can I truffle you for a drink?

With Valentines Day approaching, I have not-so-surprisingly had chocolate on my mind. There's probably nothing so perfectly balanced between decadent, elegant, and simple to make as are truffles. Better still, handmade truffles more faithfully fulfill their original intention than do perfectly-shaped machined ones. Chocolate truffles try to mimic their fungi counterparts - treasures dug up out of the dirt. The dusting of cocoa powder here represents the loamy fresh soil that you would have to dig through to find such a prize.

truffles try to look like they were just dug up like buried treasures

I make my truffles with this ganache recipe that I talked about a bit ago. Spread the ganache from that recipe thin into freezer-proof trays and put it in the freezer. This time the bain marie is unavoidable. Melt some dark high-cacao level chocolate – something sultry in the above 70 percent range – in a stainless steel bowl over a pan with hot simmering water in it. It’s important that the bowl doesn’t actually touch the water. Leave it there for a while and then give it a stir with a spoon. If it comes together it’s ready.

Roll the now chilled ganache into balls and drop these into the chocolate (might want to let it cool a bit, off the pan, first). One way is to use a melon baller, but I tend to find two spoons work pretty well. Pluck out the coated ganache balls with a toothpick and drop them into another small bowl of cacao powder, rolling the bowl around until completely coated. Pluck again and drop on wax paper, and let them chill in the freezer until set. These keep for a long time, and are stupidly delicious. For wine pairing, red or semi-sweet sparkling (like, not brut) works equally well, but I tip towards one or the other depending on the ganache flavoring. I recommend Chambord flavored ganache with merlot or another red wine that has sweetness and berry tones like malbec. With something like Grand Marnier, you might want to try an Asti Spumante or a semi-seco cava - wine with a little sweetness always goes nicely with chocolate. So easy, yet amazing!

chocolate ganache

The method that I use is extremely simple but also very effective, so give it a try. You'll want to have:

cream (whipping cream, heavy cream, double cream, whatever you know it as)

chocolate (the better the quality the better the flavor, but even Meiji bars work in a pinch)

*liqueur (optional but amazing as always)

So 2 or 3 ingredients. Can’t be too hard, right? Break your chocolate up into smallish pieces and leave them in a bowl (preferably metal). Pour over your liqueur if you’re using it. You could also use coffee. Heat the cream in a saucepan (low or medium heat, please) stirring so that it doesn’t stick to the bottom and die – if you have a nice thick bottomed pan this probably won’t happen though. When bubbles start, well, bubbling, around the outside edge, you’re almost ready. Give it a bit longer, so that it’s just started boiling, and pour it over the chocolate. Now, leave it be! Just for a minute or so, then you can stir it up. Use a spoon and stir until it goes from ugly duckling to molten chocomagic. If the cream wasn’t hot enough, and the chocolate doesn’t melt all the way, you have to do one of those annoying bain marie things where you put a metal bowl on top of a saucepot with hot water to cook it with steam heat. So, what I'm saying is, just make the cream hot enough the first time around.

Wait, how much cream and how much chocolate, you ask? Ganache is used for many things, from truffle cores to cake icings, so it’s not set in stone. I think an icing ganache is pretty nice when the cream is just enough to cover the chocolate pieces. A runnier ganache can be made with more cream, or a truffle ganache with less. Just try it out. Get a feel for it. I would say as a rule of thumb that it doesn’t take as much cream as I usually think it will.

For the liqueur, you only need enough so that the flavor comes through a bit. I use around a shot. Anything will work, including classics like Grand Marnier, or something fruity like Chambord, or nutty like amaretto. Split your chocolate up and try a sampling of different flavors for an elegant wine tasting time!