So, when I saw that she was hosting a truffle-making class this week - in preparation for Valentines' Day - I snagged up two of the spots and invited my other favorite Jenn. Woohoo! Girls night. I knew ours guys wouldn't complain. They would, after all, get a box of handmade, hand-dipped chocolate magic out of the evening.
The Basics...
chocolate + cream + butter + [optional add-ins]
Jenn pre-made three different ganaches for us: champagne, raspberry, and honey. We chatted, dipped, swirled, dusted, sprinkled, and painted to create some fabulous truffles.
The champagne ganache was dipped and affixed with edible gold leaf...
The raspberry ganache was sprinkled with a gorgeous homemade raspberry dust...
And the honey ganache was dipped and dusted with granulated honey.
Check out the link to Jenn's honey truffles for her ingredients and proportions. She gave us some general guidelines and said that if you add liquid (champage, raspberry juice, etc.) you'll just need to compensate with more chocolate. Makes sense. Also, I've never added butter to my ganache, but I will from now on. It makes the ganache super smooth and rich! Wow.
Here's the process...
In a small, heavy saucepan bring the whipping cream to a simmer. Place the chocolate in a separate bowl. Pour the cream over the chocolate. Let stand for 3 minutes. Whisk till smooth. Allow to cool, then place in the refrigerator for at least two hours.
Use a mini-scoop to create round truffles. You can roll the truffles to smooth them out, if you like. Place truffles in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
In the meantime, melt and temper chocolate. We used Jenn's magical machine, I usually use a double-boiler, and she did say you could do it in the microwave, too. Remove truffles from the fridge; using two toothpicks, dip them in chocolate; gently nudge the truffles from the skewer and cover any imperfections with more chocolate. Sprinkle with your garnish.
These definitely won't make it to Valentines' Day. As soon as I came home, Jake asked to try them. He exercised some restraint and only tried one of each. His favorite: the honey ones.
In the meantime, melt and temper chocolate. We used Jenn's magical machine, I usually use a double-boiler, and she did say you could do it in the microwave, too. Remove truffles from the fridge; using two toothpicks, dip them in chocolate; gently nudge the truffles from the skewer and cover any imperfections with more chocolate. Sprinkle with your garnish.
These definitely won't make it to Valentines' Day. As soon as I came home, Jake asked to try them. He exercised some restraint and only tried one of each. His favorite: the honey ones.
These look amazing! I have made truffles before but just basic ones - I love the use of the raspberry dust.
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