When I was 16 years old I had a giant crush on this guy who was a few years older than me and pretty much perfect in my young punk rock-obsessed mind. When Valentine's Day rolled around I decided that the best way for me to let him know how I felt was to make him a batch of chocolate truffles—I was confident that these truffles would turn out so delicious that he wouldn't be able to resist me. Despite my lack of candy making experience, the truffles turned out pretty well. I lovingly wrapped them and went to meet my crush.
In hindsight, I would have been much better off buying him a Misfits record. He wasn't too impressed with the chocolates, just eating one before passing them along to his friends. Needless to say, things didn't work out with the guy, but I learned two valuable lessons: First, chocolates don't always equal instant romance; second, I now knew how to make truffles—a pretty great skill to have.
Perhaps I would've had a better chance if I had made these Salted Caramel-Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles from Carole Bloom's Bite-Size Desserts. The combination of bittersweet chocolate and salted caramel is almost impossible to resist.
As for the amount of work goes into these little treats, it's pretty minimal given the impressive nature of the finish product. Simply make the caramel, melt the chocolate, chill, scoop, dust with cocoa, and finish with a few grains of fleur de sel. Whether your intentions are romantic or you are just in love with chocolates, these truffles will surely serve you well.
As always with our Cook the Book feature, we have five (5) copies of Bite-Size Desserts to give away this week.
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