Never Be Without: Truffles

As I've said before, it's a dangerous thing to be out of chocolate here. But there's chocolate and then there's CHOCOLATE that says "I love you." Truffles say "I love you" ....and they're easy. (Don't roll your eyes, it's rude--yes, I can see you-I'M A MOM.)

Oh, speaking of moms, this is a nice little thing to make for mom--put them in a pretty little box, pick some flowers--it shows effort--moms LOVE effort.

Your ingredients are as follows:

2 cups finely chopped chocolate--semisweet is most appropriate here but I do use a nice dark (70%) sometimes...I also use chocolate chips because I'm not too good for that.
2/3 cups heavy cream
1 tsp extract of your choice (*this is purely optional OR you may choose to steep a tea bag in your cream first OR you may choose a bit of the liquor for this-whisky, rum, amaretto and you can drink while you're making these--BONUS)

See, options. Think of this recipe as the little black dress of confection making--you change the scarf or pin and you've got something entirely new.

Put the chocolate in a bowl and the cream in a small saucepan. Still with me?



Heat the cream until it begins to bubble around the edges BUT DON'T BOIL IT!! ...well, not unless you want to scrub down the stove and possibly take a trip to the ER (dairy burns are VERY dangerous and painful).

Pour the cream over the chocolate and add the extract of your choice if using.


Now, wait. Not forever or anything, just give the cream the chance to do it's job. Sing a little song or something. Then, gently, whisk the cream into the chocolate. Stir out any lumps (this is why you want uniform pieces of chocolate so they all melt at the same time). Congratulations, you just made a ganache. Take a bow.

Put the bowl of ganache in the fridge and set a timer for 10 minutes. When your 10 minutes are up, whisk the ganache a bit. Put it back into the fridge. Do this 3 more times. The ganache is getting thicker, eh?





The last time you stir the ganache, it should be very thick. This is when you want to whip it up a bit-this will give the ganache a creamy texture and you should notice that it changes the color of the chocolate to a lighter shade. Stop whisking.


Here's where I pull out my little icecream scoop that I use to make cookies with. It looks like this. Get one.


Scoop out your truffles. I chill them again briefly so I can roll them in my hands to smooth them out.


Now you can roll them in whatever you choose--cocoa, toasted coconut, chopped nuts.


You made truffles. Whether you choose to share them or eat them up when no one is looking is entirely your game.