Chocolate Recipes

from our chocolate recipe collection

Donnelly Chocolate Truffles

by Richard Donnelly, Donnelly Chocolates

Filling materials: medium pot for boiling cream, medium bowl, hammer or knife for chopping your chocolate, whisk.

Filling ingredients

  • 8 oz. (1/2 pint) of heavy cream. (Your local bakery, restaurant and coffee shop may have access to cream with a higher percentage of butter fat than consumers do in a supermarket. Ask if they will sell you some of their cream.)
  • 16 oz. finely chopped dark chocolate couverture or 20 oz. of milk or white chocolate couverture. (The finest European chocolate couvertures are available via mail order or retail from Donnelly Chocolates.) The chunks of chocolate should not be larger than 1/2 inch around.
  • Optional: 1 oz. unsalted dairy butter or Plugra ®. Plugra ® is a European style butter made in the US. The flavor is distinct and the percentage of water in the butter is much lower than in typical dairy butters. It is available at some specialty and grocery stores.
  • Optional: Substitute 4 oz. cream with 4 oz. of fruit purée and add 2 oz. of butter to the boiling cream/purée.
  • Optional: Add 1 oz. ground coffee or loose tea to the boiled cream, let sit for five minutes, reheat the cream to just below the boiling point then strain the cream onto the chopped chocolate.
  • Optional: Add up to 2 oz. of your favorite liqueur to the finished truffle filling.

Filling process: Boil your cream or cream/purée/butter and pour this onto the chopped chocolate. Off the burner put the bowl your cream and chocolate are in back in the pot the cream was boiled in. The heat given off by the pot will help the chocolate chunks to melt. Whisk the cream/chocolate slowly until this is a smooth homogenous paste. Let the filling cool for 10 minutes then add butter and/or liqueur if you want to. Let the truffle filling sit in the bowl at room temperature until it has the consistency of peanut butter. The time it takes for the filling to be ready to pipe depends on the batch size, the size and thickness of your bowl and your room temperature.

Shaping the truffles: There are two options for shaping truffles. Option one (the most efficient and cleanest way):

Materials:

  • spatula
  • pastry bag (the best pastry bags and lots of other great things are available mail order from Sur La Table tel # 800-243-0852) and 1/3 in. tip (or for one time only use you can use a Ziploc ® bag with the corner snipped of and the pastry tip inserted in the corner.)
  • cookie sheet covered with wax paper
  • 1 cup of powdered sugar

Method

With the pastry bag or Ziploc ® bag squirt the filling on the wax paper in drops as small as an unshelled peanut or as large as an unshelled walnut. Let the drops set until the fillings are firm enough to pick up with your fingers without being misshapen or sticking to your fingers. Rub some powdered sugar into the palm of your hands. Roll the truffle drops into round or oval shapes. Let these sit several hours before dipping them.

Option two: No materials are needed. Refrigerate the bowl with the filling for five to ten minutes or until the filling is firm enough that you can pick off a small ball without it sticking to your fingers. With your finger tips shape the filling into drops as small as a grape or as large as an unshelled walnut. Rub some powdered sugar into the palm of your hands and shape the fillings into oval or ball shapes. Let the shapes sit for several hours before dipping.

Coating the truffles: There are three options for coating truffles. The option you choose should be based on what you and your gift recipients like to eat and also the ingredients available to you.

Option one/Materials:

  • a 9x12 in. baking dish filled with 1 lb. sifted European cocoa powder
  • a chocolate dipping fork or table fork
  • plate for shaking cocoa off the truffles

Process: simply roll the truffle balls in the cocoa, remove them to a plate and shake the plate to remove excess cocoa.

Option two/Materials:

  • a medium size bowl
  • a 9x12 in. baking dish
  • a chocolate dipping fork or dinner fork
  • a plate or colander for sifting off the excess cocoa

Ingredients:

  • 2 lbs of liquid and tempered dark, milk or white chocolate couverture (available via mail order from Donnelly Chocolates)
  • 1 lb. sifted European unsweetened powdered cocoa

Method

Your truffle fillings should be at room temperature. Dip your hands in the tempered chocolate and keeping a puddle of chocolate in the palm of one hand, pick up the fillings one by one with the other hand and roll them in the puddle of chocolate. Drop this into the powdered cocoa. Let the truffle sit for about 1 minute until the chocolate is dull colored and almost set. Gently flip the truffles with your fork or push some cocoa onto them so they are completely covered. Let the truffles sit in the cocoa for at least five minutes or until the chocolate is hard enough so that you can remove the truffles with your fork without chocolate sticking to it.

Option three: If you do not like the taste or mouth feel of cocoa powder, follow the directions for option two and substitute cocoa powder with 1 lb. chocolate shavings or 1 lb. very finely chopped nuts.

Finishing: Remove the truffles to a plate or colander. Shake to remove the excess cocoa. Wrap the truffles in confectioners foil or put them directly into candy cups.

Yield: This recipe makes about 150 European size truffles.

Storage: The shelf life of truffles is about two weeks.