Easy Truffles

This is the fastest and easiest recipe for making delicious, perfectly flavored chocolate truffles.  Customize the flavors and toppings to suit your exact tastes.  You'll get hooked on trying to come up with the perfect combinations, and your friends and family will be more than happy to help judge their favorites! 

Today I share with you my experience making a recipe from the Martha Stewart website.  I offer the original recipe, and suggestions on how to make it even simpler and faster.  I hope you have as much fun making these delightful little treats as I did.  I can't wait to experiment with more daring flavor fusions.  Hot peppers, here I come. . .

A small box or bag of truffles makes a great gift.  With this recipe, you'll be able to whip out a batch in no time that your last-minute recipient will be convinced you spent hours on.  No one needs to know!

Step 1: Supplies

The ingredients Martha suggests are as follows:

• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cardamom
• Five strips 1-inch-wide orange peel, pith removed
• 8 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
• 1/4 cup sifted cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup finely chopped assorted nuts, such as walnuts, pecans, and pistachios

To simplify I suggest replacing orange rind with a splash of juice, if you have it around, and cardamom for your favorite seasoning that you also happen to have around.  I found those to be the two ingredients that left me with stuff I had to figure out how to use up.  (Yes,  in the end, I just ate the orange.  But I prefer Satsumas.)  In the end though, I admit, the cardamom added a killer flavor, and I'm excited to find ways to use it up. 

Also the heavy cream can be replaced with evaporated milk, giving you the ability to replace some of the fat as well!

Step 2: Cardamom!

Of course you can buy ground cardamom.  But if you're like me, someone will convince you that pods will be far more rewarding.  So if you've got yourself some pods, read on.  If yours is already ground, then, well, I think you should read on anyway, but it's really up to you.


This is what I learned about cardamom.

It grinds up really well in a coffee grinder.  But you have to remember to remove the pods from the seeds before you pulverize it into tiny bits. 

So after I found that out, I discovered that one good whirl in the grinder is enough to separate the pods from the seeds.   Remove those bad boys and whirl away to your heart's content!

Step 3: Orange Step

Again, this step is fun, but adds more precious minutes to what could otherwise be a super-quick recipe.  But if you're the type that has oranges around, get ready to dig into one, cause you're about to make it naked.

Peel off four or five good strips of rind.  Of course, you want to avoid the white flesh underneath, as that's the part that makes it bitter.

If you don't have an orange, but do have orange juice, that is a viable alternative. 

Step 4: Combine Liquids

Now put your heavy whipping cream (or condensed milk) into a saucepan. 

Whisk it together with your freshly ground podless cardamom and your lovely orange peels.  Or throw in a dash of your favorite spice and a splash of oj.  You know, whatever's easiest.

Bring it to a boil, then turn off the heat for 15 minutes.  While you're waiting, get the next step ready!

Step 5: Combine With Chocolate

Put your chocolate chips in a bowl and place a mesh sieve over them.  Or some cheesecloth, or a regular strainer / colander deal.  Pretty much, you just want to make sure you catch all the rogue bits of cardamom and orange peel.  If you substituted out those ingredients, you can skip the sieve altogether.

Once you've waited the 15 requisite minutes, Martha tells us to bring the mixture back to a boil, then pouring it through the sieve over the chocolate pieces and stirring to melt.

I don't know why she wants us to boil the liquid and then wait 15 minutes and then boil them again.  I really question how much this extra time allows the flavors to all steep together.  Next time I make this, I will skip that part.  We want this to be fast and easy, right? 

Step 6: Stir Stir Stir!!!!

Stir the hot cream into the chocolate chips with vigor!  Your goal is a nice, creamy, shiny, smooth chocolatey blend.  Hopefully you won't have to stop in the process to take pictures, which might result in a slightly lumpy, less-than-perfectly-melted outcome.  Delicious nonetheless.

Pour your mixture immediately into a pan to cool.

In fact, let's put that pan in the freezer to get things moving along.  Fifteen to 20 minutes will do.

Step 7: Prepare Toppings

While your tasty centers are firming up in the freezer, let's get their delicious dressings ready to go. 

I chose pecans (because I had them in the fridge), confectioner's sugar (because I suspected that would be my favorite), unsweetened cocoa (because that's pretty traditional), and pistachios (because I thought the green color would be cool.  It was.)

Get that grinder back out and mash up your nuts.  Or go at them with a knife.  The grinder made them a little finer than I really wanted.  Next time I'll put them in a plastic bag and smash them into tiny bits with a wine bottle.  (Hey, use what you've got, right?)

The cocoa and powdered (confectioner's) sugar should be sifted before use to get rid of their inherent lumpiness.

Step 8: Rollin' Rollin' Rollin'. . .

Now is the moment of glory you've been waiting for.

