CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES WITH FOUR DIFFERENT COATINGS
Second day of the week and that nice Monday impact is on the vane (now you can interpret that ‘nice’ like you want, with or without an ironic twist. I love Mondays so no irony for me) and what can be better then than a nice chocolate truffle? I am sure a lot of you are habitual truffle makers but for those of you who have never made truffles, I can only say Do it! It is easy and even fun to make because you can let your creativity loose. Plus you can decide for yourself so if you feel like it you can make hundreds of them in the flavour you like! And maybe two in some other flavour to make someone else happy. And they are so very welcome on your Easter table, I am sure of that.
The ones I have made here are just simple ones with vanilla but you can add almost anything to the truffles, brandy, spices, herbs, crumbs from nice crunchy cookies that you particularly like well you can see the possibilities for yourself I think. And then we come to the coatings, another aspect where you can run riot if you feel like it: chopped nuts, flavoured sugars, cocoa powder, spices – the choice is yours and vast here as well. As you can see, I used five different coatings here, crushed pink peppercorns, small silver balls, plain confectioner’s sugar, cinnamon and confectioner’s sugar and plain cocoa powder. I was going to use my basil sugar but I just forgot all about it. Next time.
CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES WITH FOUR DIFFERENT COATINGS
15-20 truffles
truffles:
200 g dark quality chocolate of your choice
150 ml/0,63 cup fresh cream
1 vanilla pod (you can substitute this with any of the suggestions I mention above)
coatings, use them all, use one or go for my suggestions above:
cocoa powder, sifted
confectioner’s sugar, sifted
confectioner’s sugar + ground cinnamon, sifted
crushed pink peppercorns
small silver balls, the ones you use to decorate cakes
- Break or chop the chocolate into small pieces and put it all in a bowl.
- Put the fresh cream in a small pan. Divide the vanilla pod and scrape out all the seeds that you add to the cream.
- Heat up the cream to boiling point and then pour it over the chocolate. Stir until all the chocolate has melted and leave it over-night to settle down in room temperature.
- Put the coatings you want to use on individual plates.
- Use a teaspoon to take a small amount of chocolate, roll it with your cold hands (I usually cool them down in cold water in between truffles) and then roll it in the desired coating until covered.
- Eat!
Yumm! And I love the daisies! (or whatever they are.)
That was me btw.
Oh, Ilva, do you send them to your friends for Easter? Please? They ar beautiful! I used to make truffles at Christmas and Valentine’s Day to give to friends when I lived in the US many moons ago and I loved them! Why did I ever stop? You have me craving them now. Beautiful!
Looks really nice.
simply wonderful. it’s been a while sine i made truffles – i particularly like the pink peppercorns!
I love making these truffles at Christmas time but have never tried the peppercorns. They are lovely!
The little chamomile flowers are very pretty with these
Oh my, Ilva!!! How is the pink peppercorn tastes like? I really like it!!
I love the look of the little silver balls! A nice change.
I’ve never thought about using silver balls – they look beautiful…. Are they hard when you bite into them? I am wondering how would that change the “feel” of the truffle.
For some reason I intensely dislike the feel of cocoa powder, and most truffles use that as a coating – I like do have alternatives to it.
The photos are, as usual, amazing!
http://bewitchingkitchen.com
(I never manage to make the “share this page” work….
the silver balls are called dragees
Im a huge fan of truffles, they are so simple to make and just like you have done, you can create a unique collection just by adding different toppings. One you may like is crumbled dolche leche cheese. Chocolate and cheese have similar flavanoids and they are a superb match, try it you might like it.
You photos are sublime,