Pokémon: Rare Candy

I wanna cook the very best, like no one ever could.
To taste them is my real test, the flavor has withstood
I will tinker with recipes, blended, chopped, and fried
Each ingredient to understand the flavor that’s inside…

Well that is my sad attempt to personalize the Pokémon theme. Pokémon and I go really far back (about 15 years). I got heavily into Pokémon right away, from playing the games to collecting trading cards all the way to asking my mom to go to Burger King every week to get the new gold plated cards. Pokémon has always found its way into my life. When my husband and I got married, we cleverly used the different element types to separate the tables. The average person probably missed the reference and thought the name cards were just artistic, but many of our friends giggled knowingly. One of my favorite Halloween costumes was Pokémon related. I talked to my mom and requested some help to do an Ash Ketchum costume. She had a friend who made me the vest and I was so excited. I ran around that year with some pokéballs, tossing them at everything (and everyone).

Look at that, this coming week is Halloween. When trying to come up with something for the holiday I knew candy was the only correct option. Of course, the first thing that came to mind is the ever amazing rare candy. Sure the rare candy is just for your Pokémon but let’s be serious. Weren’t you ever curious what it could be? I love chocolate so we will be going the route of the truffle, a raspberry truffle at that! Mmmmm….. chocolate! The main reason I’ve decided to go with a truffle for the rare candy is the berry infusion and the cocoa powder outside. Berries exist in the world of Pokémon and I figured the rare candy would have a nutritional part, hence the raspberry truffles. The cocoa powder on the outside of the truffle gives a heavily bitter taste at the start but once you hit the inside deliciousness strikes. This one is actually pretty simple. It’s a little messy but all kinds of delicious!

Ingredients:
12 oz chocolate
4 oz heavy cream
3 oz raspberry
2 tbsp butter
cocoa powder

Begin by finely chopping the bars of chocolate and placing them in a bowl.

Place the heavy cream and butter in a sauce pan. Allow it to melt on low heat. Do NOT let it boil – you just want to get the milk hot.

Pour the milk into the bowl of chocolate and mix. If the hot milk does not melt all of the chocolate, place in a microwave for about 10 seconds. Mix until smooth.

Next, chop up the raspberries until they are basically a liquid. The main reason I use the actual berries is the grittiness from the seeds. I feel that this element is extremely important to giving the rare candy the right texture.

Once minced, add the raspberry into the bowl and mix. Place the mixture inside a pastry bag. Place in your refrigerator and allow to cool for about an hour.

After the mixture has cooled, line a pan with some parchment paper and begin to swirl piece of the chocolate on top. This helps portion the chocolate.

Place this back in the refrigerator for another hour to allow it to harden. Once hardened, begin rolling the truffles into ball shapes. This is a VERY messy process so be prepared.

Toss in cocoa powder once rolled and it is ready.

Enjoy! Have a happy, safe, and spooOooky Halloween!