Serious Efforts: Minimum-Ingredient Chocolate Truffles
Okay, I'll dip my toes into the serious efforts waters. I hope this is serious enough to qualify; if not, somebody let me (and us) know if/why it isn't, since this is a new thing.
I'm trying to write up instruction for the simplest truffles that can be made with the fewest ingredients. I want to roll them in cocoa powder, rather than coating them in melted chocolate.
A cream/chocolate mixture makes a good ganache, but if you leave it at that and then roll it in the cocoa, by the next day the cocoa is sort of absorbed by the moisture on the outside of the truffles, so you don't have the nice powdery blush on them.
I've made truffles before, but always coated them in chocolate, so this has never come up.
Googling recipes gives me a multitude of ingredient additions from corn syrup to additional cocoa to butter...to all sorts of combinations. I'm willing to experiment a bit, but I don't want to try every example and end up swimming in failed truffles.
I suspect butter may be the key...but does anyone know for sure? It doesn't appear in every recipe, but then again, other than chocolate and cream, the recipes have been all over the map.
I'd like to keep the ganache ingredients down to chocolate, cream, optional flavoring, and the last ingredient that will allow them to be rolled in the cocoa and stored.
Any candymakers out there who have the answer?
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19 Comments:
7 ounces of chocolate in any combination chopped (semi/dark semi/milk whatever turns you on)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup cocoa powder (I like dutched)
5-6 ounces melted chocolate
Place your chopped up choc in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Make none of the steam or water gets near any of the choc.
Heat the cream in a small saucepan slowly, when it is around 100 degrees take it off the heat. It should not be more than 115 degrees.
Add a bit at a time of the cream to the choc and incorporate. (do not whip, easy does it, slowly ever so slowly)
Pour this ganache mixture out into a sheet pan and bring to room temp.
When it is no longer warm to the touch (warm=moisture moisture is bad)
cover it with plastic wrap and pop into the fridge for at least 3-4 hours, overnight is best.
Take a melon baller or a small ice cream scoop and scoop balls of the ganache onto parchment.
Melt the 5 ounces of chocolate and put it in a bowl set aside
Place the cocoa in a small bowl set aside.
Using a dipping fork rotate the truffles into the melted choc bowl being careful to tap off as much of the excess melted choc as possible (a dipping fork is your best friend but if you do not have one use a small dessert fork) then drop them in the cocoa powder bowl and move the bowl around to coat the truffle, try not to touch them with your hands. Let the bowl be the instrument.
Take the dipping fork and gently place each one back on a sheet of parchment on a sheet pan and then into the fridge for a bit ( 20-30 mins) to form.
You can keep these in a tin with wax paper or parchment for weeks.
Before serving take them out of the fridge for 20 mins for max flavor.
JerzeeTomato at 3:25PM on 01/08/09
I made these for New Year's and they were pretty good. I substituted creme de violet for amaretto and cocoa powder for the nuts, making it a four ingredient truffle. Chocolate, sour cream, alcohol, and cocoa powder.
http://umamimart.blogspot.com/2008/12/easy-peasy-amaretto-chocolate-truffles.html
kathryn at 3:27PM on 01/08/09
If you do not want to dip them in melted choc use the heat from your hands briefly then roll them into the cocoa powder. Just ever so briefly. I mean like ooop and into the cocoa.
JerzeeTomato at 3:31PM on 01/08/09
@jerzee, I'm trying to avoid the dipping in chocolate thing, because this is geared towards people who've never done anything with chocolate, and I have visions of them burning things. And I really don't want to introduce the idea of a double boiler.
I tried dropping them directly from a melon baller, and some I rolled with my hands, and the cocoa vanished on all of 'em.
dbcurrie at 3:58PM on 01/08/09
I've only made them in dipped in chocolate, which seems to provide more decorative options (dip in white choc, then finish with swirly dark choc, or rolled in pistachios).
A must-add ingredient is alcohol of some sort. Grand Marnier works well, and if you can forgo the 4 ingredient rule, steeping the cream in orange zest, and then sieving the mixture, will give your truffles that 'je ne sais quoi'.
I hate double boilers, and find that heating in the microwave works well. Just zap a minute at a time...and as required.
Indeed I find most of the chocolate is usually decorated around my person, rather than the truffles..:)
Good luck!
