Chocolate Hazelnut Pumpkin Pie Truffles

On Friday, I linked to some perfect little pumpkin candies.  I wanted to try them instantly but didn’t love the list of ingredients for a few reasons: I’m not a fan of margarine, ever and since I can’t have butter anymore I needed to come up with something different; ginger is another thing I’m allergic too and well food-grade cocoa butter is something I’m probably never going to have in my pantry.  I took to experimenting over the weekend and came up with these:

Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Pumpkin Pie Truffles

•  1/4 Cup Pureed Pumpkin
• 3 – 3 /12 Cups Powdered Sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 3/4 teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon Ground Cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon Ground Allspice
• Pinch Salt
• 4 ounces Dark Chocolate
• 3/4 Cup Hazelnuts (toasted & skins removed before chopping)

Combine the pumpkin puree, vanilla extract, and spices in a mixing bowl.  Add 3 cups of powdered sugar, beating until combined.  Add more powdered sugar if necessary.  I went for a play dough texture – soft and shapeable.  Taking bits of the candy – think whole nutmeg or slightly bigger in size – roll between your palms and form small balls.  Place the balls on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.  Refrigerate the small balls until firm about 30 minutes.

To toast & skin hazelnuts: Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Spread the hazelnuts in a thin layer onto a baking sheet.  Bake in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes, shaking the pan occasionally to prevent scorching.  Remove from the oven and immediately place the nuts onto a tea towel and cover.  Let cool for 5 minutes before running the towel covered nuts in between your palms.  This will get most (but not all) of the skins off.  Chop the nuts finely and place onto a plate.

Melt the dark chocolate in the top of a double boiler.  Once its melted.  Pull the pumpkin balls from the fridge.  Working quickly, dip the balls into the melted chocolate and then roll into the chopped hazelnuts.  Place the nut covered balls back onto your wax paper.  When finished, place the completed truffles back in the fridge to harden completely.

Note: You could easily swap the hazelnuts for some other nut or leave it nut free.  A drizzle of white chocolate on the plain chocolate truffles would also be lovely.