Disclaimer: This post by no means advocates the celebration of St. Valentine's Day through the conspicuous consumption of chocolate.It does, however, present an excellent way to do it if you so choose.
Chocolate truffles are a decadent and satisfying dessert, and are also ridiculously easy to make. A homemade truffle may not match a confection from Jacques Torres (whose website background alone makes me salivate), but they will most certainly be a lusciously different experience than a mass-produced Lindor truffle.
I stumbled into making my first chocolate truffle by accident: I had made a sinful little pot of hot chocolate that I will now shamelessly admit was actually just slightly-thinned ganache. I drank part of the batch and, sated, stored the rest in the refrigerator. A few hours later, I discovered my chocolate libation had solidified. I took a tea spoon and dragged it through the surface of chocolate for a taste.
As the spoonful creamily melted and spread over my tongue, I knew that I had to make truffles, even if they would be too soft-- if I didn't, I ran the risk of consuming another entire mug-full of cold "hot chocolate" in one sitting. For the sake of my health and my dignity, I had to implement portion control.
I used the teaspoon and my hands to make approximately eight to ten small truffles, rolling them each gently in cocoa. They were rustic, misshapen, and absolutely wonderful.
I don't have a truffle recipe of my own to share since neither a bar of chocolate nor a pint of cream have ever again stuck around my kitchen together long enough for truffles to happen, but here are a few folks who do have recipes:
- For the exacting mind: Cooking For Engineers
- For a collaborative effort: wikiHow
- For a dose of serious food-porn with your instructions: Smitten Kitchen
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