Fundamentals: Simple Homemade Truffles
What chocolate lover wouldn’t be thrilled with rich, decadent truffles for Valentine’s Day? Instead of heading to the nearest chocolate shop, pick up a few items from the market and make these homemade chocolate truffles with your own two hands!
There is something really special about being able to create a delicious and meaningful Valentine’s Day gift for your sweetie. Plus, it’s a great way to show how much you care without breaking the bank!
Truffles may seem a little intimidating; after all they are sold in high end chocolate boutiques for some serious cash. However, making them yourself is simple and actually quite fun, unless of course you don’t like getting your hands dirty, and by “dirty” I mean full of chocolate.
Nervous yet? No worries, I am going to walk you through the process and provide you with a recipe that’s so simple, even the Worst Cook in America could make them with rocking results.
Let’s get started…
Fundamental Information
A chocolate truffle is basically ganache that is firmed up in the refrigerator, formed into balls and rolled in cocoa powder. No idea what ganache is? In its basic form, ganache is simply a mixture of chocolate and cream. We’ll cover the many uses for ganache in an upcoming Fundamentals post. In this post, I will be referring to the truffle mixture as ganache.
Fundamental Gear
-high quality chocolate (such as Scharffen Berger or Guittard)
-small scoop (about two teaspoons or a melon baller)
– shallow casserole dish
-plastic wrap
-miniature foil or paper liners, optional
-double boiler (No double boiler? Simply place a heat-safe bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, make sure the bowl is NOT touching the water…you now have a double boiler!)
Let’s talk flavorings…
You can infuse your truffles with a variety of items like espresso, and spirits such as liqueurs. The key is letting your ganache sit at room temperature for about a half hour before stirring in any type of alcohol. You want to maintain that boozy goodness, not burn it off. Some liqueurs that work well in truffles are Grand Marnier for an orange flavor, Fraise des Bois or Chambord for raspberry flavor, or Kahlua. But, truly you can use whatever type of alcohol that floats your boat, even beer!
Finishing Touches
Once you have rolled your truffles, you can finish them in a variety of ways. I love to simply roll them in cocoa powder. If I use bittersweet chocolate, I’ll roll the truffles in sweetened cocoa powder. You can also roll them in nuts, sprinkles, cookie crumbs or dip them in tempered chocolate.
Challenges and Trouble Shooting
- Broken Ganache: If your ganache breaks, you’ll know right away, it will look curdled due to the fat and liquid separating. Don’t toss it! Simply heat a couple tablespoons more cream and stir it in little by little until it comes back together.
- Hard Ganache: If you refrigerated your ganache for too long, it will become too hard to scoop. Simply set it out at room temperature until it becomes pliable enough to work with.
- Infusions: If you are infusing truffles with spirits of any sort be sure to let the chocolate cool enough, so the heat does not burn off the alcohol. A good measure of readiness is to place a small dab of chocolate on your lips, if it’s warm and not hot the truffle mixture is ready to be infused.
Looking for more truffle inspiration?
Simple Cookies and Cream Truffles from My Baking Addiction
Peppermint Truffles from Food for My Family
Chocolate Frangelico Truffles from Bakers Royale
Basic Truffles
Yield: about 30 truffles
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients:
- 12 ounces chocolate, chopped (semisweet or bittersweet)
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2-3 tablespoons liqueur, optional (see step #5)
Directions:
- In a double boiler over barely simmering water, combine chocolate, butter and heavy cream. Heat until chocolate is melted. Stir until you have a smooth mixture.
- Remove from heat and whisk in vanilla.
- Pour into a shallow casserole dish and cool to room temperature.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 2 hours. If you refrigerate longer than two hours, the mixture will be too hard to work with. If this occurs, allow the mixture to sit at room temperature until they are pliable enough to work with.
- If you are infusing truffles with spirits of any sort be sure to let the chocolate cool enough, so the heat does not burn off the alcohol. A good measure of readiness is to place a small dab of chocolate on your lips, if it’s warm and not hot the truffle mixture is ready to be infused.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a small scoop (2 teaspoons) or a melon baller, scoop out chocolate mixture, roll into one inch balls, and place on prepared baking sheet.
- Continue with remaining chocolate mixture.
