Vegan Truffles

[Pyewacket]

Has anyone tried using almond milk or hazelnut milk for these truffles? I really like these new dairy alternative milks in cooking. They are very tasty and might give a pleasant nuance to the chocolate flavor.

I once made a very nice white truffle using El Rey bianca and a strong infusion of chamomile tea with a little extra cocoa butter in the ganache for smoothness. The sweet herby flavor was quite nice with the white chocolate. The ganache seemed to remain stable and did not break down, although we ate them pretty quickly.

[Art]

The additional of an emulsifier might be helpful as well. Soy lecithin is vegan.  You'll want to be careful how much you add, though, as lecithin has flavor issues in large quantities.

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One issue that you need to be aware of when it comes to lecithin is that if it is added to chocolate in too high a quantity (i.e., greater than point-five percent), it thickens the chocolate rather than thins it. Furthermore, it disrupts the crystalization of the cocoa butter. This means that during the cooling phase during tempering, the temperature must be dropped sometimes as low as 70 degrees F in order to get the cocoa butter to crystalize. Most chocolate already has point-three percent soy lecithin in it so the margin where additional lecithin may be added is small.

Since truffles are made adding things too chocolate, you can probably get away with adding a bit of lecithin to it. However since the margins are small, be careful and be aware that if you run into problems it still will temper but the temperture must be dropped down during tempering considerably in order to get it to crystalize properly.

On the fat front, many manufacturers use various vegetable fats to make "truffles" which by definition should be vegan. That is how those Lindt balls are made for example. I may have info from a Swedish manufacturer around somewhere that supplies these vegetable oils and I'm sure there is a US manufacturer as well.

In regards to sugar, at least according to Wikipedia about one half of all cane sugar is processed with bone char, the rest is generally processed with activated charcoal.

-Art

[Desiderio]

On the fat front, many manufacturers use various vegetable fats to make "truffles" which by definition should be vegan

In which country?Not where I come from is not.italian are very very picky on using vegetable fat for chocolate making .

[scott123]

Since truffles are made adding things too chocolate, you can probably get away with adding a bit of lecithin to it. However since the margins are small, be careful and be aware that if you run into problems it still will temper but the temperture must be dropped down during tempering considerably in order to get it to crystalize properly.

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One of the things added to chocolate is hot cream. Hot, almost boiling cream + chocolate = complete loss of temper. Since the ganache is cooled via refrigeration, this temper never returns. Truffles are untempered chocolate, unless, of course, they are enrobed.

[Art]

In which country?Not where I come from is not.italian are very very picky on using vegetable fat for chocolate making .

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I agree. I think the practice of using vegetable fats in or along with chocolate is horrid. Thank goodness you don't have to put up with it to the same degree as we do here in the US. It is that same careful attention to detail that makes the Italian chocolate is some of the world's best.

-Art

Edited October 5, 2006 by Art (log)

[Art]

Scott :

Good point, you're right. I'm right in the middle of writing an article on tempering and so I've had "tempering on my mind" lately.

-Art

[scott123]

Scott :

Good point, you're right.  I'm right in the middle of writing an article on tempering and so I've had "tempering on my mind" lately.

-Art

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Actually, I was kind of hoping you'd come back and say that ganache can be tempered Is it possible that the way ganache is cooled might impact in some way the cocoa butter crystal formation? Or does the water in the ganache/the fact that it's an emulsion dictate the type of crystal formed?

Since you're fully immersed in the topic of tempering and the ingredients that inhibit it, I've got a question along those lines. Can corn syrup be used in a tempered chocolate? How about a very high brix/low moisture activity corn syrup? If the moisture activity were low enough, the cocoa particles wouldn't hydrate/seize, correct?

The reason why I'm asking is that I've consumed a bar of what was supposed to be tempered chocolate that contained what I believe might have been a liquid form of sugar. Although the taste was good, the texture was a tad mealy.

Edited October 5, 2006 by scott123 (log)

[reenicake]

Tempering the chocolate and adding cold liquid to make ganache works beautifully, especially with coconut milk. Completely bypasses the separation issues.

Mealy chocolate? might have sugar bloom from being improperly stored, a common problem with chocolate sold in bar form.