December 27, 2003
Truffes au Chocolat
This year for Christmas, I made chocolate bites of two kinds to give to my family, and bought small confectioner's crystal bags at a professional store to put them in. I also wanted to make little tags to tie around the bags. I bought delicate ivory paper, beautiful green leaves made of very fine thread, and some silver yarn. I cut out rectangles of paper, wrote "Chocolate & Zucchini" with colored pencils on them, and sewed each rectangle to a green leaf with the silver yarn, tying up the label to the bags with a little knot.
Pretty, and it packaged up my goodies nicely : in addition to the mendiants, which I told you about yesterday, I made an assortment of chocolate truffles.
Chocolate Truffles
- 400 g good quality dark chocolate
- 20 cl whipping cream
- 40 g butter
- an assortment of powdered ingredients to roll the truffles in : I used unsweetened cocoa, coconut flakes, confectioner's sugar, powdered almonds, praline bits, crushed Petit Beurre (crispy cookies) and maple sugar.
(Makes about 50.)
Prepare the ganache a day ahead. Break the chocolate in small pieces in a medium bowl. Dice up the butter, set aside. Heat up the whipping cream in a small saucepan. When it's almost boiling, pour it over the chocolate, blending them together with a fork. When the mixture is smooth, add the butter, stirring until no lump remains. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge.
The next day, the ganache will have hardened. Pour the powdered ingredients in small plates. Use a spoon to scoop out some ganache, and shape it into a ball the size of a small walnut with your fingers. Make a few in a row, then roll them in the powdered ingredient of your choice. After a while, the ganache may be a bit too warm and soft to work with, in which case the bowl can be returned to the fridge for 30 minutes until hard again.
Store the truffles in the fridge in an aerated container. Don't use an airtight one, otherwise the humidity inside will dampen the dry powdered ingredients. I know, that's what happened to me and I had to roll them again! If the truffles have to wait a little before they're given out as a gift (although they shouldn't wait more than a few days), it may be better to shape the balls first, and wait till the last minute to roll them in the toppings.
Just like the mendiants, these were a lot of fun to make (remember your Play-Doh days?) and I thought they turned out really well : they have that amazing rich chocolate taste truffles are so famous for, and they look very professional, just like the ones we had bought at the Salon du Chocolat, really. And they were a gift very happily received!
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Comments (15)
Permalink | Posted by clotilde in Chocolate - Recipe Inside!
I've said it once and I'll say it again: What a lucky bunch your family and friends are!
The first time I made truffles was quite by accident -- I had some ganache in the fridge, left over from when I was icing a chocolate cake, and noticed it had gone hard...and that I could shape it into little balls. This happened to be at Christmas, so I gave them away and everyone was happy. I have yet to experiment with different coatings, and (following on from the mendiants) I'm thinking of crushed pretzels...
Posted by Jackie on December 28, 2003 12:24 AMJackie - "The accidental truffle", I love that! And methinks your own family and friends have nothing to complain about!
Posted by clotilde on December 28, 2003 6:33 PMhi clotilde! i love your site. I'm planning to do this recipe for christmas but i'm not familiar with the measurement "cl" for the whipping cream. Forgive my limited knowledge as I'm a newbie cook and i'm only familiar with grams, ounces, cups, and tablespoons :)
Posted by sally on November 8, 2004 6:14 AMSally - No problem at all! "cl" means centiliter, it's a metric measurement. 1cl = 10ml (milliliter). One cup contains 250ml or 25cl, one tablespoon contains 16ml or 1.6cl. So 20cl is approximately equal to 3/4 cup and one tablespoon! Hope that helps, and let me know how the truffles turn out!
Posted by clotilde on November 8, 2004 4:08 PMHi Clotilde! Here's my favorite chocolate truffle variation: When you make the ganache, before you bring the cream to a boil, add some black tea to the pan. (My favorite to use is Kusmi Tea's Samovar blend so nicely smoky just cut open one tea bag and put it in the pan with the cream). Let the cream and tea mixture steep until the flavor has developed, strain it, and heat it again before pouring it over the chocolate. This technique also works very well with fresh mint or herb leaves. I am planning to make some this Christmas with lavender and honey.
Posted by Madeleine on November 8, 2004 8:03 PMThank you for your resipe of truffe >V
Posted by Cind on November 27, 2005 10:38 AMI am just finding it ^^
ooo, I love truffles! absolutely itching to make them! I was just thinking about rolling the chocolate mixture in crushed candy canes? it should give a nice festive look!
Posted by Smin on December 4, 2005 7:13 AMThanks for this recipe - I've tried it with unsalted butter - any opinions? Also chopped hazelnute to roll them in is nice - and another hint - roll them with a teaspoon to stop your hands melting them.
Posted by dan on December 9, 2005 8:51 PMdan
I chanced upon ur webbie a while ago and I love ur blog n recipes!! I intend to make the truffles for my bf's bdae next fri.. What do u think if I added liquor to it? What kind of liquor will be good? Brandy, Absolut vanilla??
Posted by Clara on January 15, 2006 12:12 PMHi Clotilde! :)
I`m Cindy-- a 15 year old girl.
I just made these truffles tonight, and they didn`t turn out well. I read the recipe wrong! :( I poured the chocolate over the whipped cream instead of the whipped cream over the chocolate. Now it has turned kaput.
Well, anyway, the result was lumps of chocolate with oil floating.
Ah, anyway next time I`ll read your recipe with care. Thanks anyway.
Cindy.
Posted by Cindy on February 12, 2006 3:50 PMOh and it`s a good thing I didn`t use Valrhona. It costs around HK$ 76 for 250g here! I used Ghirardelli though. o_o
Posted by Cindy on February 12, 2006 3:53 PMHello Clotilde. :)
I did the chocolate truffles one more time and they turned out great (now that I followed the recipe :P)! I`ve gotten loads of compliments from it. Thanks a lot! :)
Cindy.
Posted by Cindy on February 14, 2006 2:40 PMI made these the other day for my friend's tea party and although they tasted wonderfulllll I had a really tough time shaping them.. they were either way too hard and wouldn't change shape from chocolate shards, or way too soft and melting all over my hands. Did I misjudge the amount of butter/cream? Any suggestions would be great, because they were so so so good!
Posted by Iris on August 18, 2006 2:11 AMany advice for those of us who want to ship truffles as gifts? How would you do it?
Posted by erin fae on December 17, 2006 7:47 PMHi Clotilde!
I made these truffles as Christmas presents this year, and they were delicious -- yet another recipe I can thank you for! I was wondering if you have any suggestions for packaging/transporting these truffles without melting: I packed them in little plastic bags like you did, and some of them melted together once they were out of the fridge. Any ideas?
Thank you for all your cooking inspiration!
Posted by Ann on January 3, 2007 2:09 AMAnn
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