Chocolate truffles are a classic sweet. Exquisite and sophisticated, chocolate truffles are simpletons in disguise. They’re so ridiculously easy to make, I urge you to start a truffle tradition in your home!

But before we dive into my recipe below, I feel the need to explain a thing or two about the anatomy of the truffle and what makes them so special. In this post, I’m strictly referring to delicate chocolate truffles, not cake or cookie truffles.

Trust me — you’ll thank me in one bite.

What are chocolate truffles?

Truffles consist mostly of bittersweet chocolate and heavy cream. You can imagine that with primarily two ingredients, a high quality chocolate must be used in order for the truffles to be delicious and highly desired. I like using Ghirardelli because it is of high quality and their bittersweet chocolates can be bought in bags of morsels, which allow us to skip the tedious task of chopping the chocolate which is usually in bar form.

Truffle coatings

Chocolate truffles are typically coated with a dusting of good quality cocoa powder. However, don’t forget about grounded nuts and confectioners sugar! They make great coatings as well! In fact, I prefer nuts and confectioners sugar over cocoa powder.

You might be asking, what about covering them with chocolate? Here’s the inconvenient truth: It’s very inconvenient, (unless you have an enrobing machine that coats each piece perfectly).

It only makes sense to cover high quality chocolate with high quality chocolate. The way to do this would be to temper high quality chocolate so that it hardens nicely after coating, otherwise if the chocolate isn’t tempered, it will not come to a solid state in room temperature and would have to be refrigerated just after dipping to set, but you run the risk of having unattractive “bloomed” truffles.

Candy coating is also out of the question, because it’s not high quality chocolate. Using an inferior chocolate coating will defeat the purpose of making truffles of the high-quality stuff.

Flavor additions

Liquors and flavors can be added, and the cream can be infused with herbs and spices as well to give more flavor to the chocolate ball of goodness.

Chocolate Truffles Recipe

Makes 24 truffle balls

Ingredients:

10 ounce bag of Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet chocolate baking chips
1 teaspoon espresso powder
½ cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream
Cocoa powder, sifted
Confectioners sugar, sifted
Ground nuts, such as walnuts, pecans or pistachios

Step 1:

Place baking chips and espresso powder in a medium metal or glass bowl.

Heat cream in a small pot over medium-high heat until it begins to simmer. Turn temperature down to medium and let simmer for one minute.

Step 2:

Next, pour cream into the bowl containing the chocolate. Using a spatula, carefully stir the chocolate and cream together until it is fully incorporated and no large chunks remain. Do not use a whisk as it will incorporate air into the mixture.

Step 3:

Once combined completely, let sit at room temperature for at least 1 hour.

Step 4:

Use a Teaspoon measuring spoon like an ice cream scoop to make rounded portions. Drop them on a wax paper-lined cookie sheet and refrigerate for 15 minutes. I find this to be the easiest way to shape them into nice balls.

Step 5:

Prepare coatings by placing each of them on a separate plate.Remove truffles from the fridge. Wash your hands in very cold water to prep them for rolling.

Step 6:

Remove the truffles from the fridge. You’ll notice that they’ve set and hardened. Quickly roll each of them into balls using your palms, then coat them with your favorite coating of choice! Rolling them in your palms once more after coating will get them to be more perfectly round.

Make decadent chocolate candy at home!

Master key techniques, including melting, tempering, dipping, enrobing & molding to make your favorite sweets. Enroll Here Now »

Chocolate Truffles 101: What Exactly are Truffles and How to Coat Them