Remove the pan from the freezer when the chocolate is firm but malleable.  Use a spoon to scrape chocolate into a ball, about 1" is good, but I won't judge you if you like them bigger.  It's a lot of chocolate to take in all at once though, so use your best judgment. 

I had to coax my spoonfuls of chocolate into little balls.  They did not magically form for me like Martha tacitly promised.  After a little hand rolling (unless you can make the magic happen - and if you do, I want pictures!), place them in another dish or on a cookie sheet and send them to the fridge for a bit before dressing.

After about ten minutes in the fridge (plenty of time to finish preparing those toppings if you didn't before), it's time to dress them!  Roll them in the toppings to cover them, and place them back on the cookie sheet or dish, grouped by topping.  I say this, because I did not do that, and most of my truffles became hybrids of their original intentions.  But cocoa/powdered sugar was still good.  

People didn't like the green ones like I thought they would.  I should have told them it was pistachio first, and maybe they wouldn't have been so put off by the color.

As I suspected, the powdered sugar ones took the day.

What will your most popular topping be?

Comments

[nycdesigner]

 Only the white or milk chocolate will seize when some watery substance is added. Dark chocolate is fine.

One of my fave recipes for cream cheese frosting uses a few ounces of dark chocolate melted with 3T of strong, brewed coffee. Once melted and whisked, it then is mixed into the cream cheese/butter/sugar part.

What you're essentially making with the cream/chocolate is ganache. Different ratios produce different "softnesses" of the original chocolate.

You can make white/milk versions of the filling by only using the cream (spice/rind ok) and no watery liquids.

One tip is to have the cream boiling, and then pour over the chips, or coarsely-chopped chocolate, then cover with a plate and rest for 10 minutes. Then when you whisk it together, it forms very well into that chocolatey goodness.

[HSLINKS]

 I have been making a truffle for years (I called it fudge the first few years cause they didn't know what I was talking about). I use the small muffin tins and papers and its easier than even doing the balls with scoop

I get bored and make up various combos and let others come up with some too. The recipients have been more and more adventuresome as time goes by. My fav is german choc with carmel yummm 

Two years ago I had a request for white choc, lime and halenpeno. I thought he was nuts but actually had 5 others that wanted it.

Last year the conf sugar (short cut) had higher than normal amount of corn starch and it ruined the texture - gave a thin coating - sorta like a pastille. So no white choc last year.

New neighbor plowed me out and loves white choc hopefully the conf sugar is good this year or I will be grinding from scratch

Ria

[scoochmaroo]

Those sound awesome.
So you melted white chocolate with cream that was infused with lime + jalapeno?

I too have been having bad luck with 'off' batches of white chocolate.  I'm switching back to Merkens brand.

[HSLINKS]

 first batch I didnt have lime flavoring so I cooked it down till I had what I needed (watch out for water content it makes it grainy) ..

I also cooked down the peppers and made it from scratch .. I did try a cheater batch using powdered chipolte - liked the flavor but it was harder to taste test for amount

I usually use Ghiredelli (sp) choc but have noticed that it is harder to melt evenly .. I seriously wonder if they changed their formula and are either using more wax or different type .. I found some from 3 yrs ago and it melts fine so think something else has changed

use a silicon spatula and work the white choc, I found if I pour off the well melted into a double boiler then work the stuff that doesn't want to melt right

I picked up new conf sugar will check it later for consistency
Ria

[NetNed]

I commend you for a fast way to make truffles. Traditionally the truffles are rolled in chocolate before coating which makes them more manageable to get the coating to stick and easier to handle when eating. Also for flavor alcohol in the form of brandy, amaretto (almond) , cointreau (orange) or cognac is often used and it imparts flavor in a much easier way. If children are eating, then you might not want to use it, but really you don't use that much.

If you go to hulu and look for a video from Alton Brown's good eats show it might be a little more informative then the Martha Stewart one was. Although his recipe takes more time he does break down how and why things are done plus has some really good tips to make the whole process go as smooth as possible. They could be easily incorporated in to yours if you see fit.

[scoochmaroo]

Great suggestion!  I <3 AB so will definitely have to check it out!

[Ravirar]

Sounds good! I'll make these for mother's day. My mom is a chocolate lover, so do you think it would be good if I covered the truffles in powdered chocolate?

[Amzy]

Do you suggets replacing the heavy cream with evaporated milk or condensed milk?

[fannyperwata]

Hey, I'm from Indonesia and we don't really have cardamom here. Could you suggest something else to replace it? and what's the effect on the taste? (by not adding cardamom) THANKS!! :D

[valkgurl]

In case anyone ventures here looking for holiday inspiration: For a plain Ganache you can just boil--bring it to a boil don't boil the crap outta it!--Heavy Cream (whipping cream NOT the Ultra Paseurized stuff if you can avoid it) and pour it over your chopped chocolate; cover with a heavy plate or a folded up tea towel and use a pot lid --this is to hold in the heat--and let sit for about 10 mins and blend. Will look "chunky" when you take the lid off but will blend smooth.