Pintchow at 4:09PM on 01/08/09
For Christmas I made some that were very simple but also very tasty. Melt 4 oz of chocolate and combine that with 8 oz of softened cream cheese. Let the mixture chill until firm enough to roll into balls. Chill a little longer, then either dip in 4oz more melted chocolate or roll in cocoa. You can use whatever chocolate suits your tastes best.
LizSherman at 4:27PM on 01/08/09
Last time i made truffles rolled in cocoa powder, I did the rolling part after chilling the truffles, and the cocoa powder did not get absorbed later. They didn't stick around too long, but I can tell you for certain the cocoa powder stayed put for at least two days. Another possibility is "double rolling" - once, whenthey're just made, the second time, after they are chilled.
brooke29 at 4:40PM on 01/08/09
Hmm...it's odd - looks like my comment didn't come through. I'll try again:
When I rolled them in cocoa powder after they had been chilled, the cocoa powder stayed put for at least two days (beyond that I can't tell you as there were no truffles left after two days). Another option is "double-rolling" them - once, when they are just made, and the second time - after they'd been chilled.
brooke29 at 4:46PM on 01/08/09
brooke, that's what I was going to say. Double rolling - once after being made, and then once again out of the fridge - makes it stick better. Not perfectly, but better.
BangieB at 5:20PM on 01/08/09
For simplicity, would it be easier to have them rolled in chopped nuts? Seems like it would solve the disappearing cocoa problem altogether, and not be any more difficult or ingredient-intensive. Wouldn't even require chopping, since chopped nuts are available at the supermarket...
cyberroo at 5:39PM on 01/08/09
If she had said more ingredients I would have said chambord, frangelico, nocello, grand marnier. But for as few then I would not add it.
I never use a traditional double boiler, I use a pyrex bowl on a saucepan.
You can melt choc in the microwave, I do this for the coating. The temp of the emulsion (ganache) needs to be somewhat in synch. That is why melting the choc and the cream is something to pay attention to. The emulsion is what makes it so silky, creamy and good. The velvety chocky feel is the blessing that is truffles.
I often roll mine in pulsed graham crackers/butter cookie/whatever you got, pulsed nuts, grated chocolate, be creative.
I never have had a problem with the cocoa even when I did not use the melted choc coating. If you use the warmth from your hands and (like making meatballs) quickly manipulated them and then use "the bowl" to toss them in the cocoa and not your hands the cocoa will affix.
After your hands warm them drop them into that bowl of cocoa powder and toss them around.
JerzeeTomato at 5:59PM on 01/08/09
Aaargh. This is so weird. I could make truffles with one spatula tied behind my back, but when I try to make it easy and write down the instructions and follow what I've written, it goes wonky.
The number of ingredients isn't too critical, I just want to make it as simple as it can be. I was planning a basic recipe, and then explaining that you can add other flavors or use other coatings.
I might have to bite the bullet and go with the chocolate coating. I like them better that way, myself.
dbcurrie at 7:28PM on 01/08/09
I think the cocoa will be absorbed over time, regardless of what you add to the ganache. Being in the fridge will causes condensation and the moisture makes the cocoa powder work itself in.
Rolling two or three times usually makes the cocoa last for a while but some absorption I think is normal.
My recipe is:
16 oz bittersweet or semsweet choc
1 2/3 c. heavy cream
7 tbl butter
up tp 2 tbl liqueur of choice
cocoa for dusting
makes about 50 -- depending on the size of the scoop.
I find choc in the 60-70% range best - anything much higher in cocoa fat breaks and makes for "brittle" truffles -- that is, hard to roll. Breaking is fixable of course but is not beginner friendly.
You could present the chocolate coating as an alternative, along with chopped nuts, and confectioner's sugar.
When I make truffles, I scoop the ganache onto a cocoa covered sheet pan when it is firm enough to scoop but but not completely set. Then I dust with cocoa and pop the sheet back in the fridge to finish setting up.
It makes them easier to portion and they set up a bit faster too I think. I also cover the pan with a cotton towel before I put the lid on and put it in the fridge to cool and set up -- keeps any condensing steam from the hot ganache from dripping back into the pot.
kjgibson at 10:34PM on 01/08/09
@db, I know you don't want to complicate your beginners recipe with coatings, and I just hate it when someone asks a specific question only to get just the opposite of what they're asking, so at the risk of incurring your wrath:
I have made mad notorious messes as a novice working with chocolate coatings. I've melted the chocolate too hot and it didn't harden well, or be shiny at all. Lets not say too much at the big fat mess trying to coat the things.
