Banana Chiffon Truffles

These are one of my favorite Passover confections.  You bake a scrumptious Kosher for Passover banana chiffon cake, then pull off pieces of the cake and roll them into balls that are approximately 1 and 1/2 inches.  After a short stint in the fridge you dip the balls into melted chocolate. The recipe serves double duty as a delicious chiffon cake if you decide you prefer a cake to the truffles.

To make banana chiffon cake truffles, you will need to make the banana chiffon cake first, then form 1 to 1 and ½ inch balls out of the cake, refrigerate for at least ½ hour, then dip the cake balls into melted chocolate.

Before you begin, preheat the oven to 325 degrees and have ready a 9-inch spring-form pan with a center tube.

Into a large mixing bowl, sift together ½ cup sugar, matzah cake meal, and potato starch. Make a well in the dry ingredients and add the egg yolks, mashed bananas/lemon juice mixture, oil and vanilla.  Beat until smooth.  Mix in the pineapple juice.

Place the egg whites into a large mixing bowl and beat on medium speed until frothy.  Add the pinch of salt and continue beating until the whites hold soft peaks.  Add the remaining ½ cup sugar one tablespoon at a time and beat the whites at high speed until they hold stiff peaks.  Do not overbeat the whites.  

Place ¼ of the beaten whites into the yolk mixture and fold in.  Fold in the remaining whites in two or three additions, until the white and yolk mixture are well combined and there are no visible white streaks in the batter. 

Pour or spoon the batter into the spring-form pan and bake in the preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes or until the cake is golden brown and a cake tested inserted into the center comes out clean.

Remove from oven and immediately invert.  When cake has cooled, place right side up.  With a sharp knife and a gentle sawing motion cut gently around sides, bottom and center of the cake to release it from the pan.  Place on a cake stand and sprinkle with some confectioner’s sugar, if desired.  Or drizzle some semi sweet melted chocolate on top of the cake.

Pull off pieces of the banana chiffon cake that you can roll into a round ball of approximately 1 to 1 ½ inches in diameter.  Place the balls in the fridge for at least ½ hour and up to several days to a week.  Melt the bittersweet and white chocolates in the microwave at 50% power for about one minute at a time—stirring in between intervals in the microwave, until the chocolates are fully melted.  Place the melted chocolates in small dishes that are deep enough for the banana cake balls to dip into and be fully coated.  Dip the cake balls into the melted chocolate, then lift out of the dish and allow the excess chocolate to drip back into the dish.  Place the coated cake balls onto a cookie sheet lined with wax paper.  If desired, place some of the melted white and dark chocolates into a baggie, twist the baggie, then with a scissor, snip off the very tip of one of the corners of the baggie.  Drizzle the white melted chocolate over the dark chocolate and vice versa. 

If you prefer to keep the banana chiffon truffles pareve, use pareve toppings such as sprinkles, non-pareils or toasted coconut.