For a few months about 16 years ago I considered going into the chocolate business. I never got past the planning stage, but I had alot of fun experimenting with chocolate. Chocolate truffles are amazingly easy to make. Only five ingredients are needed to make basic truffles, but the optional additional ingredients are limitless. My lovely daughters, Selah and Caiden are working on a cookbook with me. We love to hang out and experiment in the kitchen. Caiden had early aspirations to grow up and be chocolatier, but now is leaning towards being a choreographer who makes truffles as a hobby level business these days.
Basic 101 Truffles
1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tbsp vanilla extract or flavor
6 ounces high quality chocolate chips (milk or dark)
4 tbsp butter
powdered unsweetened cocoa
To keep it simple I have included some optional ingredient and substitution ideas at the end of the recipe. Don’t be afraid to get creative and try things you have never tried before.
1. Reduce the cream – add 1/4 cup heavy cream to pot, heat on high while stirring constantly, allow cream to boil as you stir. The cream should reduce to approximately 2 tbsp worth of liquid.
2. Remove pot from heat, while stirring add 2 tbsp vanilla extract or a true vanilla flavor, slowly add chocolate chips and stir.
3. Chop up 4 tbsp butter and stir into chocolate.
4. Once the chocolate is smooth and all ingredients are added put the chocolate into the fridge for 30 to 40 minutes to allow it to cool. Note: If you want all of your truffles to have the same optional added ingredient it should be stirred in now. To make multiple different flavors out of one batch of truffles add the optional ingredients at the next step.
While we waited for the truffles to cool we decided to make a second batch of truffles in order to make hard coated truffles with fun ingredients inside the coating. We made a batch of Organic Honey Caramels to use in our fillings for this second batch of truffles at the same time.
5. This step is so easy that, yes, a 3rd and 5th grader can do it. Simply scoop the cooled chocolate out of the bowl, roll it into a ball and then roll it around in cocoa powder, and then ta da you have a truffle! This is the step we chose to be creative. For some truffles we added alittle powdered sugar to the cocoa powder, for one set we added minced vanilla beans, and in our favorite set we added Chinese Five Spice to your powder. The girls drew the line at chipolte, chili pepper and habanero spices this time. Then we set our finished truffles in the fridge for 30 minutes to set. Following are the further optional steps that we decided to take.
OPTIONAL: We stuffed our truffles with our homemade organic vanilla caramels and then rolled them.
OPTIONAL: In a double boiler we gently melted 5 ounces of dark chocolate, allowed it to cool and then dipped our caramel filled truffles in the melted chocolate.
OPTIONAL: We topped each of these truffles with different ingredients including; lavender buds, ginger and various salts. YUM! I’ve never been accused of being a neat freak and it shows in our truffles, but you can be as neat or as messy as you would like. The truffles taste delicious either way!
Now that my daughters have shown you just how easy it is to make truffles are you ready to experiment? What ingredients do you think should be added to these optional lists?
Optional Ingredient Ideas
Powdered Sugar
Spices (get funky & creative)
Honey
Caramel
Salt
Lavender Buds
Ginger
Blue Cheese
Figs
Nuts
Bacon
Optional Substitutes for Vanilla
Liquor
Liqueur
Flower Essences
I love your new site! I love this baking section, as I have an addiction to cooking! Ive never made truffles before. I will try this recipe this holiday season and let you know how it goes. Thanks for posting!
Awesome! I’ve got a whole bunch of baking recipes that I’m going to start posting regularly. I LOVE to play with my food and baking is a great form of play.
I’m going to try this recipe. I’ve made truffles before, a long time ago. This time I might try a little rose water. Can’t beat chocolate AND roses. What do you think?
Yum! You can’t beat Rosewater and chocolate. That is my daughter Caiden’s favorite chocolate truffle.