- Roll balls in your desired coating, I typically use high quality sweetened cocoa powder such as Scharffen Berger.
- Refrigerate truffles until ready to serve.
Great post! A friend of mine gave me the recipes for the truffles we sell at our gourmet cheese shop inside the grocery store where I work. I couldn’t believe how simple they are, and how much we charge for them ($15.99/lb).
Love all of these basic tips! Truffles are so much fun to make!
How cute and so perfect for Valentine’s Day! Yum!
wheres step #4?
:(
It’s fixed now, it got cut off when I cut and pasted from the word document.
-Jamie
I ♥ truffles and these look so cute!
What an informative post with some beautiful looking truffles!
99.9% of the time I scratch my head over why anyone bothers buying truffles when they are SO darn easy to make, like you just proved with this post! YUM. Occasionally, the chocolate maker provides the.1% impetus to purchasing said truffles. But really, I’d rather make my own…then I can eat more…
I love to make truffles, it gives me an excuse to eat ganache straight from the bowl! I like the idea of adding Chambord to the ganache, I’ll try that next time.
Thanks for breaking this down for us! I am scared to make truffles for some reason, and now I feel a lot better about it!
Jamie, this is a fantastic post. You’ve broken it down into simple, non-intimidating steps, with great troubleshooting ideas. I’ve never made truffles before, but I totally know that I can do it now.
These look so tasty. Sometimes the basic is best.
Just returned from the market so I’m stocked up on all the essentials for Valentine’s weekend baking – and here’s your post, yum! I am a huge truffle lover but have been afraid that I couldn’t make my own, I think I will try this recipe, as always so appreciative of your inspiration!
I love how easy truffles are, yet they still are such a decadent, wonderful treat. These look beautiful. Who wouldn’t want to get these for Valentine’s Day? Or Tuesday? :)
GORGEOUS! Great tips and with great instructions!
I have never made truffles but I love to eat them. Thanks for the tips!
Great tips!! There is a ton of fantastic information on this post alone… would you be willing to do more?? As a self proclaimed bad cook, I can use all the help I can get, and your explanations and wording is so easy to read and comprehend!
Blessings-
Amanda
These are simple and stunning! Lovely :)
WOW these look and sound AMAZING!! love the trouble shooting tips too!!
LOVE LOVE LOVE the tips!! I have never made truffles (been a bit intimidated, actually) so this is extremely helpful.
Yours look gorgeous!!
Very helpful…..thank you! :)
Such a great instruction post. We love these especially this time of year!
These are beautiful! And all the tips and steps you gave are great, thanks! I’d love for you to submit this to the M&T Spotlight at http://www.makeandtakes.com/spotlight.
Chocolate Truffles are one of my biggest indulgences…love, love, love them! Love your photos!
cool internet site. Gave me a improved perception of all the market. Thank you partner
My sister sent me these tiramasu truffles from this site http://www.sugar-plum.com/Tiramisu-Truffles-p/bu145.htm and I absolutely love them. But I don’t want to order half a pound at a time (it took me a while to get through them, they were so rich!)
Can you post something on how to make flavored truffles? Not just the Tiramisu ones there, but there are these Raspberry Truffles that I just LOVE!
I’m going to try to make this recipe over the holiday weekend, I would love to surprise my sister with a home made batch!!!! Wish me luck!
– Lisa
Thank you so much for the tip on adding heated cream to “fix” breakage!!
I am helping my future sister in law plan her wedding. Right now, we’re working on the wedding favors. Kelly is giving the reception guests a single truffle. These will make the perfect gift! I did a test run and these were easy to make and delicious! She and I began looking for packaging, and we found the cutest favor boxes from Box and Wrap! These boxes fit a single truffle, and the boxes come in all colors. Favors Done!
I make truffles all the time with nutella it’s so good!!
Hello, I will be attempting to make these truffels as wedding favors. Are the hard enouth to put in little boxes. (4 in each box). Thank you. Josie
Josie-
I always recommend that people do a series of test runs before using a recipe for a big event such as a wedding. Yes, they are definitely hard enough to store in boxes, but you will definitely want to store them within the refrigerator until you are ready to serve them. They will get melty if they get too warm. Hope this helps.
