Truffles 980

INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

First, a truffle (as I mean it) consists of two parts: the center (or
ganache), and the coating. Depending on the size and flavor of the
ganache, the coating can provide extra taste, or be "merely" decorous.
The ganache should be prepared first. It is, essentially, an equal
mixture of chocolate and cream, cooked and reduced a bit. (Note that
white chocolate is *different*. I'd use closer to 60% white
chocolate, 40% cream, or maybe even 75-25, with a white chocolate
ganache. White chocolate is hard to do right, though, and may take
lots of experimentation.)
To make a simple ganache: Cut 10oz bittersweet chocolate (I use
Ghiradelli chocolate bars, available in most supermarkets) into small
pieces, about the size of small or medium chocolate chips. (You can
use 10oz of chocoalte chips, if you can find a flavor and brand that
you like. Since I like to use bittersweet chocolate, and most
chocolate chips are semisweet, I usually end up chopping my own.)
In a large enough saucepan, place the chocolate pieces and one and a
half to two cups of heavy whipping cream. Cook the cream and
chocolate at a low-to-medium heat, stirring as necessary (remember,
cream can burn), until it boils. Let it boil for a short while; if
you used more cream, you may want it to reduce a bit. (The more
cream-to-chocolate you have, the softer the ganache will be; the more
chocolate-to-cream you have, the harder and richer it will be. This
is one of the variations you can make. Use more cream for "melt in
your mouth" ganache, and more chocolate for stuff that will keep you
awake and wired for hours ;).) Pour the mixture through a strainer
into a large enough bowl; place the bowl in the refrigerator for a
few hours, or overnight.
When the mixture has hardened as much as it will (it will still be
very soft, of course, but it will be malleable), scoop it in small,
spoon-sized pieces, and roll them in your hands until round. Use lots
of paper-towels or napkins, when your hands have melted chocolate on
them, it is much harder to roll! Place the balls on a cookiesheet
covered with wax paper, and, when finished, place the cookiesheet in
the freezer (or, if not going to finish the truffles immediately, in
the refrigerator; they can stay that way overnight without harm).
To make a simple, tempered coating: Take two pounds of semi-sweet
chocolate (yes, two *pounds*); cut into *largish* chunks. You can use
chocolate chips for this, but the larger the chunks, the better (to a
point).
Place one and a half pounds of the chocolate into a large cooking
dish; also place in two to four Tbls. of lard (crisco, for example,
works quite well). This is to thin out the chocolate a bit, but you
don't want to have too much.
Slowly heat and stir the chocolate until fully melted. At that point,
remove from the heat, and put in some of the unmelted chocolate. The
point here is to temper the chocolate by cooling it down quickly.
(For small enough amounts of chocolate, you could also temper it by
sticking the pan in cold water, but when dealing with large amounts,
that approach is considerably harder.) The large chunks will melt; in
so doing, they will cool down the rest of the chocolate. (This is why
the chunks should be largish: small pieces will melt more easily, and
you want to use as much of the energy as possible.) Keep adding
chocolate and stirring until the melted chocolate is slightly below
body temperature, putting a bit on your upper lip and having it feel
only slightly warm is a good test. Another test is to briefly stick a
knife into the melted chocolate, and take it out; it should "dry"
quickly, looking somewhat dull.
N.B.: if you use white chocolate, use less lard, and, again, be more
careful. White chocolate burns easily.
At this point, you're now ready to dip the truffles; this is the
easiest part:
Take the cookiesheet of centers, and place it next to pan with the
melted coating. Coat each one by droping it into the coating mixture,
and moving it around with a fork. When fully coated, take it out with
the fork, and drop it onto a waxpaper- covered pan (or plate, or
whatever). You may need to reheat the coating up a bit from time to
time; this is okay, the nice thing about largely-unmixed chocolate is
that you can reheat it again without problem.
You can vary the recipe in many ways. Examples: Add some liqueur
(Grand Marnier, for example) to the ganache while you're preparing
it; you can also add other flavors; I am partial to orange extract or
banana flavoring
Coat the centers in two phases: in the first phase, spread some
coating in your palms, and roll the centers between your hands,
covering them with a very thin coating. Cool them off (either in a
refrigerator or a freezer), and then proceed with the coating as
described above. The truffles will be less warped by the dipping.
Make two coating mixtures, one of white chocolate, one of some dark
chocolate; in a third bowl, pour some of each and swirl them around
(but do not mix). When you dip the centers, you will then get a
swirled effect.
File ftp://ftp.idiscover.co.uk/pub/food/mealmaster/recipes/mmkah001.zip

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