If your choc "seizes" ie becomes grainy and hard and funky looking DO NOT PANIC. Stir in a few teaspoons--you might need more but start with this--of either soft (if the cho mix is still HOT--or melted butter or shortening or coconut oil. Stir until it all melts AGAIN. If you don't have any butter etc use HOT CREAM.

I have read that you can add in some HOT coffee or other HOT liquid and if you keep doing this and stirring it might relax. I have not done this.

You can infuse almost anything into your cream and let it sit as long as it is not something that will go bitter or funky.

You can also use ganache--the melted choc-cream infusion--to FILL and FROST cakes or cookies. Just do it before it gets to the firm -scoop -for -truffles stage-

Buche De Noel recipes sometimes do this and then add a cream layer on top of the ganache for the "log" effect.

You can also melt dark chocs in a double boiler and add some corn syrup and spread it out on a sheet of wax paper and chill---if you "scramble" the top of it you can use for bark decorations.

Can see we are working towards holiday cooking here!!!!!

Great recipe tho! And I don't even LIKE Martha!

[tigerbomb8]

these are nice with honeycomb

[bowow0807]

i made a variation the first time i made this and it was delicious, although i need to work on a formula similar to pro bakers percentages like chocolate 100%, cream 40%, and so on. . . because my truffles anded up too soft that drooped at room temp aka 80F or 27C

[karlpinturr]

Them Truffles sure look good, Scooch! My Dad likes Rum Truffles, so I might see if I can get some flavouring (he's petrified about drink-driving, so won't touch them if he thinks there's ANY alcohol) ready for Father's Day - whenever that is this year.
Now, about yours not being as easy to roll as you thought - perhaps the freezer was a bit too much? Or you just left them a little too long? I'd suggest you take them out a couple of minutes earlier and/or leave them to warm back up for a couple...
Finally, does anyone know if 'heavy cream' is what we Brits call 'double' (or 'whipping') cream? - if not, then what? Thanks.

[DimensionalDecay]

i'm not british nor have i ever been there, but in Canada, whipping cream and heavy cream are interchangable, not to much of a difference, generally if you want whipped cream you would buy the whipping variety, i think it's has some sugar and stuff added to give it some sweetness. so i would imagine that double might be the same as heavy.  Your best bet would be to try the double cream if it doesn't work, you'll still have a nice gooy snack to eat!

[karlpinturr]

Thanks for that - I'll give it a go, and let folks know (sorry - I'm a poet, though you might not know it!). As you say, a nice gooey snack would be better than no truffles!

[Supernewby]

I wish I could edit replies.

There's a nice chart on this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_cream

[karlpinturr]

Thanks - I'll favourite that - it'll help a lot.

[Supernewby]

British 'Double Cream' will work in place of US 'Whipping/Heavy' cream. You are right in that you want a high fat content, at least 30%.

I've used Double Cream to make ganache, which uses the same basic method of the truffles (but less cream to chocolate ratio).

[duck_tape_]

I'm pretty sure double cream is heavier than heavy cream.

[karlpinturr]

Thanks all! - I've done a bit of trawling, and found the following on epicurious.com:
cream
n.Upon standing, unhomogenized milk naturally separates into two layers — a MILK FAT-rich cream on top and almost fat-free (or skimmed) milk on the bottom. Commercially, the cream is separated from the milk by centrifugal force. Almost all cream that reaches the market today has been pasteurized. There are many varieties of cream, all categorized according to the amount of milk fat in the mixture. Light cream, also called coffee or table cream, can contain anywhere from 18 to 30 percent fat, but commonly contains 20 percent. Light whipping cream, the form most commonly available, contains 30 to 36 percent milk fat and sometimes stabilizers and emulsifiers. Heavy cream, also called heavy whipping cream, is whipping cream with a milk fat content of between 36 and 40 percent. It's usually only available in specialty or gourmet markets. Whipping cream will double in volume when whipped. Half-and-half is a mixture of equal parts milk and cream, and is 10 to 12 percent milk fat. Neither half-and-half nor light cream can be whipped.

The site gives a copyright nod to Barron's Educational Services, Inc. 1995 based on THE FOOD LOVER'S COMPANION, 2nd edition, by Sharon Tyler Herbst.

Read More http://www.epicurious.com/tools/fooddictionary/entry?id=2121#ixzz0fKanhfpD

 So, it seems I need to look for as high a fat content as I can, rather than being blinkered by our different terminologies...

Thanks again!