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Demo: Simple handrolled truffles


Trishiad

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Years ago, I had dinner at the home of a friend. Her mother served truffles for dessert and I was amazed. They were delicious and this woman had actually made them herself. Now I know how easy it was to make those truffles and what it feels like when your friends think you must be made of magic to be able to produce something so luxurious for a simple midday dessert. With the Holidays coming up I thought maybe some of you might like a little "magic".....

1 recipe of ganache makes around 40 truffles

4 oz. of heavy cream

8 oz. of Dark or Bittersweet chocolate plus more for coating

.5 oz of Butter

1 small package of Cocoa powder

With only 4 ingredients, get the best you can.

Use the ganache method you prefer. I bring the cream to a simmer, add chopped chocolate, whirl with the stick blender and then add room temp butter. Sometimes I just stir with a spatula because I don't wanna wash the stick blender. Feel free to replace some of the cream with flavorings, booze, etc.

Pour into a pan lined with parchment and leave to set. Overnight is easiest. Slice into squares and either leave them as is or squish them into fungus shapes or roll them into balls. Again, leave overnight under cover. The ganache should dry out a bit and develop a nice crust.

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Temper some chocolate and drop in one ball at a time.

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Fish it out with two fingers (or a dipping tool if you must) and roll it around and bounce it over the surface of the bowl of chocolate to allow the tension to remove any excess chocolate.

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Drop that baby into a bowl full of cocoa or nuts or sugar or nibs or shavings....you get the point....and cover with your dusting medium. Set the entire bowl aside for an hour or so.

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Once set, give your truffles a quick sift

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and place them on a serving dish. Stored in a cool dry place (not the fridge) they will keep for a good 2 weeks.

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I had two friend who happened to have birthdays within a week of each other and they are both committed chocholics so I decided to be a bit sneaky and make some homemade chocolate truffles for both and make them think I did it just for them ;).

Anyway, I made 4 different varieties:

Dark chocolate and lime juice infused with mint, coated in a dark chocolate shell and rolled in toasted coconut

Dark Chocolate, navel orange juice & cointreu coated in dark chocolate and rolled in cocoa powder

White chocolate & passionfruit juice coated in white chocolate

White chocolate & toasted ground almonds coated in white chocolate and rolled in toasted flaked almonds

I made them a bit bigger than the ones in the demo, about 3cm each or the width of 2 fingers. The only problem was that I didn't take into account the juice for the ganache so they were quite a bit softer than I would have liked. This made them really difficult to roll.

In retrospect, I probably should have started off doing a relatively firm ganache and only tried doing softer ones as I gained some experience. I didn't think to air dry the ganache overnight which might have also helped. Also, I didn't have enough chocolate at the end and tempering was a pain since the chocolate hardened very quickly. It would have been better to use more chocolate and then chill what I didn't use and store.

But reports from both parties indicated that the chocolates were a success so thats good. Strangely enough, standing around chocolate all day was a surprising appetite suppresant. I started work at 10am and I didn't feel hungry until 7pm when I was heading to the birthday party.

PS: I am a guy.

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Yeah, people always ask me why I'm not fat, surrounded by all that chocolate. They don't realize one doesn't eat so much chocolate when one smells like chocolate.

The air drying not only helps with dipping but also increases shelf life. There is water in cream and it will evaporate. If you don't give it a chance to evaporate before dipping it will evaporate inside the chocolate shell leaving air pockets perfect for bacteria growth.

Keep in mind when making your ganache in the future that you will need to increase the chocolate when using milk or white chocolates instead of dark or bittersweet.

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This does look easy, even for someone like me who never works with chocolate...

1 question.. the chocolate you use to coat the ganache balls in, is listed in the ingredients as 'more for coating'. How much chocolate would you (approximately)need for that?

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Hmmm, since I don't often dip just 40 truffles it's hard for me to give you a true answer but I think you could melt a pound or so plus about 4 oz. for seed. You will probably have extra which you could pour onto a sheet of parchment, allow to harden, and use again another day or you could make some bark....

Spread a thin (1/8 to 1/4 inch) layer of chocolate and sprinkle with things like dried or candied fruits, nuts, nibs, sea salt, even crushed up hard candies like lemon heads or peppermints. Let cool and break into irregular pieces.

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