Rum truffles are a delicious, rich treat, and this simple recipe tastes better than anything you can buy in the shops. It doesn’t require the use of the oven at all, and the finished sweets can be rolled in either icing sugar or mini chocolate chips, depending on your preference.

Break your chocolate into a small bowl and put this over a pan of boiling water (be careful not to burn yourself). Allow the chocolate to melt slowly, stirring only very occasionally to ensure that it melts evenly. Try not to stir too much or it will lose its glossyness through being overworked.

Meanwhile, in another bowl combine the egg yolks, butter, rum and double cream and stir well. Put this to one side until the chocolate is done.

When the chocolate has fully melted, remove it from the heat, again being careful not to burn yourself, and beat in the egg yolks, rum, butter and double cream.

You may find that the chocolate starts to set again when you add the cold ingredients. We have found that if this happens you can put the bowl back on the top of the pan and it will soften up again, making it much easier to combine all of the ingredients.

Gradually stir in the icing sugar. Make sure that it is finely sifted so that you don’t get any lumps in your chocolates. It’s best to use a wooden spoon for this.

Over time it will become more and more difficult to stir in the icing sugar, but you should be able to get in almost the whole 225g (8oz) if you persevere. If you can still see any of the white sugar in the brown mixture, stir some more.

When all of the icing sugar has been combined, roll the mixture into small grape-sized balls and decorate. This can be done by rolling them in tiny chocolate chips, vermicelli or chocolate sugar strands, or by dusting with icing sugar.

Store them in a cool place and they should keep for a week or more – if you can resist the urge to eat them all.

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