Rolling truffles in nuts

[mostlylana]

I usually do palet shaped chocolates but I'm trying truffles for the first time. I would like to roll this particular flavour in walnuts. I've done a few experiments and the truffle ends up quite large. Too big to fit my boxes! I took a look at another chocolatiers nut covered truffle and it is smaller (and would fit my boxes!). I cut mine and hers in half and they are both the same size before coating.

Here's what I'm doing. I'm using a truffle fork to dip. Being used to dipping, I'm not leaving much chocolate on - it doesn't puddle at all. So I'm thinking the problem is the nuts. I did ask about nut grinders in another post. What I'm using now is my food processor and I find the nuts get a little 'sticky'. I'm thinking this may be why I'm getting a thicker coating?? I guess the nuts should be quite dry and small.

The other thing that may be the culprit is my technique. I have the nuts in a shallow pan - plop the truffle onto them and roll the pan around and around. I do this right away. Should I be waiting for the chocolate to set up just a little? I notice my truffles don't stay round (but the other chocolatier's are perfectly round). I'm thinking the chocolate is flinging around a bit??

Any advice will be very appreciated!

[Chris Hennes]

When I do rolled truffles I don't dip them on a fork, I use my hand, and I roll them around a bit between gloved hands to get the chocolate layer very thin: this seems to help cut down on turning them into something more akin to filled Rochers , though I do wind up with those sometimes, especially if I'm using white chocolate.

[RWood]

Definitely use gloved hands like Chris mentioned. You can get a thin coating, just enough to get the nuts to stick.

Something I do as well, if you grind the nuts, sift them to remove the "dust". It will make the nuts nicer looking, and you won't get a big clump stuck in the chocolate.

[Lior]

I dip a gloved finger into the chocolate and smear it on the other palm. Plop the truffle and palm to palm give a quick roll in the "puddle" then I roll the truffle down my middle finger into a bowl of coating whatever-nuts or whatever. I rotate the bowl around and leave it in there and do the next one. After a few I take them out and roll them on the baking shett to get the coating on well.

[mostlylana]

Thank you all so much! I will definitely use the gloved hand method - sounds faster too. I have another question about the nuts...

How should I chop them?! I'm about to try using the cheese grater on my food processor. That should keep them dry and of uniform size. But the size will be really small, I'm wondering if that will make clumps like you mentioned R?

[Chocolot]

I agree about the thin layer. Another thing you can do it put the chopped nuts in a deep-sided bowl or baking pan. Push nuts to one end, leaving a thin layer of nuts on the "thin" end. Place your dipped truffles on the thin layer of nuts. Before they set up, take a spoon of nuts or have a helper cover the coated truffles with another layer of nuts. You keep doing this building up 2 or 3 layers of truffles. You work your way to the center of the bowl or pan. when you run out of nuts and the truffles are set, gently shake the pan and the truffles will magically rise to the surface and you pick them out and place in cups. You keep repeating this and you will have them done in no time. I used to have my children do this for me. My son would play bulldozer with the nuts and then forklift driver. Hey--it worked!!:-)

[Edward J]

This is what I like to do:

Toast the nuts, cool

Chop 'em in a food processor, but do it in small batches, NEVER let them get oily.

You will get large pieces and small pieces, I like to "sift" using a perforated hotel pan.

Spread them out on a tray.

I like to dip with a fork, place a line of 6 or 7 in the crumb tray (depending on choc and room temp), then starting with the first, roll them down the tray with either a finger or a different fork. Do this with the second "round", then stop and remove the first "round" from the crumb tray to the recieiving tray, then remove the second "round". Repeat....

Of course, if you have an extra pair of hands available, it can go much quicker.....

[mostlylana]

Isn't it fascinating how everyone has a different technique that works for them! Thanks for all the input everybody. I'm about to try the hand method right now (I've already tried the fork method). I noticed my walnuts are oily again. Maybe it's the nut itself - high in oil??

I'm also going to try rolling them in chopped hazelnuts which aren't oily at all.

I read that it's a good idea to freeze nuts first before chopping to keep the oils from releasing. I didn't do that...

[mostlylana]

Success! I was actually a little too stingy with the 'puddle' so I had a few with very few nuts sticking to them. No problem - they're just experiments. It's great that you can control the amount of chocolate that will coat the truffle - and thus the end size.

I tried the bulldoze technique Ruth but I don't think I had enough chocolate for it - the nuts didn't stick very well. I found rolling them around right away resulted in better 'stickage' when using little chocolate.

Thanks again everyone!