Truffles by LordOfThePants
Recipe by LordOfThePants Uploaded by Drimble Wedge
I made truffles this year again, I took them into work and everyone loved them. If I had taken the whole batch there is no doubt in my mind that my co-workers would have ate them all in an afternoon.
Here's the recipe I followed. I follow Alton Brown's recipe for the ganache, then I deviate slightly when it comes to coating them.
- 10 ounces bittersweet chocolate
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
- 1/4 cup strong coffee
If necessary, chop the bittersweet chocolate into small pieces (I just used Ghirardelli chips) and place into a microwave safe bowl with the butter. Microwave on high for 30 seconds, remove, stir, and microwave again for 30 seconds. Stir and set aside.
Heat the heavy cream and corn syrup until simmering, then pour over the chocolate/butter mixture. Let this mixture sit for two minutes, then stir gently to melt all the chocolate (it will all melt, trust me). After it's melted, stir in the coffee. A note about the coffee - the original recipe calls for brandy, the first time I made these I didn't have any so I used Kahlua instead. I thought you could taste the alcohol more than I liked in the finished product, so I've been using strong coffee ever since. Pour this mixture into a 8x8 pan and place it the fridge for an hour.
When the ganache is hardened, use a spoon to scoop small pieces of ganache onto a parchment paper lined tray. Don't form these into balls yet, instead return them to the fridge for 30-60 minutes. After 30-60 minutes, form them into balls and return back to the fridge.
Now, a word on the coating. I like to use two coatings of chocolate rather than a coating of chocolate followed by something else (cocoa powder, nuts, etc) like you'd see in traditional truffles. I use semi-sweet and milk chocolate for each layer.
Once you have chilled ganache balls, melt some (milk/semi-sweet/bittersweet) chocolate chips over very, very, very low heat in a double boiler (I use a round bowl over a 2 quart sauce pan with a little bit of water). Give it time to melt and don't dump a bunch in at once. Once you have melted chocolate, you can keep adding more a little at a time and it will melt faster than the original batch did. Coat your ganache balls and return to parchment paper. Chill in the fridge until the first shell is hardened. Repeat this process with another layer of chocolate.
For the finishing touch, I drizzle the whole pan with melted chocolate. My last shell was milk chocolate, so I used bittersweet (which is darker in color). I also hit them with a little bit of melted vanilla baking chips.
