truffles, chocolate goodies

[flowerbug]

[edited to make more consistent units]

it is the colder season now so making chocolates becomes easier (less humidity) and it is also a good time to give some gifts and people always like them.

i hadn't been making these for some years and so i had forgotten my exact recipe so the first few batches i made a few months ago were not all that great (and one i'm sure siezed from the humidity that day - we used it for hot chocolate)...

i'll be making some more soon.


this recipe is simple, i use a thick glass bowl which helps hold the heat.


ingredients:

- 1 cup heavy whipping cream (about 237 mililiters)
- 1 pound of chocolate (about 454 grams)

- cocoa powder and/or other things for coating (we used chopped pecans and Heath Bar bits this last batch)

makes about two dozen, but you can increase the count if you make smaller ones. ours can get kinda big as we don't mind cutting them in half to share.


method:

bring the cream to just under a boil and pour over broken up chocolate (or put the chocolate in the bowl which is better as there is more heat). let it sit for about 5 minutes and then stir until no more lumps. i'm sure grating the chocolate first would speed this up, but as of yet i'm not into that, i just break it into chunks and go from there. if more heat is needed i use the microwave 10 - 15 seconds at a time. i don't want to get it too hot (burned chocolate is icky, but more importantly the hotter you make this the longer it takes to cool off again). once you have it smooth you can use the spatula/stirrer to wiggle the air bubbles out of it. cover the bowl and put in the freezer or fridge to cool for a few hours (2-3). use a small scoop to make blobs, roll them quickly and then coat, set on trays. store in freezer for longer term storage, fridge is ok for a few days.


discussion:

don't use cheap chocolate. you can substitute some of the liquid for flavorings/liquors, but i add those after i've got the chocolate melted. warm it up a little first as you don't want the mix to harden up when you mix it in. you can adjust how firm the result is by adding a bit more chocolate or reducing the liquid.

the blend of chocolate we use most of the time is about half dark chocolate and half milk chocolate, dark chocolate is thinner than milk chocolate and melts easier, but we like it all.

since chocolates do vary in how they melt and taste i always recommend doing smaller batches to test out before making a large amount. if the humidity is high you'll need a dehumidifier.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

So glad you posted the recipe! I was thinking about asking you for it - but you beat me to the punch. They sound delicious. Thanks!

 

[flowerbug]

So glad you posted the recipe! I was thinking about asking you for it - but you beat me to the punch. They sound delicious. Thanks!

it's really hard not to eat them when i'm making them. they'll melt in your mouth and go down real easy...

i was trying to think of a way to get a bunch of them chunked all at once instead of scooping one at a time. i think if you had a cool marble surface you could try rolling this out and then slicing into cubes. might need a bit of cocoa powder. might also be more work than it's worth. when i want them chocolate coated i have bonbon molds i use and i can pipe the filling in when it is still warm, but that is a lot more work (and less fun ) even if the results look more formal than coated blobs.

oh, and i should say there are a lot of recipes out there - some of which include egg yolks and stuff like that. i haven't ever done those.

 

[flowerbug]

i scooped the ones i made last night today and they were much firmer than the first batch i made last week. so 500 grams of chocolate is a bit higher than i prefer. 450 grams will be the next batch if i make any more. not sure i'll have to. i edited the above recipe to just use 1 cup of heavy cream to 1 lb of chocolate. much easier to remember.

since this batch was very firm i tried a few different things for scooping and trying to make more uniform sizes. i also used three coatings as planned but the cocoa powder was by far the easiest. i used my normal small cookie scoop and then cut the chunks in half or thirds and then rolled them in my hands quickly. then dunked in the cocoa powder. the process would go faster if you had one person scooping and cutting and another person rolling and dunking.