Jamie
These look awesome! Do you think if I used 2% milk instead of cream it would still work?
Hi Jessica,
Thanks for your comment! Heavy cream has a very different structure to any kind of regular milk, even whole milk. I would not substitute it here, your truffles will never solidify.
– Jamie
hi can u tell me how long I can keep them in fridge before giving as a gift thank u
Colette, they’ll keep for about a week.
– Jamie
I don’t really want to add liquor. What can I do if I want to make blueberry or coconut flavoured truffles?
Thank you.
Carolina, you can use extract in those flavors in place of alcohol.
– Jamie
How long will these last? Also can they be covered in chocolate?
Nicola, these will last for up to a week in the refrigerator, and yes, you can cover them in chocolate.
– Jamie
Sooooo…making a bunch of these for christmas but I want to booze em up! In your directions it says add the alcohol when they are cooler…so put in fridge, take out, add alcohol & then back in fridge until ready? Also with cheaper chocolate does it just affect taste or will it affect how it sets up too? I bought some white choc bark for example to make some of these white chocolate in addition to the original choc ones. Will that work? Last…do you have any fun flavors ideas that youve tried? Im thinking ill do white choc Rasberry, Choc with sea salt & caramel, Lemon & powdered sugar & I have some Peanut Butter flavored vodka so IM thinking choc peanut butter would be tasty too.
Ashley, that method sounds perfect to me. The quality of chocolate will always affect the outcome, but I think you can use white chocolate bark just fine. I’ve never seen peanut butter flavored vodka, that sounds amazing!
– Jamie
Just want to point out that if one is properly using their double boiler, you never have to worry about the temperatures getting high enough that you have to worry about the alcohol evaporating. The melting point of chocolate is usually between 86 and 90 °F, The melting point of butter is 82.4 – 96.8 °F. You really shouldn’t be getting above 100°F while working with the chocolate.
To contrast this Ethanol boils at 173.3°F, WAY above the temperatures you should be working in. So no need to let it cool if you are doing everything else properly.
Good point, but a liquid will start evaporating before it gets to its boiling point. Think of, say, clothes drying on a line: the water is at room temperature but will still gradually evaporate. Moreover, the higher the temperature the quicker the clothes will dry. Same deal with the ethanol in your liqueur. On the other hand, losing a bit of ethanol is not the end of the world, and maybe adding your liqueur while the chocolate is a bit warmer is perfectly acceptable to you as a chef :)
Ooh I am looking forward to making a batch of these with Frangelico added in – my absolute favourite!!
I hope you enjoy them, Lisa! Thanks for stopping by!
-Jamie
Is there a good non-dairy substitute for the cream? My loves can’t have the milk
Hi, Lisa! I think coconut milk might work. Let me know how it goes!
Hi, I have only tried to make truffles today, and I used another recipe as I hadn’t spotted yours, but the ganache is still soft after refrigerating, so when I try to cover them in chocolate, they start to go even gooier and are almost impossible to mould and cover. Any ideas would be gratefully accepted .
Hi, Lynne! I don’t know what to say about the other recipe–maybe refrigerate the ganache longer? I hope this helps!
Can I use Semisweet Chocolate chips instead of the bars?
Sade-
You can use high quality chips, but I definitely recommend bars over chips. I hope this helps.
-Jamie
Still an error in the directions. Alcohol infusion in the list of ingredients refers us to step #3. It is step #5.
Thank you, Sue! Error fixed.
Have you ever tried to freeze these. I have to make 25 dozen and was thinking of making in advance and freezing.
Hi, Connie! I think you can freeze these, but you have to make sure they’re tightly wrapped and place in an airtight container. Sometimes the truffles can discolor if they’re frozen, but if they’re wrapped, you should be okay. Good luck!
So I tried making these. I infused with amaretto because well who doesn’t lobe amaretto and chocolate however I’ve had my mixture in the fridge for three hours now and its still not solid enough to roll. In fact its noore solid than when I checked at two hours
Any suggestions?
Hi, Robbin! Two to three hours should be enough time to make the truffles. How did everything turn out? Please let me know; I’m here to help!
Mine turned out too soft. Any ideas?
Hi, Theresa. Maybe refrigerate them a bit longer? Let me know if that helps.