Has anyone made chocolate truffles?

[karen99]

Saw this recipe on the Waitrose website.. didn't realise the ingredients were so simple.

Does anyone have any tips on making them? Especially when it comes to the decoration! How do you get them covered evenly without leaving finger prints??

TIA

[maomao]

You are verrrry busy cooking! I want to know what else you're making, besides chocolate truffles and the cookies that did not set properly!

I used to make truffles often, and used chopsticks to roll them in cocoa or icing sugar. However mine were always a little melty....

[gingernut]

I have made them like this but it was years ago...can't remember any particular problems getting them coated though. I didn't much like any of the coverings suggested, so decided to try rolling them in grated Terry's Choc orange chocolate.....yum!

[karen99]

oooh, the choc orange sounds loooverly..

yes, chopsticks is a great idea! Do you think tooth picks might do the same thing? May be too fiddly?

I know.. just got the cooking buzz this week! Had this biscuit/cookie book for years and have never made anything from it! I have made 'crafty' Xmas presents on the odd previous year, but never baked. That's why I need all the practice I can get! I'm sure I'll never fit into that xmas party dress for dh's do. Neither will dh with all this taste testing (fit into his tux that is!)

[karen99]

The book is Biscuits and Cookies by Lorna Rhodes.

If you have any other nice recipes for festive or luxury finger food please let me know

[bonkerz]

i made these with the children at my old nursery and they loved doing it! We added vanilla essence and put them in paper cones as pressies for mothers day! easy and messy!!!!!!

[Yorkiegirl]

Message withdrawn

[Catbert]

aaah - reminds me of dh's eccentric granny (maysherestinpeace) making truffles one year, which looked lovely, everyone took one and bit in, and which turned out to be balls of margerine with rum flavouring, rolled in cocoa powder.

Mmmmmm.

[cardigan]

Love making truffles - easy to do. I just dunk in large bowl of coco powder & scoop out with spoon. Keep in cool until just before serving. Makes a brill pressie or v.impressive at a party with coffee. I always have a stack of napkins as fingers get messy.

[karen99]

was really looking forward to trying these out when I got to scaltygirl's last post!

Thanks for the tips.. will be trying them out at some point this week. Will let you know how it goes!

[Cadbury]

I'm making some for Christmas too. I made some lovely malt whisky ones last yera and even I loved them (I can't stand whisky). Going to try Baileys this year.

[Eulalia]

I made up my own receipe. Made up the truffle mixture, rum truffles I think but used cherry brandy instead. I got some glace cherries and filled them with a little of the brandy then I pressed them into a little of the mixture and rolled into balls. Once left to harden you had a lovely chocolate coated cherry. Great for Christmas presents.

[woodpops]

I had a recipe for truffles that were made with cream cheese. THey were lovely but I've lost it

[clary]

these are the same as Nigel Slaters recipe by the looks, which is what i use (out of Real Food i think).
very yummyy. Top tip; DO NOT let the cream get too hot (IIRC NS says just heated, not boiling) as the whole thing will curdle and be useless. i speak from bitter (in a chocolatey kind of way!) experience!

[karen99]

Finally managed to find a few mins to try and make the truffles today. Have just finished the 'ganache' and like clary said, caught it just before the curdle stage! phew!

Hmmm, seem to have done it all wrong though.. only have 50% cocoa solids choc (not good enough so say the books)and half was plain and half was milk... the only alcohol I have which seemed right was Bailey's (couldn't find our dk rum), but ofcourse tasting the ganache the plain choc is quite overpowering against the faint flavour of Baileys.... It's just setting now as I type.

Final recipe was - 100gmilk, 200gplain, 1oz butter, 180ml double cream, 2tblsp baileys

So what combination choc do you suggest to alcohol, eg. all milk choc with Bailey or part white choc too?, half and half for rum?, and I wanted to try amareto ones - all milk? Suggestions please!

Oh well... guess dh won't mind taste testing these!

