Valentine’s Day Chocolate Truffles

Dark Chocolate Truffles...3 Ways

Yields 36 Make an assortment of truffles using one base recipe

For Truffle Base

• 14 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped in small pieces. I us ed a Dark 70%,
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces and softened

For Chocolate Coating

• 10 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips

To flavor 1/3 of base for Raspberry Truffles

• 3 TB seedless raspberry jam
• 2 tsp Chambord

To flavor 1/3 of base for Espresso Truffle

• 1 1/2 tsp espresso powder
• 2 tsp Kahlua

To flavor 1/3 of base for Orange Truffles

• 1 tsp grated orange zest
• 2 tsp Triple Sec or Grand Marnier
• Sugar, cocoa or espresso powder for topping...optional

Instructions

• I used my food processor to chop up my chocolate. Pulse so that your pieces are about the size of peas. In the photo, shown below, some of my pieces were a tad to big.
• In a heavy saucepan, bring the cream just to a boil over medium heat and then remove it from the burner.
• Add the chocolate all at once, stirring until it is smooth and no chunks remain
• Add the butter, piece by piece, stirring until it is incorporated.
• Divide your chocolate into 3 glass bowls and add the flavorings.
• If you want all raspberry truffles, then multiple the raspberry ingredients by 3. Same for the espresso and the orange.
• Cover your bowls and let them sit briefly in the fridge or on your counter until the chocolate has firmed up a bit. If you refrigerate your chocolate, you may need to let it come to room temperature in order to scoop it.
• Once firm, scoop your truffle mix onto parchment lined cookie sheets and refrigerate until firm, 1-2 hours.
• About 1/2 hours before you want to coat your truffles, put your 10 ounces of chocolate chips into a bowl that is nestled into a heating pad in another bowl, and set the heating pad to medium. This method slowly melts the chocolate, keeping its structure intact to form a hard coating.
• Occasionally stir your chocolate chips.
• Put a thermometer in your chocolate chips and monitor the temperature. You want it to be between 90' and 92'. Alton claims that if it gets above 94' it will lose it's 'snap' when you bite into it. I know that my temp did get above 94', does still snap, but is a little gray in parts.
• Once your chips are at the right temp, turn heating pad to low and get busy coating your truffles.
• I put a little bit of the melted chocolate on a spoon and used a toothpick to pick up a truffle and roll it in the soft chocolate. I did find it best to do it in 2 stages. I would coat the bottom of the truffle first and once that was hard I'd go back and do the top and sides. Seems I got a cleaner look that way. It's tough to get all sides coated evenly before the chocolate starts hardening and this method worked best for me.
• If you decide to sprinkle something on your truffles to tell them apart, do it quickly...the chocolate does harden quickly

Adapted from Alton Brown

Pics and printable recipe available at: Nourish and Nestle

bon appetit