Today, I'm sharing the family recipe for chocolate truffles! Usually, I'm not very into Christmas. But with everything we've gone through lately and the birth of my daughter, this year I wanted to make a bit more of an impact. In my family, we're all about small treats at Christmas (we spent HOURS rolling almond paste with my sisters. So for this month's Foodista Challenge on the theme of chocolate, my recipe was a no-brainer.
Origins of Chocolate Truffles
In my family, it's a recipe that has been passed down through generations. However, the origins of chocolate truffles date back to December 1895. It was indeed a chocolate confectionery invented in Chambéry by Louis Dufour, a pâtissier-chocolatier. A small anecdote: his great-uncle was Maurice Opinel, the heir of famous knives.
Truffle Composition
There are several recipes for chocolate truffles. The base is common with chocolate, butter, and cream. In reality, it's simply a ganache with a bit of butter to make the truffles harden enough. Some recipes also contain sugar and eggs. Personally, I advise against choosing a recipe with eggs as it limits the shelf life of the truffles. However, you can enhance your chocolate truffles by offering different coatings: powdered sugar, unsweetened cocoa, crushed nuts... The possibilities are endless!
Which Alcohol to Aromatize Truffles?
If you plan on making treats solely for adults, you can aromatize them with a bit of alcohol. To marry well with chocolate, several possibilities: whisky, Grand Marnier, orange liqueur, brandy... In this case, you can add 50g of alcohol to your truffles. A small tip: you can split your ganache into two parts and only aromatize one part with alcohol. Use a different coating so you can distinguish the alcoholic truffles from the others!
Truffle Recipe Outline
As I mentioned earlier, truffles are just a hardened version of chocolate ganache with a bit of butter. Good news: this is an ultra-easy recipe (and if you mess up your ganache, quickly check out my article failed ganache: how to save it).
To start, chop the chocolate with a knife or even in a food processor (as Richard Sève does for his macarons).
Boil the cream in a heavy-bottomed pan. Once it's well heated, pour the first third over the chocolate and mix.
Repeat this process two more times until the ganache is smooth. Add the melted butter and let it cool in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
Rolling Truffles
When the ganache is well chilled, simply take a small ball of ganache and dip it in the coating: unsweetened cocoa, powdered sugar, crushed nuts... You can use a spoon or do it by hand (personally I do it by hand but you have to recognize that we get everything on us! ). It's slightly more complicated by hand as your body heat warms up the chocolate, so you need to work quickly.
How to Preserve Homemade Chocolate Truffles
This recipe does not contain eggs and the cream has boiled, so it's relatively safe from a hygiene standpoint. Personally, I keep my homemade chocolate truffles in the refrigerator. I can't tell you exactly how long they last as I believe they're always devoured within 3 days... I think you can easily store them for a week in the fridge.
This recipe was made during this month's FoodistaChallenge #82
