You don’t need a candy thermometer or hours of time to make a batch of elegant homemade Valentine’s candy.
Named after its resemblance to the earthy truffle, the French chocolate truffle is essentially nothing more than ganache, a simple concoction that is made by pouring hot cream over chopped chocolate and mixing until it melds. The ganache is then chilled until firm enough to shape into petite balls and dusted in cocoa powder.
You can flavor the ganache with espresso, vanilla, ginger, cinnamon, cognac or anything else that pairs nicely with chocolate.
Using a melon-baller or mini ice cream scoop will yield neat-looking truffles, but keep in mind that they’re not actually meant to be perfectly shaped. If you want them to look like a truffle pig could have just unearthed them in the Perigord, use a small spoon to scoop out some ganache and roll it quickly into an irregular shape before rolling in cocoa powder. You can also roll your truffles in nuts, sprinkles, shaved chocolate, coconut or anything else that strikes you as a good foil for the creamy ganache.
Barbara Kafka’s recipe for mocha truffles is made in the microwave and includes butter for extra richness as well as instant espresso powder and coffee-flavored liqueur to give them a little kick. Serve them after a meal with coffee or wrap them up with a bow and offer them to someone you love.
Recipe: Mocha Truffles (Barbara Kafka)
Reference: What is cocoa powder? (Cookthink)
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These sound wonderful. I’ve never made truffles before, but I might have to give this a go. I didn’t realize how easy they were.
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