Chocolate Truffles

I did it! I made truffles!!! I couldn’t believe it, but I am actually a chocolatier. Who knew I was a chef and a chocolatier?? Well, I sure didn’t and neither did my husband. He does not appreciate me keeping this secret for so long either. Especially now that he’s on a diet and recently lost 40 pounds. He wants to know where his truffles were when he was a chunky monkey and could eat a whole batch! Luckily I didn’t make these just for us to munch on. I made these for a girls night at my house and I am happy to report that they were a big hit! I only had a few left, thank goodness.

Wanna know how I made them?? It wasn’t that hard, but it was time consuming and a little messy.....okay, a lot messy.

Ingredients:

8 ounces good quality bittersweet chocolate (I used Ghirardelli for all)

8 ounces good quality semisweet chocolate

one 14 ounce can sweetened condensed milk

8 ounces meltable milk chocolate (I used Bakers in the microwavable cup – see photo below)

Directions:

Heat dark chocolates and condensed milk in a double boiler over medium-low heat until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.

If you don’t have a double boiler, don’t worry, find a glass or ceramic bowl that can be heated and put in pot over water (see picture above). Make sure you have enough room between water and bowl. The bowl should not be touching the water.  I made my own fancy double boiler and it worked just fine. When the mixture is melted, it will have a slight marshmallow texture.

At this point, before you take it off the heat, if you want to make the truffles mint chocolate, you could add 3-4 drops of mint extract. I personally don’t like mint and chocolate so I would never voluntarily add mint to my chocolate!  But hey, feel free to if you want to ruin the taste of perfectly delicious chocolate truffles.

Remove the bowl from the heat, cover and refrigerate until completely cool, at least 2 hours.

Once chilled, roll in teaspoon-sized balls, and then dip into the melted chocolate coating, using a fork to let the excess chocolate drip off. You might want to use two forks and pass back and forth like I did.

I also went ahead and rolled all of the filling before I started dipping so I could get the assembly line ready.

As you see in the photo, I used the Baker’s metlable milk chocolate for the dipping, but I also used the remaining dark chocolate chips, melted in a bowl in the microwave and dipped a few in truffles in dark chocolate too.

The truffles look beautiful enough and you should be proud of your accomplishment, but I wanted to add a little decorative finish so I could feel like a real chocolatier!  Which I totally am, by the way. I used some of the dark chocolate I melted previously, used a fork for dipping, and drizzled the dark chocolate over a few of the milk chocolate truffles. As you can see, I also melted a little white chocolate and did the same. I thought it added a nice touch, what do you think?

This recipe will make 45-50 truffles, depending on the size. I made some really big ones and a few that were too small, but it all evened out.

Now here’s the trick to storing: I looked it up online and had several sources confirm that they could be stored in the refrigerator so I did it.....but I wish I didn’t. I left them in over night and pulled them out the next morning. They were really hard and some of the chocolate had the spotted look that refrigerated chocolate sometimes gets. Well, I was having a party that night and was not happy about this. Especially after all the hard work and time I had put into the truffles. Luckily, I left them out all day and by that night they were back to room temp and all was well. It might be okay to put them in the fridge for an hour or so just to set the outside coating, but I won’t leave them in overnight or for many hours at all next time. Lesson learned.

Enjoy!

Dawn, expert chocolatier