My obsession with Robert Linxe’s truffles started as a matter of coveting. My roommate at the time had more suitors than she could count on two hands and both feet, thus I didn’t even bother trying to keep up, but there was this one–and I never met him, but still called him my favorite–who insisted upon “borrowing” her for the afternoon of her birthday and at Metropolitan Museum presented her with two items: Kissing in Manhattan and a box of chocolate truffles from La Maison du Chocolat.
Kissing in Manhattan was gorgeous–the rare book in Alex and my towering bookcases that we both, two years later, came with a copy of–but the truffles were something else. Not only were they the most rich and hands-down putting to shame any and every chocolate I had ever encountered previously in my life, they were painfully expensive. It just wasn’t fair.
In an effort to build my karma they became my go-to hostess gift and it was because of this that I learned one year at a holiday dinner where a Gourmet editor was a guest that the secret of the Robert Linxe’s La Maison du Chocolat Truffles were not sealed in an offshore vault along with the original Coke recipe and the location of Jimmy Hoffa but free for the clicking on Epicurious.com.
So, this is the point in the story where I am supposed to run home and make them the very next day, but this doesn’t happen for two reasons: one, she said that she’d made them, but it had been the kind of endeavor where you end up with chocolate from the floor to the ceiling and two, it involved these:
And latex gloves are scary.
Flash-forward two years–two years in which I have conquered babka, bread making, tortilla de patatas and multi-hour braises–and I realized this past weekend that it was time for me to conquer my fear of latex gloves, I mean, Robert Linxe’s Chocolate Truffles, once and for all.
And seriously? I was scared of this? They are not very difficult and unlike many other famed recipes that never taste at home they way they do when cooked by the recipe’s creator, they taste precisely like the original goods–a mildly bitter soft truffle encased in the thinnest, flakiest, most barely-there shell of hard chocolate and dusted heavily in unsweetened cocoa. And finally, they can now be mine anytime I want them–and yours too.
How to Make Your Own La Maison du Chocolat Plain Truffles
Begin by finely chopping eight ounces of Valrhona 56 percent chocolate. Yes, he actually names this brand, and I am not sure if it because the chocolate is, indeed, amazing or because he was being paid by them, but nevertheless, my store didn’t have any left and I bought Scharffen Berger instead and, lo, the world did not come to an end. Put the chopped chocolate in a large bowl.
Boil 2/3 cup of heavy cream in a heavy-bottomed small pan. Linxe boils it three times because he believes this makes the ganache last longer. I boiled mine twice, cooling it between simmerings, but honestly don’t think the truffles lasted long enough for their shelf life to be a concern. Pour the hot heavy cream over the chopped chocolate, mashing any big pieces with a spoon.
Stir with this mixture together in concentric circles starting in the center and working your way to the edge with a whisk, being careful not to beat air into it and create bubbles. Don’t freak out if the mixture looks curdly and uneven–it will come together into a smooth ganache. And it will be stunning.
Let stand at room temperature until thick enough to hold a shape, about 1 hour. However, at the 1.5 hour mark, when mine was still too soft, I became impatient and put it in the fridge, swearing I’d only leave it there for five minutes, but of course forgot and then the ganache became too stiff and uneven but I was too lazy to heat it again and the moral of the story is: don’t do this. Let it sit until it’s ready unless you can be 100 percent attentive to the ganache-stiffening process.
Using a pastry bag with a 3/8-inch opening or tip, pipe into mounds (about 3/4 inch high and 1 inch wide) on parchment-lined baking sheets. When piping, finish off each mound with a flick of the wrist to soften and angle the point tip. Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes.
[There are no pictures of this part of the process because, one, it went horribly for me due to my aforementioned over-chilling of the ganache and ensuing impatience and, two, I don’t need to tell you what these lumpy brown mounds looked like. You’re welcome. Fear not, not matter how much you botch this process, it will have no effect on the final product.]
Melt three more ounces of the same chocolate.
