Chocolate truffles are made of soft chocolate filling called ganache in hard chocolate coating. Dark chocolate is best for this recipe.
Ideal truffle has a pronounced contrast in the bite between the thin coating and the filling. Sometimes filling and coating are made of different chocolates, and sometimes spirits or flavors are added.
To make chocolate truffles at home one must start with the right type of chocolate and very clean, very dry dishes and utensils. I'll be back to the utensils later.
Chocolate comes in dark, bittersweet (or semi-sweet), milk and white varieties. Dark chocolate consists of 70% to 90% cocoa solids (100% tempered chocolate recently became available) and sugar; bittersweet has 35-55% of cocoa solids, milk solids (including fat) and sugar. Milk chocolate has even more milk and, to my taste, is rather a chocolate-flavored candy. Milk chocolates often come with natural or artificial vanilla flavor and American brands also have some salt. White chocolate is, strictly speaking, not chocolate at all -- at best it contains cocoa butter, which retains little cocoa flavor and melts at body temperature. My recipe for truffles requires dark or extra dark chocolate. Since there is nothing but cream and very little cognac added to the chocolate, it's essential to use the chocolate you like to eat straight. My favorite brand is Lindt Excellence: 70% with some 55% added for filling, 85% for coating. You can tune the process to the sweeter chocolates.
Chocolate can be ruined by a mere drop of water. Everything you are going to use must be dry -- countertops, spoons, bowls, thermometer if you need one. When melting chocolate, make sure to heat it slowly and stir often, to make heat distribution even. Overheated chocolate scorches, loses the flow and the shine, and cannot be used in sensitive recipes. To melt chocolate, break or chop the bars in quarter-size pieces and put in a round stainless steel bowl. Put the bowl in a wide skillet with barely simmering water and stir chocolate often with a dry spoon. The steam from the skillet won't hurt the chocolate, but watch for the drops and moisture on hands. When only few small pieces remail unmelted and the rest is liquid and glossy, take the bowl out of the skillet and continue stirring until everything melts.
To make about 50 truffles you will need:
1 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream (organic preferable, better pasteurized then UHT),
2 bars of 70% chocolate and 1 bar of 55% chocolate,
cognac or liquor of choice (good enough to drink),
2 tablespoons of sugar (optional),
up to 4 bars of 85% chocolate for coating.
Start with making ganache the night before. Line the glass loaf pane or square casserole with the plastic film and leave an overhang on one side big enough to cover the pan.
Chop or break 2 bars of 70% chocolate and 3/4 of a 55% bar. It makes about 10 ounces of chocolate. Melt the chocolate in a large bowl and set aside. Bring the cream to simmer and turn the heat off. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar (optional) and 3 tablespoon of cognac or liquor to the cream and let the cream cool for 2-3 minutes.
Pour the cream into the melted chocolate, continuously stirring it in, moving your spoon or whisk in a spiral from the center to the sides and back. Do not lift the mix -- it traps the air and make ganache feel granular. Once ganache is evenly smooth and slightly thickened, stop stirring and immediately pour it in the film-lined pan and let it cool. Fold the flap over the pan and let the ganache set overnight (5 hours or longer). Don't disturb it and don't refrigerate until it is set.
Next day: line the counter with a sheet of baking paper. The ganache must be soft to the touch, but holding its shape. If it's too loose, whip it briefly. Scoop the ganache from the pan with the small ice-cream scoop or a tea spoon, and release it on the paper with another spoon. Sometimes ganache turns out too firm to scoop -- cut the whole pan-full in cubes with the knife. Insert roasted almonds or filberts (optional) in the truffle centers. Leave them to set for an hour.
Coating with tempered chocolate. Tempered chocolate is shiny and breaks with a snap. Moisture and heat ruins the temper; regular chocolate bars are tempered. The point is to melt the 85% bars, but keep the temper. Start with melting carefully 2 1/2 bars of 85% chocolate. Remove the bowl from the steam bath and melt the last pieces by stirring. Add a half of the bar in two chunks and stir it in in continuous circular motion. If it melts in less then 5 minutes, add another piece of a bar and keep stirring. The thin strip of tempered chocolate on a knife or backing paper shell harden in a few minutes. This instruction is a short-handed gist of a section in Alice Medrich's brilliant book "Bittersweet".
Holding your left hand over the bowl, dub a tablespoon of chocolate on your left palm. Roll a dried center in the coating between your palms. When all centers are coated, repeat the process. The truffles are smooth, glossy and irregular like chestnuts. They stay fresh for ten days at room temperature, up to three weeks in the refrigerator.
See also: kitchen, dark chocolate, chocolate mousse.