Friday, February 11, 2011

Friday Food Craft: Dark Chocolate Truffles



Feast your eyes on these! In honor, yet again, of Valentine's Day I decided to throw you yet another gift idea: Dark Chocolate Truffles. You can certainly change up the recipe a little bit depending on your taste, but I assure you these are super easy and VERY delicious.

You will need:

1/2 pound (8oz.) dark chocolate (I get mine in the bulk bins at the grocery store)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tablespoon coffee flavored liquor
1/2 tsp vanilla

Cut up your chocolate as finely as you can (try to get uniform pieces so they will all melt the same, or you will get some little chunks). Place the chocolate into a bowl (I use a glass mixing bowl).

In a small saucepan, heat your cream just until it comes to a boil (bubbles will begin forming around the edges). Add the heated cream to the chocolate and allow to sit a few minutes.

Add in your vanilla, cinnamon, cayenne and coffee flavored liquor (you could also use just a Tablespoon of regular fresh brewed coffee). *you do not have to add the cinnamon and cayenne, but I find it adds a nice flavor to the truffles.

Whisk everything together until it is smooth. If you happen to have a few larger chunks, do not fear, you can place the bowl into the microwave for 10 seconds, then remove and stir again. Do this until your mixture is smooth, then allow the bowl to sit at room temperature for 1 hour (and good luck not "tasting" it every time you walk past for that hour).

With a small spoon or cookie scoop, scoop out small balls of the truffle mixture and place on a cookie sheet (to avoid a huge mess I generally line my sheet with parchment or wax paper) and place these into the fridge for 30 minutes to set.

Take out and gently roll to form round balls, then roll these into any coating you want. Pictured below I have toasted coconut, powdered sugar, cocoa, roasted almonds and candy melts (if you want a hard outer coating I highly recommend the candy melts--you can get them in several colors as well). You could also fancy it up with a sprinkling of some salt if you are into the sweet and salty flavor. I have made these several different ways and no one has ever complained.


5 comments:

  1. I love truffles and yours looks fabulous. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Yum!! I love the touch of cayenne in there.

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  3. I was so thrown off by the reference to Valentine's Day, since I just saw this on FB now. But thanks for sharing, they look great!

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  4. Can these be made ahead of time and stored in the freezer?? Or the fridge? How long can you store them - I want to make them for a wedding!
    Thanks!

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    1. They can be made ahead of time and stored in the freezer or refrigerator. Roll all of the ganache balls, freeze them, and then before you want to serve them, thaw and roll in whatever toppings you want to use (I wouldn't freeze them with the coatings on as those are the part I feel would go bad first).

      While I have been told that ganache truffles can be frozen for an indefinite amount of time without toppings, I wouldn't recommend freezing them any longer than a month for freshness sake.

      I hope you like them :)

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