Learn to make chocolate truffles for your Valentine with our a simple, quick recipe. It’s sure to impress!
Story and photograph by Iris Gonzalez
With Valentine’s Day upon us, why not try making your own chocolate truffles?
All you need are some cute boxes and mini-cupcake liners to package your truffles for your lucky Valentine.
Sound difficult? It’s really not.
In fact, you can melt chocolate and roll little balls of rich goodness between your palms, you can make chocolate truffles in a couple of hours.
Once made, keep these in the fridge. Remember, they don’t have preservatives, so your chocolate treasures will keep longer refrigerated until you’re ready to eat, erm, I mean, give them as gifts.
Truffles are best when served at room temperature.
Here’s how you can make your own, plus my own foolproof tips to help you if you get stuck.
Easy Chocolate Truffles Recipe
Ingredients
- 10 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine (you can use chocolate chips, see tips)
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- OPTIONAL: 1/8 cup brandy OR fruit jam OR finely chopped nuts for flavor
- 1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa powder OR finely chopped nuts, OR powdered sugar and cinnamon OR only powdered sugar. You can try toasted coconut or flavored sugars for coating truffles, too.
Method
- Place the 10 ounces of chocolate and butter in a medium size glass mixing bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds. Remove and stir, repeating this process if needed one more time. Cover with a plate and set aside.
- Heat the heavy cream and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat (or microwave carefully) until simmering. Remove from the heat and pour the mixture over the melted chocolate mixture; let stand for 2 minutes.
- Using a rubber spatula, stir gently, starting in the middle of the bowl and working in concentric circles until all the chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth and creamy.
- If using alcohol to flavor, gently stir in the brandy. Pour the mixture into an 8 by 8-inch glass baking dish and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
- Using a teaspoon or melon baller, scoop chocolate onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper and return to the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
- For coating the truffles, have cocoa powder, nuts, powdered sugar and/or toasted coconut each in its own small bowl and set aside.
- Remove the truffles from the refrigerator and shape into balls by rolling between the palms of your hands. Use powder-free vinyl or latex gloves, if desired.
- Roll individual truffles into the small bowl with the cocoa powder, sugar, nuts, or coconut. Move the truffle around in the bowl to coat (why you use a small bowl and refill as needed). Leave truffle in the coating for 10 to 15 seconds before removing.
- Repeat this process until all the truffles are coated. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator as chocolate is notorious for picking up off-flavors.
Tips
- Ghirardelli chocolate chips are a great for truffle making—it’s decent quality chocolate, and it’s already in chips, so no need to chop up a block of chocolate.
- Flavor your chocolate ganache (melted chocolate with cream/butter) with any number of ingredients like brandy, coffee, espresso, fortified red wine (!), fruit jelly, or a flavor extract. Rule of thumb: Add one teaspoon at a time until you like the flavor. DO NOT ADD TOO MUCH! The ganache will not set. If this happens, melt more chocolate and add to your mixture until it does set after cooling in the fridge for an hour.
- Do not flavor ganache with powdered spices (like cinnamon), because you’ll have a gritty mouth feel. Use small amounts of liquid or jelly like a fruit jelly.
- The magic ratio for making truffles: Two parts chocolate: One-part cream/butter. If the recipe above is too much, here’s a scaled down version:
- ¼ cup cream + 4 ounces chocolate + 2 tablespoons butter + 1 tablespoon brandy/cognac/other flavoring
- If using the microwave to melt into ganache for first time, microwave in 15-20 second bursts, check, then repeat. You can always melt it more…but once it’s scorched, there is no rescue.
- If your chocolate seizes (looks grainy or separates), add a pat of butter. Your chocolate got too hot and started to seize up. You can rescue it with a little more warm cream, a little corn syrup, or a pat of butter to coax the chocolate fat molecules to smooth out into luscious creaminess.
Iris Gonzalez is a long-time journalist who covers technology, cybersecurity, and bioscience innovation in San Antonio’s startup community. You can also check out her writing on food, travel, and culture at IrisGonzalez.com.
This article originally published in January 2022. It has been updated.
