How to Make Truffles

Hello, peeps! In honor of Valentine's Day, I thought I'd post a recipe on how to make chocolate truffles. These are actually pretty simple to make, and fun to try different flavor combinations with. There are three different recipes I use depending on whether I have milk chocolate, dark chocolate or white chocolate chips. These recipes are adopted and simplified from the excellent book, Making Artisan Chocolates, by Andrew Garrison Shotts. The ingredients differ, but the general instructions to each recipe remain the same.

How to make truffles

Dark Chocolate Truffles
Ingredients:
4.25 oz. dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tsp. light corn syrup
​1 TB salted butter
Optional flavoring (pepper, coriander, curry, mint)

Milk Chocolate Truffles
​Ingredients:
6 oz. milk chocolate chips
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 TB salted butter
​Optional flavoring (cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, mint)

White Chocolate Truffles
​Ingredients:
6.5 oz white chocolate chips
1/3 cup minus 1 tsp heavy cream
1 TB salted butter
​Optional flavoring (cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, white pepper)

Instructions:
Cut butter up into 1/4"-1/2" cubes and set aside to let soften a bit. Measure chips and pour into a bowl. A cereal bowl is usually big enough.

Heat the cream and any flavoring ingredients (I've used tea bags, mint leaves, even hibiscus flowers) to a rolling boil. I used a few saffron threads in the picture below. It doesn't really matter how much flavoring you put in if you are going to remove it from the cream after boiling anyway, though more leaves will create a stronger flavor. If you are going to add pepper or some other powdered spice, however, I would say less is more. You can always add more powdered spice to the finished ganache if it isn't strong enough.

Once the cream has reached a rolling boil, remove flavoring ingredients and immediately pour the cream over the chocolate chips. Let it sit for two minutes, stirring occasionally. The hardest part about making truffles is getting all of the chips to melt before the cream cools down.

When the chips and cream have cooled to 95 degrees F, add the butter. If the mixture has cooled below 95 degrees by the time two minutes is up, gently reheat it on the stove back up to 95 degrees. Then add the butter.

Quickly stir the butter in with a fork until it is thoroughly melted and mixed. This is called an "emulsion". If the butter isn't thoroughly mixed in, it will separate and the ganache will break. When the butter is mixed in, the ganache should be silky and smooth. 

After the butter is mixed in, you will have to let the ganache sit until it is hard enough to roll into a ball. Books and recipes that I've tried suggest that this takes a couple hours, but for me it usually takes a whole day. I let the ganache sit covered overnight, and then the next afternoon I can roll it into balls and dip into cocoa powder, melted chocolate, crushed nuts or other toppings. For the pictures I used peanut butter powder because the color matched, but I don't recommend a white chocolate/peanut butter flavor combination. :p

The total cost for a batch of truffles is about $2.75. If you make 20 truffles, it leaves the cost per truffle at about $0.15. This is pretty reasonable compared to store bought truffles. More than that though, I think truffle-making is a fun and frugal way to celebrate Valentine's Day or any other special day. It is so much fun to create personalized flavors. Truffle ganache can also be used in filled chocolates or for cake decorating. It's a great recipe to have on hand and makes a good gift for someone special in your life. :)

Happy truffle making!
​-Bethany