Finally, here is something that I can truly add to the recipe: while your truffles are freezing, set up your station assembly line style with five slots. Because your hands will end up covered in melted chocolate, it is neatest to have everything ready so you’re not touching anything you don’t need to. Like every single surface in your all-white kitchen, or your nose.
The first space will have your frozen truffles. The second one will have the bowl of just-melted chocolate, with a spoon or small spatula in it. The third will have a bowl with unsweetened top-notch (again, he recommends Valrhona but I had Droste on hand, so I used that) cocoa powder and a fork. The fourth will have a small mesh sifter or strainer and a bowl to catch the cocoa. The fifth and final space should hold an empty parchment-lined tray.
Now comes the fun part: Don Ye Now Your Latexed Apparel. Give it a nice snap while you elicit a cackle while your significant other looks at you strangely while quietly inching away.
Smear some melted chocolate on a gloved hand.
Gently rub each chilled truffle in the smear of chocolate to coat it lightly with chocolate. This is the secret of the truffle–the delicate coating–and when you try the finished product, you’ll understand.
Plunk the coated truffle in the cocoa.
Use a fork, toss it around in the cocoa until it is covered, then dig it out. It will look like a truffle, freshly dug from the earth. Get it?
Shake truffles in a sieve to eliminate excess cacao.
(Whoops, no picture of this. I am forced to retaliate on my photographer, who is paid in truffles and also by being spared latex gloves. Or so he thinks.)
Store the truffles in the refrigerator. Pack them in lovely gift boxes, but be sure to leave one or two for yourself, or you might find yourself moping in the days that followed that you have been too generous, and start calculating your next batch.
Or in my case, pat myself on the back for getting another scary recipe off my to-do list, and ready myself to conquer the next one.
Elsewhere: Because I still have vacation on the brain, I keep forgetting to tell you that I wrote a short article on dinner party tips for Culinate that was published last week. As someone who loves to have people over but lives in the eensiest of apartments, I’ve learned a few things over the years that I hope will be helpful as well. And if you have any of your own, I’m sure Culinate’s readers (like me!) would love to learn them as well.
One year ago: Gougeres, Roasted Mushrooms Stuffed With Feta, Spinach and Bacon
Robert Linxe’s Chocolate Truffles
Gourmet, February 2001
Makes about 20 60 truffles.
11 ounces Valrhona chocolate (56% cacao)
2/3 cup heavy cream
Valrhona cocoa powder for dusting
Finely chop 8 ounces of the chocolate and put in a bowl. Bring heavy cream to a boil in a small heavy saucepan. Make sure your pan is small, so you’ll lose the least amount of cream to evaporation, and heavy, which will keep the cream from scorching. Linxe boils his cream three times — he believes that makes the ganache last longer. If you do this, compensate for the extra evaporation by starting with a little more cream.
Pour the cream over the chocolate, mashing any big pieces with a wooden spoon.
Then stir with a whisk in concentric circles (don’t beat or you’ll incorporate air), starting in the center and working your way to the edge, until the ganache is smooth.
Let stand at room temperature until thick enough to hold a shape, about 1 hour, then, using a pastry bag with a 3/8-inch opening or tip, pipe into mounds (about 3/4 inch high and 1 inch wide) on parchment-lined baking sheets. When piping, finish off each mound with a flick of the wrist to soften and angle the point tip. Freeze until firm, about 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, melt 3 more ounces of the same Valrhona and smear some on a gloved hand. Gently rub each chilled truffle to coat lightly with chocolate. (The secret to a delicate coating of chocolate is to roll each truffle in a smear of melted chocolate in your hand. Linxe always uses gloves.)
Toss the truffles in unsweetened Valrhona cocoa powder so they look like their namesakes, freshly dug from the earth. A fork is the best tool for tossing truffles in cacao. Shake truffles in a sieve to eliminate excess cacao.
Store truffles in the refrigerator.
Ina Garten’s hazelnut truffles made with Frangelico and a little bit of coffee are absolutely delish. I rolled them in chopped hazelnuts instead of cocoa.