Then I saw Alton Brown temper his chocolate in a bowl set on a heating pad set in a bigger bowl. It took a Iong time to melt but it was perfect. After I did this the first time, I still made a mess coating them and said I'd never do it again.
But this year the "lets make truffles" bug bit again and not only did I use the heating pad, but his other tip on coating made it almost easy.
Dip an ice cream scoop into the chocolate, pour it out, drop in the truffle, use the lever to 'roll' it around till it's coated, fish it out with a fork and transfer to your waiting recepticle of choice.
It turned out to be the cleanest truffle experience I've had. Note, the truffles were rolled and refrigerated so they went into the scoop cold.
My recipe was chocolate, cream, dark rum and cyanne pepper.
nightmoon at 11:06PM on 01/08/09
I took a chocolate class, and while I don't have an answer to the absorbed cocoa, keep a cookie sheet or 2 in the freezer when working with ganache. You spread the melted ganache on the back of a cookie sheet to set up and place your formed truffles on a frozen cookie sheet as you work.
carolrsfMISSESTEXAS at 12:01AM on 01/09/09
@nightmoon, wrath isn't really my style, particularly when I'm asking for help. I think I'm gonna go with the coating in the recipe. Personally, I like the contrast of the harder exterior and the softer interior and thats the way I usually make them. Maybe I was trying to dumb them down too much.
dbcurrie at 2:02AM on 01/09/09
They will be so good there will be none left to absorb the cocoa. Think positive!
JerzeeTomato at 6:54AM on 01/09/09
@jerzee, I like how you think.The test struffles are mighty tasty.
Thanks, all for the comments. I'm gonna go for the chocolate coating. I like them better that way, myself, and I think I can describe it in small enough words that it will be okay.
dbcurrie at 11:33PM on 01/10/09
JerzeeTomato's recipe is about as stripped-down as you're going to get, and looks like a good one (given the cream and cacao butter already present in truffle ingredients, the addition of butter seems like overkill).
The recipe I use is very similar, but a bit simpler with regard to technique (rather than melting the chocolate, then adding the cream, the chocolate is melted by simply pouring the hot cream over it), and attracted me with its short ingredient list (pretty much the same as that given in JerzeeTomato's recipe), the authority of the original source--Robert Linxe--the simplicity and lack of fuss of the technique, and the fact that the blogger who posted this had clearly tried it, and found it to be successful.
-------------------
(Found at: http://www.sugoodsweets.com/blog/2008/02/simpletruffles/)
Simplest Chocolate Truffles
Adapted from Robert Linxe of La Maison du Chocolat
Makes about 60 truffles (do not double recipe); these truffles are very soft, so store them in a cool area.
8 ounces [227 g.] chocolate (preferably 60% cacao)
2/3 cup heavy cream
Cocoa powder for dusting (about 1/2 cup)
Finely chop the chocolate.
Bring heavy cream to a boil in a small heavy saucepan. Make sure your pan is small, so you’ll lose the least amount of cream to evaporation, and heavy, which will keep the cream from scorching. Linxe boils his cream three times – he believes that makes the ganache last longer.
Pour the cream over the chocolate, mashing any big pieces with a rubber spatula.
Then stir with a whisk in concentric circles (don’t beat or you’ll incorporate air), starting in the center and working your way to the edge, until the ganache is smooth. Pour into an 8″ x 8″ pan lined with wax or parchment paper.
Let stand at room temperature until thick enough to hold a shape, about 1 hour.
Turn out the ganache on a cocoa-dusted cutting board. With a sharp knife, slice the ganache into half-inch cubes. Dust your palms with cocoa powder and roll the ganache balls. Toss the truffles with more cocoa powder. Shake truffles in a sieve to eliminate excess cocoa. Store in a well-sealed container.
-----------------
I've tried this recipe with 1/2 cup of cream instead of 2/3, and this makes for firmer truffles, and a few less.
The only problems I've experienced with any truffle recipes (including this one) have involved 'breaking', which occurred only if I grated, rather than chopped the chocolate, or when I tried to make certain that the chocolate melted fully, by nesting the bowl holding the chopped chocolate in another holding hot water. Both seemed like good ideas, and neither was.
If you can find a cool, shaded spot to store your truffles, that seems to work better than refrigerating them (when they're cold, their flavour seems muted, and waiting half an hour or so for them to warm to room temperature isn't always convenient), unless you're keeping them for more than a couple of weeks.
mongoose at 8:14AM on 01/13/09