2011 Cooking Club Week 46: Decadent Chocolate Truffles

Padraig Mor

Unfortunately Pembily can’t make it so I’m your guest host for this week! With Christmas fast approaching it’s ‘home made yummy present’ time and this recipe is a candidate for the ‘Prezzies’ thread on the main forum – we’ll be making chocolate truffles. Be warned – they may never get as far as the intended recipient......

Most truffle recipes require heating of a cream / chocolate mixture which can end in tears – and a split ganache! This recipe (originally by Helene Dujardin from her blog) avoids this by dropping the cream and using butter and egg yolks instead and is pretty much foolproof, even for a novice. As the egg yolks are uncooked, pregnant women may wish to avoid these – if they have the willpower.....

Ingredients
250g good quality bittersweet (70 – 80% cocoa solids) chocolate.
115g butter, softened and cut into 1 – 2 cm cubes.
2 large egg yolks (as fresh as possible).
1 cup (approx 125g) icing sugar.
Plus some quality cocoa powder for dusting.




Method
1. Chop the chocolate up roughly. Lidl or Aldi’s 70% ‘quality’ chocolate works great.



2. Add to a large bowl placed over a pot of gently simmering water. Or if you have a double boiler, use this. Allow the chocolate to melt gently, stirring occasionally.


3. When fully melted, remove from the heat. Add the butter, one cube at a time. Stir until each cube is completely melted before adding the next cube.


4. Add the egg yolks and half the icing sugar. Whisk until roughly incorporated. Add the rest of the sugar and whisk until you have a smooth ganache – about 3 – 4 minutes.


5. Put the bowl in the fridge and leave to set – approx 1.5 – 2 hours.



6. When set, use a spoon or melon baller to scoop out rough balls of ganache. Roll them quickly between your palms to form more even balls. Even cold ganache will rapidly soften between your hands to form a ball – each should only take a few seconds. (The surface of the balls in the picture are quite rough as the ganache wasn’t fully set). Some people prefer to use latex gloves for this stage to avoid messy hands. I don’t! You could also use two wooden spatulas or similar if you wish to avoid mess altogether. Place the ganache balls on a baking tray or similar and cover over with cling film. Refrigerate for 3 – 4 hours or overnight.



7. Sift good quality bittersweet cocoa powder over the truffles and roll until covered in the powder.



8. That’s it - enjoy! The truffles should be stored in a refrigerator for up to 4 days and allowed come to room temperature before eating. The quantities listed here make approximately 30 generous truffles, but this will obviously vary from person to person – you could make 50 smaller ones if you wished. The truffles are *very* rich – most people will be more than satisfied with two, or less.




Variations
Limited by your own imagination really. For a more fiery truffle, you could also include a teaspoon of cayenne pepper powder. The cocoa powder can be swapped for chopped nuts, dessicated coconut or the covering of your choice. For a really professional finish, temper some chocolate (melt, and allow to stabilise at 32 degrees Celsius) and coat for that sensuous ‘snap’ sensation. Had hoped to do this for this recipe but didn’t get a chance!

Faith

They're definitely going on the Christmas present list!

Susie_Q

Need to wipe drool... off keyboard...

ChewChew

Want these right now!!!

The Black Oil

Welcome to the final weeks of Cooking Club 2011, brought to you by Snickerdoodles and Decadent Chocolate Truffles, prepared to expand your waistline.

Mellor

I think simple recipes like that are defo the best.

BaZmO*

Mellor wrote: »

I think simple recipes like that are defo the best.

Ah I dunno, I've really liked some of the more complicated recipes, especially ones that make you try new techniques.

Mellor

BaZmO* wrote: »

Mellor wrote: »

I think simple recipes like that are defo the best.

Ah I dunno, I've really liked some of the more complicated recipes, especially ones that make you try new techniques.

I was talking more about list of ingredients not than technique. You can just as easy try something new with 3 or 4 ingredients. For example the OP isn't something I've tried yet.

I just like recipes with a few ingredients done well over ones with lots of bits n pieces that get a bit lost.

Obviously, it's not a hard and fast rule. One of my fav cooking club recipes has lots of ingredients, lashed together to great effect.

Padraig Mor

The recipe I was originally going to do had a few more ingredients! .......





Must put it up in the random recipe thread actually.

Swampy

Yum. I'd be getting some rum or brandy in there too.

Faith

I made these over the weekend. I don't actually like truffles, so I made them for my boyfriend. He inhaled about 6 of them as soon as he walked in the door, so I assume they were a success

Thanks!

I stupidly forgot to get a picture of the finished product though

Truley

Tesco sell big 100g bars of dark chocolate with orange and almond bits for €1.10 they taste great in this recipe. Instead of dusting with cocoa powder I melted some more of the orange chocolate and drizzled over the top, so they have a soft gooey centre with a crispy 'bite', just like Lindor.

Wurly

HI guys - bit of a disaster on the truffles!!

I made the ganache.. it was yum. All was perfect. Put it into the fridge... But then I got totally sidetracked and it was left in there for a day... Now it's out of the fridge since last night but hard as a rock. could I just warm it up a bit to roll the truffles? PLEASE don't say I have to make it again.:mad:

Padraig Mor

Can you spoon it out? If so, it should soften very quickly if rolled in your hands.

Wurly

I can but it's no discernible shape and kinda wont go into a shape if you know what I mean? It's a bit too hard as is to soften in the hands...

ChewChew

Padraig Mor, I've just made these, and have the mix in the fridge. Now, I did everything by the book, and the mixture went stiff on me.. it's not creamy like yours so I'm just hoping it'll be ok when I take it out of the fridge to roll.

Actually, nevermind. The mixture ended up ok, and was easy to roll. Here is my attempt

Padraig Mor

ChewChew wrote: »

Padraig Mor, I've just made these, and have the mix in the fridge. Now, I did everything by the book, and the mixture went stiff on me.. it's not creamy like yours so I'm just hoping it'll be ok when I take it out of the fridge to roll.

Actually, nevermind. The mixture ended up ok, and was easy to roll. Here is my attempt

The ganache should be hard or nearly hard coming out of the fridge. I might have given the wrong impression in my op - the picture of the bowl of ganache was taken before going in the fridge, not after. Even hard, it softens in seconds when rolled between the hands.

Hope they taste good!

ChewChew

Oh no, I knew the ganache had to be gard coming from the fridge, but it was hard going into the fridge after I whisked it all together. But it still worked. I left it in the fridge about an hour and it really softened in my hands. Had a sneaky taste last night and oh my Devine. Yum!!!

pinkieschick

My mouth is watering looking at all these am defo gonna try them on friday

Jaxxy

I gave this a try last month, and while delicious I found the Lidl chocolate (the 70%) to be very heavy. I wanted to gobble them all up because they looked so damn good but could only manage to eat one every so often!

For our Christmas dinner we did a "trio of desserts" so I decided to give the truffles another whirl. This time I used Milka chocolate (it's one of my favs) but the lesser density cocoa threw up problems of a different kind; the ganache was soft and difficult to roll. I got there in the end, and they were mouthwatering.

I also dusted cinnamon on half of them and cocoa powder on the other half. If you like cinnamon, give this a try, delicious!

The Black Oil

Recently bought icing sugar, so I'll be giving these a go soon, hopefully.