Welcome to How To Cook That I am Ann Reardon
And today we are making chocolate truffles.
There are so many possibilities for fillings that I could show you, today and I have decided
to selected just 6 fillings and if your favourite isn't here put your requests in the comments
and I will do another video later.
I will do part 2 with the most requested fillings.
To start with you're going to need 6 bowls each with 3 tablespoons of cream.
Now for the printable copy of this recipe with all the quantites visit the blog at howtocookthat.net
there's a link in the description below this video.
Get some fresh ginger and cut off the outer rough skin and slice it into thin slices and
put that into your first bowl.
Put some fresh mint leaves into your next bowl, now be warned don't add too much fresh
mint because then if you do that instead of a beautiful fresh minty flavor you'll get
an intense inedible flavour.
To the next one add 1/2 a teaspoon of hot chopped chilli, now this amount that I am
adding here made it taste a little bit hot and spicy once it was just the ganache but
once it was enrobed in chocolate it wasn't very hot so if you want a strong hit of chilli
double amount that I added.
For the next flavour add 1/4 teaspoon of instant coffee into your cream.
And then in the next bowl add some finely chop some pistachios or nuts of your choice.
The last bowl we are leaving plain for the moment but it won't stay that way.
Give them all a stir, using seperate spoons of course.
Then transfer them to a microwave plate and heat them until they boil.
You can use a saucepan on the stove top if you prefer but you are going to need lots
of seperate saucepans.
Give them a stir and leave them to sit for at least 15 minutes for those flavours to
infuse through the cream.
Then strain the ones with lumps in them pushing on the sieve to get the maximum amount of
flavour out.
With the nuts now that they are boiled they will be soft so you should be able to push
them through the sieve if you like.
The ginger is in larger pieces so you can just be able to pull those out and press them
on a fork
The mint should just be taken out, there is no need to squeeze that in for extra flavour.
Reheat all of those so that the cream is boiling again and then add your chocolate.
You can choose to use dark, milk or white chocolate just break it into pieces and make
sure it's pushed down below the level of the cream.
Becasue we are using such small quantities of cream it may not hold the for heat long
enough to completely melt the chocolate, if that is the case just microwave in 5 second
bursts, stirring after each until there are no lumps left.
Now I just wanted to show you what happens if you don't have quite enough cream, for
example if you boil the cream over in the microwave or something, when you stir in the
chocolate it will seize if you don't have enough and it will start to look lumpy like
this.
Don't panic just add more cream a teaspoon at a time until it becomes smooth again and
looks glossy.
For our plain ganache you can leave it just plain or I am adding in some popping sugar
which is a favourite with my kids.
OK so our fillings are nearly ready we have a few different options of what to do next,
Firstly the most simple way is you can just put the bowl in the fridge overnight and then
use a melon baller to take scoops of the cold ganache, roll it into balls and dip in unsweetened
cocoa powder or you can dip it in confectioners sugar or icing sugar.
Then just put those on a plate and they are ready to go.
Your next option you can use a mold.
To use the mold put the ganache into a ziplok bag, push it to one corner, twist the top
and cut off the corner.
You can buy all different molds for making chocolate in all different shapes and sizes
this one that I am using isn't even a chocolate mold it's just a plastic container that some
easter eggs came in that I kept for this purpose.
For the outside of your chocolates you need to use chocolate that is in temper, now if
you are not sure what I mean by chocolate that is in temper make sure you click on the
link in the description below the video to go to the chocolate tutorials playlist.
That is really important because if your chocolate isn't in temper your chocolates will be soft
and melting in your hands at room temperature.
Fill your molds completely with chocolate, leave it for a moment and then tip it out,
this leaves a thin layer of chocolate on your mold.
Now you need to leave that to set firmly and if your chocolate is tempered that shouldn't
take too long, you can work on your other chocolate while you wait.
When it is firm fill it with your ganache, you need to be able to completely encase your
filling in your chocolate so try not to over fill each mold.
Top all of them with chocolate and using a spatula or pallete knife level off the top
and leave them to set.
Once they are set turn them out of the molds and there you have chocolate coffee truffles.
If you are using a mold and your tempered chocolate you will get that nice shine on
the truffles.
Option number 3 doesn't need a mold.
You can take a small container and line it with baking paper and pour your ganache in,
label the paper and put them in the fridge to set, this is best left overnight for the
ganache to really firm up.
Once it is set run a knife around the edge, lift the paper out and peel it off.
Then using a hot sharp knife cut it into cubes or rectangles.
You can use a circle cutter to cut circles if you prefer.
And then place them in the freezer for an hour to let them go really firm.
Take your cubes of ganache and using a fork dip them into your tempered chocolate., swipe
off the excess chocolate on the edge of your container and place it on a sheet of non-stick
baking paper.
For presentation of these chocolates I will show you a few different ideas, here for the
ginger one I've have placed a square of chocolate transfer sheet on top.
You just leave that to set and then peel it off and the pattern that was on the transfer
sheet that was made out of coloured cocoa butter sticks to your chocolate and it looks
pretty.
If your chocolate is starting to get too thick to use just give it another 5 sec burst in
the microwave and stir it well.
Dip your chilli ganache cubes into the chocolate just like before and while it is still soft
sprinkle one corner with flaked sea salt.
And then you have chilli and sea salt truffles.
If you want to add some crunch cocoa nibs are a nice addition to the top.
I've added that to the pistachio one.
The other option with those is to push a nut onto the top of each of your cubes, the nuts
taste nicer if you roast them lightly in the oven first, let them cool, push on on the
top of each cube and then dip that into the chocolate.
If when you put your truffles on the paper you have a trail of chocolate just take a
knife and run the knife around the base, once it is set they'll come off cleanly and look
nice and neat.
With our popping sugar truffles I am running the fork over the top and down one side before
they set to give a nice pattern.
You just need different patterns and different presentation so that you can identify which
chocolate are which.
They make delicious home made gifts or serve them on a platter after a dinner party.
And if you have a favourite truffle filling that you want to know how to make just leave
it in the comments below this video and I will make a part two video with the most requested
fillings.
Thanks for watching and I'll see you next week, Bye.
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