On another note, I made your molasses spice cookies for Christmas and everyone loved them. So thanks for making me look good for the in-laws :)
Agreed! I made them last year, when I was still too intimidated to try these. I bet those flavorings and this technique could be a match made in heaven!
What a coincidence! I’m doing a post about Truffles tomorrow.
Mine don’t come with scary, latex-gloved horror shots though.
Fun post.
Kissing in Manhattan – I loved that book!
My truffles went horribly wrong this year – and also because I neglected the ganache setting process – it got way too hard, and refused to adhere to the toasted coconut I tried to roll it in…
Oh boy, another recipe I’ve got to tackle when I get home. My SIL and I took on the peanut butter and chocolate chip brownies for Christmas dessert. Oh yum. Lucky for me, we doubled the recipe, but left half in the spare fridge. She forgot them and flew back to your neck of the woods. Now, I get to pack them up and enjoy them at my house. Lucky for me, Mom doesn’t have a big sweet tooth! She also introduced me to the pumpkin bread pudding!
I made these truffles for Christmas gifts a few years back and they were a huge hit, despite the fact of being made with less than superior chocolate – my ambitions were bigger than my pocketbook! I’ve never made them since, afraid I’d botch it and my rep would be tarnished – but I might have to whip up a batch this weekend. Thanks for the great pics!
I love love love KISSING IN MANHATTAN.
Not really a fan of truffles, so I don’t have much to say about the rest of the post.
Stop! Just stop with the rich desserts. After years of swearing off baking Christmas cookies (there was a disaster with some Gourmet recipes a few years back), you got under my skin and I found myself slaving away over three types of cookies. You even made me shred frozen dough! I can’t believe I did that. I am now in a butter coma and trying to recover, so how about a few health food recipes? Is that too much to ask?
Aw–I totally concur. I promise at least a week of salads and soups in January. It’s just that between now and the end of the year, I still have parties and dinners and brunches to go to, so I still have cakes and scones and sweet gifts to prepare. But there should be stew tomorrow. If it isn’t a total disaster. Which, uh, you never know…
Robert Linxe is a chocolate god… I have his cookbook, and believe it or not, I have yet to use it!! The shame…
You’re awesome! I actually bought all of the ingredients to make truffles and then got scared and ran away. Congratulations on a successful attempt!
I hate making truffles, mostly because I’m an anal perfectionist, and I want them to look perfect, like godiva truffles in a thick chocolate coating. May have to get over it, though
The truffles look perfect! And the latex gloves indeed look scary.. glad the truffled turned out exactly as you’d hoped though.
They do look stunning! Thanks for the tip on the assembly line. I’ll definitely try this. They will be perfect for the Brioche Tart that made Julia Child cry recipe I am planning to try for the New Year’s Eve dinner party. Truffles and berries sitting on top of a soft Brioche loaf and creamy custard! That is heaven.
I was just LAUGHING out loud reading your blog. My husband was wondering what was so funny. He just doesn’t “GET” my obsession with food and food blogs. The latex gloves were the best and funniest part of the story!
I throughly enjoyed reading and experiencing the process you have re-created. I give you an A+ for execution and humor all wrapped up into one morsel.
Check out my truffle making demo on YouTube, its fun, and the recipe actually works.
Cheers,
Michael Recchiuti
wow WOW WOW.. a post from Michael Recchiuti..
Kudos! As a frequent visitor to the ferry building ive enjoyed his confections more than I probably should have.. Seeing his high praise, Im going to HAVE to make these now. Not that it took his praise to sway me to make these, I’ve yet to make something ive found here that wasnt a huge hit (hello, i too, grated dough.. what a trip!!)..between your post, and the video its the ease that you’ve made come across.. you took away the fear factor..
now theres an idea Deb.. “smitten in the kitchen” videos ! ( no you pervs, not that!)
Can I be your manager?
