Homemade Truffles

I know you've all been eagerly awaiting the truffle recipe I promised yesterday. These truffles were JH's contribution to our Madison Food Swap, and now you get to participate in the food swap from afar--or at least the recipe part of it.

Truffles are actually remarkably simple to make. First you make the inside part, or the ganache, by combining melted chocolate with cream and whatever fillings you choose. Justin's versions were walnut (on the left) and dried cherry and currant (on the right).

Once the ganache has been rolled into balls and frozen for several hours, you melt some more chocolate in a double boiler for the outer layer.

Then you roll the ganache balls in the pure melted chocolate, and lay them on parchment paper to dry:

Sprinkle any toppings on top, let them dry fully, and enjoy!

 

 

Chocolate Truffles
Makes ~75 truffles

• 4 bags semi-sweet chocolate chips*
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1 1/2 cups filling ingredients** (extra if you want to put a garnish on top of the truffles)
• parchment paper, double boiler

1. Put dried fruit bits or other fillings in a bowl.  If you are making several different fillings just use several bowls.  
2. For ganache, melt 3 cups chocolate chips with 1 cup heavy cream in a medium-sized pot. Once chocolate and cream is melted and smooth, pour into bowls with dried fruit/nut bits.  Mix together.  Chill in fridge at least 2 hours (overnight is okay too) until ganache is firm. 
3. Once ganache is firm, scoop out by the teaspoon and roll into balls (~1inch diameter).  Chill ganache balls in freezer for at least 2 hours (again overnight is fine too)
4. When ganache balls are frozen and ready to remove from the freezer, set up double boiler to melt chocolate for dipping.  It will take about 4 1/2 cups (2 12oz. bags) to dip all of the truffles. We don't have an official double boiler, so JH just set a stainless steel bowl atop a similarly-sized pot that had a bit of boiling water.
5. Once the chocolate is melted, remove from heat.  Using a spoon, dip the ganache balls into the melted chocolate and roll around to just coat the entire thing.  Scoop out and place on cookie tray covered with parchment paper.  Chill in fridge to firm.

 


* JH used Ghirardelli, because those were the ones available at the co-op, but I was thinking it would be great to use some sort of organic, fair trade chocolate (like Kallari). Since the best chocolate usually comes in bars, buy however many ounces of chocolate bars that are equivalent to four bags of chocolate chips, and then pulse the bars in the food processor to produce small chip-like pieces that will make for easy melting!

**Suggestions for fillings: dried cherries, black currants, walnuts, coconut, peanut butter, dried cranberries, ginger, jalepenos