Chocolate truffles

Kevok

Just ruined two perfectly good bars of lindt 70% trying to make truffles. Everything was going fine but when I stirred the cream in after leaving to rest for 5 mins to my horror it split into a gooey chocolate mess swimming in oil. Unsalvageable.

anyone have a foolproof recipe I could use to make sure it doesn't happen again? I even roasted hazelnuts and chopped them for a coating. Gutted!

Tree

I dont normally make truffles, but i do make a ganachey type filling that i tend to add too much chocolate to so it sets rather truffley.

I find the better way to do it, is to boil the cream, then when it just starts to boil, take it off the heat and toss in the chocolate. Give it an occasional stir. It wont destroy the chocolate.

Addiing liquid to melted chocolate is generally a bad idea, better to add chocolate to hot meltying liquid.

Miaireland

Try here:

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/sweet/home-made-chocolate-truffles.htm

I have made them a while ago and they were lovely and turned out well. My friend swears by the method too.

cHaTbOx

You are meant to break the chocolate into small pieces , then wait for the double cream to bubble a little then take it off the gas immediately.
Then add the cream to the chocolate slowly while stirring and until lumps have disappeared.

Magic Monkey

Please post the original recipe. Cream ganache separates for two main reasons: too much fat, or mixing at the wrong temperature. Did you let the cream cool for 5 minutes before adding the chocolate in? That's unnecessary - once it comes to the boil, just pour it over the chocolate (See below).

Separated cream ganache can be salvaged. Put it in a heatproof bowl over a barely simmering pot of water, as per a double-boiler. Re-heat gently while stirring with a spatula. If it doesn't come together, add more warm liquid - milk, water, spirits (ideal), until it does.

For proper ganache truffles, bring your cream to a boil, and have the chocolate in small even pieces in a heatproof bowl by the side. Once the cream comes to the boil, pour over the chocolate, and leave for 1 minute to allow the chocolate to melt.

After 1 minute, start stirring in small circles from the centre of the bowl until an emulsion forms, slowly working your way outwards, until everything is completely mixed. Try not to incorporate any air. Leave to set/crystallise, covered with cling film, at room temperature. Once set, you can refrigerate it. To shape, use your fingers or a melon baller to form into truffles by rolling small globs of ganache between your palms.

Here's a basic formula:

250g double cream
70g glucose syrup (Tesco's sell it. Otherwise use honey or golden syrup)
60g liqueur
30g butter
620g dark chocolate

You can create any number of variations from this formula: Bailey's truffles, Tea truffles (infusing the cream with tea bags, chai is great), whatever you fancy. Oh, and if you're going to be coating any with cocoa powder, make sure to use Green & Black's as it's Dutch-processed, meaning it's less bitter than the other common, non Dutch-processed ones.

Sigma Force

I'd never tried truffles before so tried this recipe and it worked out fine, says they keep for 2 weeks but they didn't last 2 days. I did replace the liqueur with orange juice though. You could replace the grated choc. for nuts instead.

Italian chocolate truffles.

175g dark chocolate.
2tbsp. Amaretto or orange-flavoured liqueur.
40g unsalted butter.
50g icing sugar.
50g ground almonds.
50g grated chocolate.

Melt dark choc with the liqueur in a bowl set over a saucepan of hot water, stirring until well combined.

Add the butter and stir until melted, stir in the icing and the ground almonds.

Leave the mixture in a cool place until firm enough to roll into about 24 balls.

Place grated choc. on a plate and roll the truffles in the choc. to coat them.

Place truffles in sweet cases, and chill.

For a truffle that's sweeter you can use milk choc. instead of dark.
Or you could dip the truffles in melted choc. if you like.

Not sure how true this recipe is to actual regular truffles but they were def. moreish.

Kevok

Thanks for the replies, the recipe I used was this one: http://www.joyofbaking.com/ChocolateTruffles.html

I'm going to try again tonight, I tried to salvage it but it just wouldn't recombine. I'll use magic.monkeys recipe and see how it goes. I'd say I used too much cream given the measurements you provided and the recipe I followed.