I just watched the youtube video from the above comment. WOW it was super! And that website for kitchen supplies looks wonderful as well. Me too, I think I might even try to make these confections myself.
if you’re feeling bold, the ganache is easy to flavor. some of my favorite combinations are as follows – the amounts depend on the quantity of chocolate and cream, but for the sake of our argument let’s say you’re doing about 1lb chocolate:1c heavy cream (roughly the proportions above).
– 1 tsp orange zest, a few tbsp very sweet orange citrus juice (tangerine or clementine work well, but be picky), 1 vanilla bean (split and scraped), added to boiling cream; dash cointreau (added after chocolate melts)
– 1/3c raspberry puree (no seeds) added to boiling cream; dash framboise (added after chocolate melts)
– 1 tsp instant espresso, 1 vanilla bean (split and scraped) added to the boiling cream; for this i will use scharffen berger’s mocha bar for the ganache
for all the above combinations you want to pour the hot cream through a strainer when adding to the chocolate. also, if you are lazy like me, the ‘fine chopping’ bit is unnecessary; i buy 3oz bars and whack them on the counter a couple times. :)
the combinations are pretty much infinite. if you’re speeding the process by putting it in the fridge you have to remember to stir it constantly to avoid the lumps, but i’ve been known to cheat by popping it in the freezer with even speedier results. however, truffle-making isn’t really for the impatient…
ooh, michael – we went to a tasting at yield around this time last year where we had some of your chocolates. nice to run into you again! great videos!
Great post. Love the latex gloves. We have featured your blog as “Blog of the Week” on our site. Here is the link if you wish to take a look
http://www.only-cookware.com/blog/2007/12/28/263/
Regards
Wanda
http://www.only-cookware.com
Ahhhh . . . I’m so glad you’re back!!
Deb…I do some fabulous truffles. I was trained by professionals to make chocolates do naughty things. If you thought my fudge was good…the truffles will make your mouth start speaking french love sonnets to random people in the street.
These look wonderful. I tried to make truffles before, but my recipe did not call for the dip in melted chocolate. I feel cheated. I can’t wait to try these.
If only his recipe for marrons glaces was at epicurious…
Am i a total dolt, I just understood why they’re called truffles – after reading your ‘d’uh’… wow, i really am not the sharpest tool in the shed..
You know, I made truffles for this guy that I’ve been dating recently b/c a friend at work swore he’d bring a present on our third date since it was before Xmas (and she was right). I actually just followed Mark Bittman’s recipe from the NY Times (plus there was a video demonstration). I think I just poured the cream over the chocolate and put it in the fridge for a half hour right away. Then I scooped the ganache with a spoon into balls and rolled them in the powder. It was really easy actually. The only thing I did differently was to put in 3 tablespoons of champagne to make them fancier. The best part of that was drinking the rest of the champagne while I waited for them to chill…that was a lot more fun.
As a side note, I really love your blog. It always gives me inspiration to get a little crazy in the kitchen.
I love the gloves! Scary!!!
YUM! I made four varieties for Christmas presents – hazelnut, dark chocolate, orange (with Grand Marnier) and chili pepper. The chili pepper were hands down the favorite. I adore your site — I get so inspired. We had a total Bake-A-Palooza this year and I loved it!
These sound really good and they look like they are fun to make!
Truffles are something in which to delight…I will definitely be trying these. This year I made my Inside-Out Pumpkin Pie Truffles for little gifts for the mailman, landlady, etc. Check them out if you’re in the mood for a new truffle recipe sometime: http://straightfromthefarm.wordpress.com/2007/11/21/pumpkin-pie-truffles/
Happy New Year to you and Alex!!!
Bless you, I think an angel just got its wings this is so magical!
i just made truffles for the first time two weeks ago, and loved them so much i repeated the recipe just before Christmas! I cooled mine in the refridgerator, but I will try room temperature next time!
La Maison du Chocolat is my fav in the city! Not only are their chocolates good, but their cakes almost bring me to tears (because they’re perfect). I heard that Robert Linxe has no problem sharing his recipes, because he gets his cream from a special farm (which none of us have access to), and Valrhona makes him custom couverture (his wife is part of the “Valrhona family”).
