • Pour cream over the chocolate , let it sit for 2mins and stir until chocolate has completely melted and well combined with the cream.
  • Transfer to a shallow wide container and cover with cling wrap directly over the surface to avoid forming skin , refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours.
  • Line a baking sheet with baking paper and roll half tablespoon chocolate mixture into balls and place on the baking sheet and freeze for half an hour.


FOR THE THANDAI POWDER/MASALA

  • Lightly dry roast the nuts, peppercorn and cardamom for 2 mins, add in the seeds and saffron and roast for another 2 mins. Take off the heat allow to cool.
  • Once cooled , transfer to a blender jar add sugar and pulse till fine bread crumb consistency. Mix the rose petals, nutmeg and salt (you can do this step up to 2 weeks in advance and store the mix in an air-tight container in the fridge.)
  • If making along with the chocolate mix transfer the mix into a shallow container.


Assembly

  • Remove the truffles from the freezer roll into the thandai powder, serve immediately or store in the fridge up to 2 weeks.