Despite the name of this sweet, there is no mushroom among the ingredients. These balls of thick chocolate are so named because they supposedly resemble truffles in color and shape.
Where does this sweet originate from? Is it French, Swiss, Spanish or Belgian…? Well, all these cuisines have their versions of chocolate truffle. Swiss chocolate truffles often includes butter in the mixture. The Spanish version has sweetened condensed milk and rum (wow!). The Belgian variant, called praline, is similar to the French bonbon — ground almonds and caramelized sugar mixed with chocolate, cream, butter then piped into a chocolate shell.
My version of chocolate truffle is French and Belgian. Meaning? Cream was heated to simmering point then, off the heat, chocolate and butter were stirred in. And, to balance the flavors, I like to add a little salt. The mixture was poured into a shallow bowl and left to chill in the fridge until firm — four hours, in my case. “Firm” means the mixture can be shaped.
I prepared three coatings for the balls of chocolate. Some were rolled in sifted powdered sugar, others in cocoa powder and the rest in walnuts.
Now, here’s the thing. Depending on your kitchen’s room temperature, the chilled ganache may soften before you are able to form all of it into balls. If it does, put back in the fridge and chill for about 30 minutes then start scraping and shaping again.
Ingredients
- 1 ¾ cups dark chocolate morsels
- ⅓ cup whipping cream not whipped cream
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 1 generous pinch rock salt
- ½ cup finely chopped walnuts (or whatever nuts you prefer)
- ¼ cup cocoa powder sifted
- ¼ cup powdered sugar sifted
Instructions
- Heat the cream in a sauce pan until simmering (do not boil because the cream may curdle). Turn off the heat. Add the chocolate, salt and butter. Stir until smooth.
- Pour the mixture into a shallow bowl and chill until firm — four hours, in my case. “Firm” means the mixture can be shaped.
- When the chocolate mixture is firm enough, start preparing whatever you want to coat your truffles with.
- Using a teaspoon, scrape the chilled chocolate mixture to form one-inch balls.
- Coat some of the chocolate balls with the chopped nuts, some in powdered sugar and the others in cocoa powder.
- Keep the truffles in the fridge in a covered container.
