Chocolate Truffles

Our family makes these all the time for holidays, parties or wedding receptions. They're easy and taste more fabulous than this poor blog can describe.

If you're feeling particularly ambitious you can make a Truffle Tree (sounds like Dr. Seuss I know, but bear with me here) where you take about 70 small truffles, put them on toothpicks and use them to cover a Styrofoam cone. Insert a dowl into the bottom of the cone and "plant" it in a decorated terra cotta pot. I've lifted this picture from Reader's Digest where they've used a Styrofoam ball instead, but it looks similar to what I've made and you get the idea.

The thing to remember is to cover the Styrofoam with aluminum foil first and tightly pack the chocolates. I insert gold or silver leaves, pink rose buds, whatever coordinates with my theme, with straight pins in between the chocolates to hide the silver underneath. The benefit to using a cone over a ball too is that in warm weather the chocolates won't get soft and drop off the bottom of your tree like it's harvest time.

½ c heavy whipping cream
1/3 c granulated sugar
6 T butter (no substitutes)
1 c semi sweet chips
1 t pure vanilla extract
fine quality milk chocolate for dipping

Melt the cream, sugar, butter and chips over medium-low heat, stirring frequently until smooth and bubbly, being very careful not to burn. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Chill in refrigerator over night. Form truffle centers by taking 1 T chocolate ganache mixture and rolling between your hands into a ball (you'll get very messy, just plan on it). Try not to overwork the centers and place them on a wax-paper covered cookie sheet. Chill overnight. Dip centers in melted milk chocolate with a fork. It'll be tricky and take some practice to do it so that you cover the ball completely but keep at it. It always takes me a few "throw-aways" to get the hang of it again. Bummer.

Note: if your centers are unusually soft, try freezing them overnight instead of chilling. Also, cut back a little on the butter if you're still having trouble. You can add a 1/4 t mint extract for variety, just stir it in with the vanilla at the end. You can dip in dark chocolate or white chocolate as well, though white chocolate can get messy because the hot melted white chocolate will begin to melt the dark frozen center and become marbled the farther along you go in the dipping process.

Cover finished truffles with finely chopped nuts, thin lines of a contrasting color chocolate, or sprinkles.

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