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December 07, 2006
Truffles
Procrastination at its finest
Knitting-wise, I have my dad's second birthday sock on the go, and a lovely scarf combining hand-spun and dyed angora (in deep wine) from the Isle of Skye plus Kid-silk haze in lilac and marmalade- all knit in one strand in the same lace stitch as the famous Rowan Pia scarf. Photos to come- the scarf is for our work's secret santa- we're going super green this year- no one is allowed to spend any money and the gift has to have green credentials. So I'm using yarn from my stash and knitting a gift for our youngest and newest colleague. Hope she likes it.
So. Truffles. The best truffles are simply a mixture of high quality chocolate and either whipping or double cream. Don't believe any of the North American (and Gordon Ramsey) nonsense about 'corn-syrup' or anything like that. Pah. There are loads of recipes around, but you are basically looking at between a 1:1 or 2:1 ratio of chocolate to cream, depending on the chocolate. With dark chocolate, 2:1 gives you a good stiff (lordy) ganache, 1:1, slightly softer- make sure you use chocolate with at least 70% cocoa- I wouldn't go above 80% though as it is simply too bitter and loses the 'mouth feel'. I've tried Lindt, Waitrose own, Bendicts, Green and Blacks and a few others I can't remember. All good, but all slightly different in taste.
With white chocolate, you want to definately use the 2:1 ratio, as you need way less cream. The ganache will still be pretty soft however.
The basic method is: chop up your chocolate finely. Put in a metal bowl (better than glass, it retains the heat). About 200g chocolate and 200g cream gives you 15-20 good sized truffles. Put the cream in a saucepan and gently bring up to just boiling (called 'scalding' the cream). Tip over the chocolate and gently mix until melted and glossy. If it doesn't quite melt, then place bowl over a saucepan of hot water (make sure your bowl doesn't touch the water and don't have the saucepan on direct heat) and stir until it has melted.
Two issues that might go wrong: over heat the ganache- it'll go grainy- still useable, but not as pretty; you might get water or steam into the mixture- then the ganache is pretty much unuseable.
When melted, put the bowl of ganache in the fridge for a couple of hours until solid. You can then remove and roll into balls, covering your hands in cocoa powder to help. Re-chill the balls. You can either then leave the truffles as they are, or cover in tempered chocolate (I've done both- the re-covered truffles are... special).
So, these are the flavours I have tried (trial and error as to how much flavouring you put in, I'm afraid), stirring essences/liqueurs in to the still liquid ganache or infusing the cream with spices:
Kalhua- very subtle 'extra' chocolatey flavour
Whiskey- single peaty malt. Need quite a lot of liqueur to keep its flavour- about 3 tsps to 100g chocolate
Amaretto- very, very good flavour- amount as above
Cardamom- infuse warm cream with crushed pods for at least 10 minutes, then bring to the boil- then strain cream onto white chocolate- supposed to be good with dark chocolate too. Definately need a dark chocolate coating for this ganache, otherwise too sweet.I used about 5 pods to 50 g white chocolate. Tried it with some saffron too- very subtle, but nice- different.
Salted caramel- bought some Epicure muscovado toffee sauce (cheated!) and added three tsps to the heating cream, then added to the (100g chocolate) ganache mix. Then added 1/4 tsp maldon sea salt.
Wow. I got a hug from my friend Matt for that one. He did the happy Snoopy dance whilst eating it.
Very good.
So christmas is sorted then! just have to wait for the week before to make 'em (with fresh cream as an ingrediant, they last about a week if covered in chocolate).
Posted by scumkitten at December 7, 2006 09:32 AM
Comments
WOW! Man, THAT post was worth waiting for. My mouth is watering. MMmmMmmMMmmmmmmMMMMMmmmmmMMMM
*wipes drool from corner of mouth*
Posted by: glittrgirl at December 7, 2006 09:58 AM
wow - great minds think a like and all that...
I started practising truffles last week for christmas too & found out how easy they are but also just how delicious they are too :)
i used divine fairtrade dark choolate which i thought was very chocolatey & dark so next time i would spilt with half milk choc
yummy!!
Posted by: lucy at December 7, 2006 10:03 AM
I have also been considering the making truffles as presents thing, although I'm a bit worried they might not keep very long (HA! as if they will last longer than 24 hours in this house anyway!)
Have you tried the single estate choc from M&S yet? Glittr gave me some earlier this year and it was (whisper it) possibly even better than green and blacks.....
Posted by: purlpower at December 7, 2006 01:22 PM
Oooh- I didn't know M&S did single estate- will have to check it out- I think Green & Blacks is ok, but there are loads of interesting chocolate out there if you hunt- Plaisir du chocolate, l'artisan du chocolat, Montezumas, Rococo etc... all available online.
Posted by: Skitten at December 7, 2006 01:43 PM
Bailey's Irish cream is also very yum (although it'll sweeten the mixture, of course). And last year I tried raspberry vodka and it was smashing!
Posted by: Lisa (42 Main St) at December 7, 2006 03:18 PM
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