Rose & Coconut Truffles
Last year around Diwali was a really exciting time for most content creators. Instagram content consumption was at a record high. The lockdown was in full swing, companies were in limbo, and most of Delhi was planning a small 300 person wedding. Brands started to realise that the annual budgets they have for marketing now have to be exhausted as soon as possible. All of sudden the biggest brands were expanding their influencer interactions and this meant, I was busy. A big reason that I was able to the Diwali with LOST campaign this year was that last year, I was swamped with a litany of branded content.
My simple natural marble studio was now filled with so much festive paraphernalia- from tea lights, brass crockery, dried rose petals, to a bunch of fairy lights. Content too became a little more festival oriented. While the rest of Instagram decided to switch completely to Indian/ Indian fusion food, I stuck to my conventional guns. Focus on food that isn’t just a good content hook, but actually will be made at home (this year, I have seen a Chocolate Peda and Gulab Jamun Cheesecake). Instagram also launched Tik Tok mirror, Reels right before the festive season. Reels were on fire at the time. Mostly because there weren’t as many reel content creators so the ones that we already hit some popularity became hot property. Making short format informative food content is hard. Things are left behind either in recipe description, methods, or worse yet- the actual emotion that long format cooking content can bring; from seeing how something is made frame by frame or seeing oil and sugar mix together in a cake batter.
We had clients coming in for Reels as well. At the time, making 30 sec content for food felt like sorcery. So Natasha and I decided that we will focus on cray easy recipes that people will actually like to make as a snack or a party favour. One such client came in with a somewhat Indian recipe with a focus on their line of cookware. Now given our annoying self-inflicted brand purpose (i.e. no fusion content, and things that people will actually make) we had to be a little creative. Natasha Literally looked into our kitchen and started pulling things to make a dessert. We ended up with an inventory of condensed milk, butter, and desiccated coconut. We went through a variety of options through the internet until we realised that condensed milk and better form a putty-like bond when heated together. We ended up playing around with the idea until we landed upon making toasted coconut truffles. Two challenges popped - White doesn’t pop as much in our shoot and its not Indian enough. Natasha got annoyed by how long this was taking and just started naming spices we had in the pantry until we found that stuck — Cardamom and Dried Rose Petals. Cardamom and toasted coconut go fabulous together while the rose adds both a perfume to the truffle and that pop of colour. The test subjects were beautiful to look at, delicious to taste, and they had so much texture!
Like I said in my last blog post, these recipes are my attempt at building a tradition of making Diwali special recipes for my family legacy for food goes down generation as my grandmothers have down to me. I hope you do try this recipe! And if you do, share pics with me on Instagram. As always, happy cooking ♥️
Glimpses from the week
Recipe
Ingredients
Makes 12-15 truffles
200ml condensed milk
100 grams fresh coconut
50 grams of desiccated coconut
1/3 cup dried edible rose petals
1 teaspoon cardamom powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 tablespoon butter
Method
In a nonstick skillet toast up the desiccated coconut until you start seeing some colour. Take it off the heat once done and let it cool. As it cools, the coconut will get a little toasted as well.
In the same skillet, add condensed milk and spices. Mix well and add the toasted coconut. Mix and keep off the heat. On a plate, place the mix, spread thin and set in the freezer for 30 minutes or until it’s cool and pliable.
Take a tablespoon of the mix and roll it into balls. Dip in the dried rose petals and serve!
