Pear and Cinnamon Chocolate Truffles

Method
For Ganache: Place the chocolate in a bowl and put to one side. Pour the cream into a small saucepan with the cinnamon sticks and heat until it begins to simmer. Remove from heat and cover. Leave this to steep for 30mins. Strain this mixture through a fine sieve into another saucepan, add 10g of the pear puree and cook, uncovered until it reached a rolling boil. Pour the mixture onto the chocolate and let this sit for a couple of minutes to melt the chocolate. Slowly stir to mix. Once the ganache reaches 35°c add the remaining pear puree, the butter and cinnamon and mix well. Leave this to harden for about 30mins, then spoon into balls and leave overnight.
To finish: Preheat the oven to 180°c. Mix the puffed rice and cinnamon in a baking dish and lightly toast in the oven for 3-5mins then allow to cool. Once cooled, crush the mixture with a fork, and place into a shallow bowl. Dip each truffle in melted (tempered) chocolate, one at a time and immediately roll in the rice mixture until it is fully covered and leave there to set.
To temper milk chocolate, 75% of it must be heated to 46°c, then left for 10mins. Give this a good stir then add handfuls of the remaining 25% of the chocolate, finely chopped. Stir well after each handful until the chocolate reaches 27°c, then stop adding chocolate. Heat the mixture back up to 30°c, which should take about 5secs in the microwave.

Thanks to
Kathryn Hedley from the United Kingdom for submitting this Pear and Cinnamon Chocolate Truffles recipe.

Added on 8 February 2008.