Dark Chocolate Truffles

Many years ago, at a church cooking class, this chica did a truffle demonstration.  I was so hooked.  After asking her if I could share the recipe she distributed then, she sent me this link, where she already blogged about it.  She does far better at pictures and tutorials, so I will let you clickity-click over there for the recipe.  Meanwhile, I will share my tips and tricks here about things I do  a tad differently.

I like my chocolate DARK, so I use Trader Joes Pound Plus 72% Dark Belgium Chocolate for the ganache (center).  I melt it with Trader Joes Organic Cream.  It is the best cream I have found, not ultra pasteurized, which is hard to find.  My source for raw doesn’t have a separator that makes it pure enough to whip, meaning there is milk mixed with it.  This moisture would cause the chocolate to clump and seize and get gritty.

There are many candy coating’s you can use; a low grade almond bark, which obviously is made of a bunch of garbage, would be the cheapest option.  My sister made an oreo truffle (crushed oreos and cream cheese dipped in almond bark) with my son on his birthday.  It’s allowed when most of them are not for you and when it is a kid project that creates a lot of waste.  There are also Wilton brand candy coatings in every color imaginable, still full of a bunch of garbage.

This year I found a real chocolate coating at none other than Trader Joes.  It is made with 65% cacao and has only 5 ingredients, the most offensive being soy lecithin.  They are called “Semi Sweet Chocolate Callets.”  What ever coating you end up using, a little weapon for your back pocket is palm shortening.  After dipping and dipping, the melted coating gets contaminated and starts getting thicker, and clumping.  A tablespoon of palm shortening thins it right out again so each truffle is nice and smooth.

For Christmas gifts this season, I made 4 kinds; mint, coconut, raspberry and orange by adding extract to the ganache.  I did a little drizzle that used a total of less than 1 block of almond bark (that I had left over from my sister) that I colored with 4 different colors to indicate the flavors.  They turned out lovely and are the epitome of sinfully delicious, homemade chocolate.
links; Things I Love Thursday, Simple Lives Thursday