I’ve been eying this recipe and Alice Medrich’s for a while now. Hmm, I wonder which one is better.
These sound delicious! I wonder if you could shape them in molds instead of by hand? They would make for very pretty gifts!
I did some of these for xmas this year and made the same mistake with the refrigerator. To correct that, rather than pipe the ganache with a pastry bag I used one of my metal scoops (by pampered chef) to scoop out little balls. Granted the shape is different, but after they’re man-handled enough it doesn’t really matter anyway ;)
To think that I wanted to make these with my high school students, I really must be quite mad! I have got to try this recipe, especially for DH on his special day this year. Valrhona is my favorite chocolate for eating and baking. Alice Medrich’s recipe is really great, but I have got to try this one, too and do a taste test.
The progression of photos is brilliant! Very nice.
I just made these this afternoon. It was fun and the outcome was splendid!!
Deb:
I finally got the guts to make these today (what, you mean truffles aren’t traditional Super Bowl fare???) and they are OUTSTANDING. It wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be, and I got to enjoy snapping my gloves at the husband and saying, “You may feel some discomfort…” Thanks for a great recipe. The tip about setting up the assembly line was a life saver.
Lauren
ahh! i live in australia and its summertime.
the ganache has been sitting on the counter for HOURS and will not set even slightly.
i may have to resort to the fridge.
As I finished making these last night, I was congratulating myself for having made such a small mess when I managed to smear chocolate all over my chin. Nevertheless, I cleaned up and still felt that things had gone well. Later, I found the chocolate stuck in my hair …
I’ve been following your recipes for a about a year now. I started baking out of the blue when I was bored and studying abroad and now the blog is my go to for recipes on lazy weekends and entertainment reading in boring poli sci classes. So thank you! This truffle recipe that was linked from Use Real Butter [love that blog too!] sounded delicious and didn’t involve tempering which scared me. It inspired two college girls to make heart shaped pizza [your pizza dough recipe too ha] and chocolate truffles for V day. We are so proud they are wonderful! So thanks for being so great! You’re our favorite food blogger. Happy Valentines Day!
I made these truffles the other day for a party. Everyone seemed to love them. The assembly line tip was very helpful. The only changes I made to the recipe were to steep 1 1/2 tablespoons of fennel seeds with the cream (La Maison often flavors their ganache with fennel) and using a small melon baller–the kind that has a button to loosen the melon from the scooper) to scoop out the ganache rather than a pastry bag. Thanks for the recipe!
I’m making these right now and had the same issue with the chocolate genache not stiffening up. I ended up wasting a lot of the chocolate because it was just going into pools. Also, I only was able to make about 18 truffles definitely not 60!
I made these over the holidays and packaged them up in fours to give as gifts. I used the Valrhona chocolate and organic cream – amazing. I ended up adding an extra ounce of chocolate to the ganache to achieve a slightly firmer center as well as an extra couple of ounces of melted chocolate for coating. Next time I will wait until the coating is dry before dusting in the cocoa, as it came out rather heavy on some pieces. A great mess, but worth it!
Oh, the beauty. Oh, the chocolate. Oh, the mess I made.. and now my fridge is filled with the most beautiful amount of chocolate truffes and they look SO GOOD. Like, picture perfect. I’ll give some away tomorrow to my girls to test them, and then I’ll make two more batches: One for my best friend in the whole wide world for her birthday and another one for my chocolate addicted mom, using special guatemala chocolate she brought me from a trip. And then I’ll never make it again. That is, unless I need to bribe someone, my boyfriend proposes or I get someone to clean my kitchen afterwards.
I have to wear Latex gloves very frequently during labwork, so when I saw this recipe, I smuggled some home and let me tell you, I have never had such delicious messy fun in my life! It was like fingerpainting as a kid, but 100x waaaaay better :)
I have a party planned for this weekend and this is what I was looking for. They look so easy to make and so yummy. I’ll let you know how things went
I loved “Kissing in Manhattan” too!! I’m so thrilled to hear that someone else read it and loved it. My favorite storyline was the boy and the elevator (with the earrings in his pocket)…. We came across the book randomly because my sister lives in New York. Awesome!
