Chocolate Truffle Recipe

So, it turns out it's completely impossible to take photos whilst making hand rolled truffles (who knew?) so here is the recipe by itself. You can also make a ganache using water, tea, coffee or fruit juice in place of the cream for a slightly healthier chocolate and to obviously create a different flavour but this isn't something I've tried yet.

Classic Ganache Hand Rolled Truffles

125g milk or dark chocolate
125ml double cream
50g golden sugar

Break the chocolate into small pieces and place in a mixing bowl. put the cream and sugar in a saucepan and quickly bring to the boil and then simmer for 1 minute (this dissolves the sugar completely as well as killing off any bacteria, meaning you're chocolates have a longer shelf life). Turn off the heat and allow the cream to cool for 1 minute. Pour the rested cream onto the broken chocolate and mix until all the chocolate has melted and the ganache is smooth and glossy.

Now add any 'flavour' such as finely chopped roasted nuts, dried fruit or oil such as lemon.

Allow the ganache to cool to room temp then place in the fridge to set for a couple of hours.

Meanwhile you will need to melt your chocolate to dip the truffles into and if you are a true chocolatier at heart you will want to correctly temper your chosen chocolate. I used about 100g of dark chocolate melted over a pan of constantly hot (but not even simmering) water for one hour until it reached 55c. You then need to remove the bowl from the heat and quickly mix in another 200g of chocolate to drop the temperature to around 28c. The bowl then goes back over the pan of water until it has reached 32c or the 'working temperature'. Tempering your chocolate does take practice but gives your chocolates a professionalism and that 'snap' you get when biting into a bought one.

For further instructions on tempering just google tempering chocolate for a huge list of websites and video tutorials.

So by now the ganache is set. I found that this quantity made 20 large truffles. Use a teaspoon to scoop out some ganache and then roll it into a ball quickly in your hands and place on to a chopping board pressing down a little to create a flat bottom (you may find dusting your hands with icing sugar or cocoa powder is helpful at this stage). Once all of your truffles are rolled, pop them back in the fridge for 10 minutes to allow them to re-set.

Now comes the very messy part so I'd definitely make sure there's someone to turn on the tap or that you have a sink full of warm water ready to wash your hands. Again, dipping the truffles is trial and error as to how you find it easiest but this is how i do it:

1. Take a truffle between your thumb and fore finger and place into the melted chocolate
2. Quickly use both hands to scoop melted chocolate up and over the truffle until it is completely coated
3. Pick the truffle up between your thumb and fore finger and wipe the bottom of excess chocolate
4. Place onto a board or plate covered with baking parchment

Once you've covered all of your truffles you can go back over with a teaspoon of melted chocolate to cover up any small areas you may have missed. Now is the time to decorate your truffles with grated chocolate or chopped nuts etc but you should let them set first if you want to drizzle a different chocolate over the top.

Now just allow them to set in a cool dry place and then enjoy!

Tried this recipe? Leave a comment to let me know what you think xoxo