Forays into Truffle Making
So, I was in the living room while Mom was watching an episode of The Nate Berkus Show earlier this week. During that episode, he had Anne Thornton on to make Cookie Dough Truffles, which peaked my curiosity. After seeing how easy the recipe looked, I decided to look up chocolate truffle recipes (I didn't really want a cookie dough center) and clicked on this recipe from Cooking for Engineers. From there, the idea try my hand at chocolate truffles wouldn't leave my head. So yesterday, I made my way to a grocery store to buy ingredients to make the truffles, and here is the end result:
So, the instructions first said to chop up 1 pound of chocolate with a serrated knife. For the record, this is 4 ounces of chocolate:
I had to buy four of these for the recipe. And I had a perfectly good bag of chocolate chips at home that I was afraid to use because of something to do with additives and stuff. *sigh* I'm thinking of just using the chocolate chips next time.
And here is what 1 pound of chocolate looks like all chopped up:
The chopped chocolate was transferred to a medium metal bowl (the one I use to mix up my dry ingredients when baking).
After that, I put 1 cup of heavy whipping cream on the smallest saucepan we've got and set it on medium-high heat until just boiling (They call this scalding?).
Then I poured the cream over the chopped chocolate and let it sit for five minutes.
Here they are, getting nice and happy with each other.
Once the time was up, I used a rubber spatula to mix the cream and chocolate together until there were no lumps left. This forms ganache.
After that, I transferred the ganache into the fridge for about an hour.
Here it is, sitting pretty as it sets.
Meanwhile, I prepped two cookie sheets and toasted a cup each of chopped almonds and walnuts for about 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Why? Because I love nuts and wanted them in the truffles.
Once the hour was up, I lined a cookie sheet with parchment paper, took out the ganache from the fridge, then used a melon baller to make little balls of ganache.
By the time I took this picture, I had made a lot of balls already.
However, the ganache wasn't really coming out of the melon baller, so I just dug it out with my hands and formed balls myself.
This what I made with the already used ganache.
Once that was done, I put the cookie sheet back into the fridge so that the balls will set. The original page said 15 minutes, but I let it stay there for almost 45 minutes or so.
Back in the fridge, settiling down.
While I let it set, I prepared the toppings for my truffles: cocoa powder and the toasted nuts from earlier:
Sadly, I think the walnuts burned. =(
Once I took the ganache balls back out of the fridge, I rolled them around in the toppings. The cocoa powder topping was easy; I just let them roll around inside the bowl until well coated.
One ball inside the cocoa powder.
For the nuts, I used my hands to help with the rolling process so that the nuts will stick to the balls. No picture of this, sadly.
And that's it! That's how I got the results from the first picture. Apparently, they can stay in room temperature for about a month if they're in an airtight container, so I placed the truffles in one.
Look! It's heart-shaped.
Taste-wise, they weren't bad. The truffles are really soft and will melt in your mouth quickly. The ones covered in cocoa powder were a bit bitter, but that's what I get for using unsweetened powder. And the walnuts, like I said before, were a bit burnt, so I'm trying to finish them off myself. The ones coated in almonds? My favorites of the batch, but that could be bias talking.
Future endeavors include different flavored truffles, more toppings, and dipping the truffles in chocolate. Mmmmmmmmmm.
So, the instructions first said to chop up 1 pound of chocolate with a serrated knife. For the record, this is 4 ounces of chocolate:
I had to buy four of these for the recipe. And I had a perfectly good bag of chocolate chips at home that I was afraid to use because of something to do with additives and stuff. *sigh* I'm thinking of just using the chocolate chips next time.
And here is what 1 pound of chocolate looks like all chopped up:
The chopped chocolate was transferred to a medium metal bowl (the one I use to mix up my dry ingredients when baking).
After that, I put 1 cup of heavy whipping cream on the smallest saucepan we've got and set it on medium-high heat until just boiling (They call this scalding?).
Then I poured the cream over the chopped chocolate and let it sit for five minutes.
Here they are, getting nice and happy with each other.
Once the time was up, I used a rubber spatula to mix the cream and chocolate together until there were no lumps left. This forms ganache.
After that, I transferred the ganache into the fridge for about an hour.
Here it is, sitting pretty as it sets.
Meanwhile, I prepped two cookie sheets and toasted a cup each of chopped almonds and walnuts for about 10 minutes in a 350 degree oven. Why? Because I love nuts and wanted them in the truffles.
Once the hour was up, I lined a cookie sheet with parchment paper, took out the ganache from the fridge, then used a melon baller to make little balls of ganache.
By the time I took this picture, I had made a lot of balls already.
However, the ganache wasn't really coming out of the melon baller, so I just dug it out with my hands and formed balls myself.
This what I made with the already used ganache.
Once that was done, I put the cookie sheet back into the fridge so that the balls will set. The original page said 15 minutes, but I let it stay there for almost 45 minutes or so.
Back in the fridge, settiling down.
While I let it set, I prepared the toppings for my truffles: cocoa powder and the toasted nuts from earlier:
Sadly, I think the walnuts burned. =(
Once I took the ganache balls back out of the fridge, I rolled them around in the toppings. The cocoa powder topping was easy; I just let them roll around inside the bowl until well coated.
One ball inside the cocoa powder.
For the nuts, I used my hands to help with the rolling process so that the nuts will stick to the balls. No picture of this, sadly.
And that's it! That's how I got the results from the first picture. Apparently, they can stay in room temperature for about a month if they're in an airtight container, so I placed the truffles in one.
Look! It's heart-shaped.
Taste-wise, they weren't bad. The truffles are really soft and will melt in your mouth quickly. The ones covered in cocoa powder were a bit bitter, but that's what I get for using unsweetened powder. And the walnuts, like I said before, were a bit burnt, so I'm trying to finish them off myself. The ones coated in almonds? My favorites of the batch, but that could be bias talking.
Future endeavors include different flavored truffles, more toppings, and dipping the truffles in chocolate. Mmmmmmmmmm.