I started making truffles in December for presents and drew upon many respected recipes and techniques and non of them proved more simple and perfect that this recipe. Perfect an easy! Wow do i love this recipe!
I love Kissing in Manhattan. I always wanted to be a writer and when I read this book I thought “THAT is what I want to write!” I love all the separate characters and how they are weaved together into the story. I also love truffles. Thank you for the detailed, step-by-step instructions!
We went through a phase of craving rich chocolate truffles as a bed time snack. The only problem was that neither of us were big coffee drinkers, so the caffeine content was enough to keep us up chatting late into the night.
scary gloves…
lol @ the gloved hand. Nice touch :-)
I wish I were part of the Valrhona family! That stuff is not cheap!
I made a batch of these for Christmas gifts. I work at Sur La Table, and we sell kilos of Valhrona, which are actually damn affordable after my discount. They turned out really awesome. Really awesome. I want to keep them for myself. I only got about 40 from my batch though so I only got to keep a couple of them.
I wish I had found this article before Xmas. It would have been a great addition to lunch. I guess I’ll just have to make them as a new year treat.
Deb! With the help of your website, I’ve slowly but surely become a good cook. Now with your help, I’ve conquered truffles, which I’d never have had the cajones to do otherwise. THANK YOU!
My friends mum makes a mean chocolate truffle, but I’m going to give this a go and see how they compare. only problem is If I can make them and they are Delicious I can see me needing a gym membership!!
I was wondering where I could get these gourmet chocolate, like the Valhrona or Scharffen Berger. I know online sites but just the shipping kills any deal on these pricey chocolates… I live near NYC, so I can always stop there. I am sure I could find them in the city, no?
Arissa — Whole Foods and other stores sell some of them. You can also check out the New York Cake and Baking Supply shop on 22nd for bulk chocolate.
I think I will be trying this recipe for thanksgiving (if I can wait that long) I simply love chocolate!
Like a mad woman I decided that I’m handmaking all of the treats for my family’s stockings this year. I made these last night and they turned out delicious! I did have a bit of trouble keeping the melted chocolate smooth and melty and had to reheat a couple times, but I suspect I was working too slowly and being too careful. After it got to be 12:30 on a week night, I started rolling the chocolates with greater abandon and they still turned out great.
Hi there!
The reason why he only uses Valrhona is because Valhrona owns part of the La Maison du Chocolat. Actually Polenghi (dairy products) is the big owner of them all!
I learned this while purschasing Valrhona chocolat for my cuisine.
Also, Valrhona makes several items for La Maison (chocolate bars, etc)
Love ur blog!
I wasn’t that impressed with these to be honest. I didn’t think the center came out as smooth as I would have liked. And I had two out of my five batches curddle on me, even though I did nothing different and followed the recipe exactly. I mean, they’re good, and my friends will be very impressed, but I’ve definitely had better. I wonder if butter makes them better?
I made these this morning as a gift and they turned out beautifully! So easy, and not as messy and I was expecting. Thanks for the tips!
Thank you for this recipe! I made these today for mother’s day! Instead of waiting for only an hour or so I let the ganache set for several hours. That way I was able to shape the individual truffles by hand before freezing them. (I kept my hands cool enough by washing them with cold water.) Also, instead of latex gloves I smeared the melted chocolate onto a plastic bag I had in my hand and I had no trouble coating the truffles at all. Thank you for making truffle-making easy!
Made these today- although halving the recipe only made 15 for me? Maybe I made them too large (they were about two bites each). They came out wonderful, though. I didn’t have gloves, so I just made them in my (recently washed) hands, which was stupidly messy but, you know, hands wash. I also just made them with my bog-standard Ghirardelli 60% chips. I’d love to try them with some really good chocolate. They were smooth and creamy inside, with that bit of crunch and bitterness on the outside. Really lovely.