[Pidge]

I make choc truffles every Christmas, as gifts for people (including myself!). I use 70% choc (e.g. Green and Blacks), and lots of alcohol (brandy or rum or the like). The easiest coating is to roll in cocoa powder. But my fave is to melt down a LOT of white chocolate and using a combination of cocktail sticks (to skewer the truffle) and teaspoons (to pour the melted white choc over) to coat them. You put the coated truffles on a plate, then into the fridge to set, then chisle them off with a knife! The coating process is very messy but the end product is divine - really dark alcoholic choc interior with crunchy white choc surround.

Have fun!

[Cadbury]

ooo. I hadn't thought about the Baileys being over come by the chocolate. Maybe it needs to be white chocolate instead? As Baileys is a cream liqueur, maybe it needed a larger qualntiy of the stuff (more than a spirit would anyway).

Hmmm. Amaretto! Personally, I'd like tese with the darkest chocolate you can find - the sweetness and bitterness together.

Getting a craving now! Such a shame these things don't keep so well or I could get away with saying I was making some for Christmas !

[karen99]

thanks for the tips. Now the ganache is setting the baileys mixture doesn't taste as bad so maybe it will work. Will try with white choc though next time [slurp emoticon!]

The mixture is still quite gooey even though it's been sat on the side for a couple of hours. How firm does it get before you're able to shape them into balls? At the moment it just looks like it will stick to my fingers (even if I put a bit of cocoa on my hands first)

Will def buy the proper choc when I make them the week leading up to xmas- yummy- just hope everyone keeps their hands off it until I make them!

[Pidge]

I always put the truffly mix in the fridge overnight for rolling into balls the next day - it goes pretty solid but then you can tear pieces off and they soon get soft enough when you roll them between your hands.

Am getting truffle cravings now!

[karen99]

Sorry to raise this one again!

I have had great fun making the truffles. Found the mixture was really easy to mould after it had been in the fridge for a day. The 'dusting' coatings I put on all worked fine (cocoa, drinking choc!, crushed hazelnuts, cinnamon sugar, choc sprinkles) but when I went to try the white choc they just melted and ended up looking like hardened glupe! I would spike the truffle with a cocktail stick and then teaspoon over the white choc. I found the white choc (milkybar) didn't get that runny and had to really dollop it on. Still tasted lovely though, but not presentable enough as presents!

Any tips on how to do dipped choc covers? Or which choc works best for this? Also I only melted a few lines, should I have gone for a big pot of it and dunk them in?
Also, can you get something that will help mould a perfect round shape? Mind ended up looking like mini spaceships/saucers!

[karen99]

any tips? tia

[Cadeauxbury]

You could try using a melon baller to help get the rounder shape when the truffle mixture is as cold as you can get it. As for covering with white chcolate, I would have thought white belgian cooking chocolate is better for covering as milky bar and normal eating chocolates often have stuff added so that they don't met completely - I know that galaxy does this. White chco is often more gloopy anyway. As for stopping the truffles from melting when you coat them, I can only think that chilling them as balls before coating them might make a difference and perhaps placing them ona cold surface (the chocolatiers use marble) straight away might help. Just guessing really. I'm sure they taste fantastic. I'll be making mine next week I think.

[Pidge]

karen99 - the white choc coating is slightly tricky but it is worth it. I use Green and Blacks white chocolate - expensive, but utterly delicious. You need to melt quite a lot of it, and it goes fairly runny, then I put a truffle on a teaspoon, use another teaspoon to scoop up white choc sauce and pour it over, then shove coated truffle onto a plate. It looks mess, and the dark choc insides invariably melt a bit and you end up with a slightly marbled effect, but if you put them in petit fours cases they look pretty presentable. I do use them for presents and they're always scoffed with gratitude.

Every year I get a bit stressed out about the coating bit - it takes a long while, and looks a bit of a mess. But every year they turn out great (except last year, when I added butter to the melted white choc, which meant it never set properly!). You can also use dark, or milk choc to coat them too.

Admittedly the dusting coatings are much easier! And less pricey in terms of chocolate used up.

[Cadeauxbury]

I often wondered why thorntons white chocolate truffle are surrounded by dark chocolate before the white outer layer. Maybe it's to get around the melting truffle thing !?!