Truffle question!

[frannikin]

How do you make the truffles round? If I do it by hand, they just seem to melt, using 2 teaspoons results in very misshapen lumps and I can't think of anything else to do!

HELP ME PLEASE!!!

Put them in the fridge for a couple of hours, and roll by hand very fast before rolling in crumbled flake/cocoa owder/whatever you're using.

Truffles should be mishapen and knobbly, IMO, as they are named after the mushroom truffle after all! However, if needs must, then yes, chill them for half an hour and work quickly.

I always chill truffle overnight

they should be nobbly

if you want them round you let them melt a little because that's what takes nobbly out

Can I hijack and ask - how 'set' should the mixture be ? I did some with dd yesterday, put it in the fridge and its still quite gloopy - wouldn't get it into balls.

I 'followed' (it was only choc and cream !) a Tana Ramsey recipe that was for dark choc but she said it worked well with milk choc too which I used .... do you think this could be the problem as presumably the milk in the chocolate is adding to the runniness ?

Ordinary milk chocolate like Cadbury's won't work as the cocoa content is too low - this has happened to me though not with the Tana Ramsey recipe, just when doing an ordinary ganache (50-50 chocolate & double cream). MaYbe a Green & Black's one would work, though since then I've always stuck to plain chocolate for truffles.

It should be solid but still scoopable when taken out of the fridge

Thanks MrsT - That makes sense. I will redo with plain choc. Think I will do the melting this evening so it sets overnight so dd can do it in the morning....

Can I scoff the useless choc mixture then ......

I have had some succes using good dark choc and cream as a base and then slowly adding melted white chocolate. Then chilling. Nice and marbly and a little more appealing for children.

I had a bit of an epiphany this afternoon and realised, not only had I used milk choc but had used the whole pot of cream which was 84 ml more than I should have done.... . God help us for Christmas dinner .

Have bought dark choc and more cream, will try and recreate a better batch tonight then dd can roll them in the morning and be none the wiser that they went wrong.

FMF - they sound great but given my issues with even getting the most basic recipe right I might stick with basic. Perhaps I can work up to those next year.