I make ganaches and truffles several times in a year, but since Christmas is a feast, it seems incomplete without them. That and they make lovely gifts. And, well, if you can make them look as festive as the season, well...
This year I made two different flavours of truffles; Milk Chocolate with a hint of cointreau, and White Chocolate with a hint of Forest Raspberry Brandy (A.K.A Magic Potion). That sounds terribly chic, doesn't it? Like most of my recipes, I wish they were more complicated, so I could pretend to be culinarily gifted. Ah, well.
This is the recipe I use, which seems to work with any chocolate.
Chocolate Truffles
180ml Double Cream
30g Unsalted Butter
230g-250g chocolate.
Regarding chocolate, before I go into method. The better quality the chocolate, the better the flavour. Belgian chocolate is particularly lovely. If using dark, go for something around the 70% cocoa solids mark. For milk, anything over 35% is going to be a bonus. For white, it really seems to be more about quality than content for flavour, but the belgian chocolate I used was 28% and is divine. For a bittersweet chocolate, I have used half dark and half milk too; you get the heady cocoa colour and tang, but it melts creamily away into sweetness. But then, I am a heathen, and I do so love candy-sweet white and thick creamy milk. Yum.
Whatever chocolate you are using, break it into pieces in a heat proof bowl and set aside.
Heat the cream and butter over a medium heat in a good pan. Once the butter has melted and been combined by whisking gently, bring to the boil. Take off the heat as soon as it has boiled, and pour it over the chocolate.
Leave the cream-chocolate bowl alove for a few minutes, then whisk it through. The hot cream will have melted the chocolate. When ready you with have an even, glossy, sumptuous chocolate ganache liquid.
If you wish to make boozy or flavoured truffles, this is the time to add your flavouring. For spirits, 2 tbsp will give it a hint, a fragrance and a slight taste. 4-5tbsp or so will give you a kick. For non alchoholic flavourings like vanilla, lemon etc, 1 tsp of extract should be enough. You can use lemon juice, but in my experience and basic kitchen technology, it has always curdled somewhat, yeilding a less smooth finish. If you do choose juice, you will obviously need more. The mixture pre-chill is completely palatable, so 'season' to taste. I would 'season' it a little too much, if you get me, because the flavour will lose edge as it cools.
Refridgerate for at least 4 hours, but prefferably overnight.
And that really is it. Once the ganache has set, spoon out teaspoonfuls and roll into balls in some sort of coating. For milk, dark or bittersweet chocolate, cocoa powder is a simple and classy finish. For white chocolate, you can achieve a similar effect with iciing sugar, or a blend of icing sugar and cocoa sieved together. I think white chocolate truffles are so sweet that the icing sugar can kill them somewhat, but that's jsut my point of view.
For more 'exciting' coatings, this year I used for my milk chocolates:
bittersweet melted chocolate
chocolate sugar strands
chocolate curls
chocolate sprinkles.
And for the white chocolates (which is where the title becomes apt):
various pink sprinkles
hundreds and thousands (non pareils) in pink and multicoloured themes
pink sugar strands
pink glitter sugar
There are no words for how festive these looked. In a cut glass candy bowl, they looked like shining baubles.
I must apologise for a lack of pictures in this post. I shall add some later. I am having a little camera difficulty at the moment. That and since a large number of these have been snaffled, I may have to make a whole new batch to photograph. What a pity... wink wink.
Bake for 15-20 mins. In my oven on 160-170, they took 18.
These cupcakes did not impress me one bit to begin with. There was something about the flavour combo that just didn’t work for me. It was only after the cake was aged for a day or two that I really began to appreciate the smoky chocolate and indulgent fruitiness of these cakes. I’m still not 100% convinced by the ganache/cake combo, since the ganache packs a real hefty wallop against the most subtle flavour of the cake. The ganache is incredible on its own if you use the right chocolate, and makes very good truffles in its own right. However, flavours aside, the cake is very light, fluffy and moist, and flavours more subtle. I think if I make these again I’ll just chocolate/royal ice them, and stick a foam banana on top! How wonderfully gaudy! Squee!