Tasty Tuesday - Perfect Truffles

A good friend of mine talked me into doing a cooking class with her. It was chocolate and champagne, so how do I say no? I didn't, obviously. I found out later that the class was a truffle making class - mmmm yum! I'd made truffles before, but who cares. We were encouraged to bring our own ingredients to use for the truffles, which I thought was a really fun idea.

In the end, we had vanilla, orange, peppermint, Kahlua, cinnamon, salt truffles, and more. I liked most of them, but to be honest, the white truffle salt truffles I made were possibly my favorite.

Bonus? I have a lot of Christmas gifts to give from bus drivers to therapists to teachers and assistants to gymnastics and tae kwon do instructors. I'm a little afraid to do a full count. Doing presents for that many people is really more than I can afford or justify. But this? This is my solution. I am making truffles for everyone, boxing them up nicely, and passing them along. Tell me these don't look perfect?

They are super easy and relatively inexpensive, too. My friend who took the class with me? She isn't my most domestic friend, and she's going to make them again. So can you....

Perfect Truffles

Ingredients:
9 oz bittersweet chocolate (Trader Joe's has great stuff for a reasonable price)
1 T unsweeted cocoa powder
4 oz butter
1/3 c heavy cream
1 t sea salt
1 t oil - or so

Directions:
Chop 7 oz chocolate and butter into small pieces. Add all the cocoa and place them into a cmall stainless steel bowl. Heat in a 200 degree (lowest it goes) oven for about five minutes. Don't let it burn!

In a small saucepan, heat the cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and pour over your chocolate mixture. Let it sit for a minute or two, then stir gently. Add the salt (or your other flavoring*) and stir until the mixture is smooth and shiny.

Chill in the bowl for 30 minutes in a fridge until it is solidified enough to work with. Use a cookie scoop (#60) or a spoon to form the truffles. Place them on parchment paper or a sil pat. Chill again for another five to ten minutes.

While they are chilling a second time, melt the last 2 oz chopped chocolate gently in a double boiler (or in a microwave, checking every 20 seconds). Slowly drizzle in a little oil until it gets to a smooth consistency that is pourable but not super thin - you want it to stick to the truffles.

Use a fork to dip the truffles into the chocolate coating, roll them to cover, then return them to the sil pat. Sprinkle a little of your salt or other flavoring atop the melted chocolate and let harden.

* You can also use 1/2-1 t of a liquid flavoring in place of the salt such as Bailey's or expresso or vanilla or whatever sounds good to you. Or use 1/2 t of cinnamon, etc. Instead of dipping in melted chocolate, you can also roll them in more of the cocoa (if you do cinnamon as a filling, mix some cinnamon into your cocoa for an extra pop).

Enjoy this and more at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday with Blessed With Grace!

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