How long do the truffles keep? In what kind of container, and with what type of wax paper/foil/etc. should you store them?
I have just made these, and they are absolutely delightful! I used Trader Joe’s chocolate (the little 1.75oz bars) and mixed my cocoa powder with some cinnamon.
I owe you a big debt of gratitude for the five-bowl assembly line tip. I ended up with chocolate only on my cooking utensils and vessels, counters, one forearm, and one burner knob on the stove. None on floor, ceiling, nose, or shirt!
I was able to do it on my own, but next time I might try to recruit a friend to help the assembly line go smoother (and to help me eat the extra chocolate at the end).
I have a favorite truffle from a place in my town and I need to duplicate it because I eat two a day and at 2.79 a piece, it is killing me. Mine are double darks, truffle-y interior, crisp chocolate shell. Do you think these can be dipped in tempered chocolate? Thanks for any input. Moh, and I found they have a bit of rum (maybe capt Morgan’s?) in them.
Georgine — Yes, they can be dipped in tempered chocolate.
Thanks for your quick reply. I made the centers which never made it to dipping. I ate it from the bowl.
I made these last night for a friends birthday and they came out perfect thanks to all of your tips! I did add a pinch of espresso powder and steeped a vanilla bean with the cream. I think I’ll have to re-visit this recipe again when it’s christmas time!
Thanks
Funny and helpful
I was having trouble with my ganash melting in the chocolate coating
Why didn’t I think of that???
just a little note for everyone: instead of using a piping bag, scoop out a little of the mixture (enough to make a one inch ball), do your best to create a small pile on the baking sheet, and freeze them. Then roll them in powder ( they’ll soften at this point) and THEN shape them into rounder pieces (and re-coat if needed). I didn’t have a piping bag and I certainly didn’t have the patience to coat my hand with chocolate and then roll them, etc.
I may have missed a previous comment regarding this, and if so I apologize – these truffles are to die for!!!! HOWEVER, when I made them last evening, they only yielded 18 truffles instead of the 60 listed in the recipe. ??? Mine were the same size as called for (3/4″x1″), so I am now very confused. Any ideas? Thanks!
Susan — Hm, it might not just be you. Comment #45 says the same; we might have been too distracted “sampling” these to realize the yield was very far off. I’m sorry for the trouble and will add a little note now that it’s probably less.
I just made these, and you weren’t kidding about the chocolate being everywhere. I roughly 2.5ed the recipe and have a million truffles, and I haven’t even used all the ganache (I gave up, because I’d seriously been at it making those and momofuku cake truffles all day). Maybe mine are way small? Used ghiradelli for everything bc I am not Daddy Warbucks, but I think they’ll still be a hit. Personally, I never want to see chocolate again ever.
I recently heard Alice Medrich speak and she recounted the story of introducing large truffles in the US that the French were aghast over. She admitted now feeling a bit embarrassed over their “obscene” size, so I used that sentiment to guide me and this recipe yielded 35 truffles for me. 60 pea sized truffles maybe! I made two different batches, the first exactly as written with the valrhona 56% (thank you Trader Joes who had it in tiny 1 ounce bars for 99 cents) and they were velvety, gorgeous with that signature snap layer. The second batch was with El Rey 72%, I followed the same ganache, but added in peppermint extract and rolled them in some candy cane dust & confectioner’s sugar instead of cocoa. They were marvelous too. I guess after making marshmallows this week,these didn’t seem messy at all to me! The glove trick worked beautifully for me and I appreciated your suggested assembly line for dipping and rolling. One of my friends said they were as good as she’d had in Paris. Merci Deb, these are fabulous.
thank you so much. I have been reading the original recipe all day and wanting to make these for a party tomorrow.
Now I am not scared of them any more. After reading your post 3, yes 3, times I am not so intimidated.
How long can these be stored? We’re thinking about making truffles for my sisters wedding and want to make them 1-2 weeks before. Will they still be fresh after 2 weeks stored in the fridge.
OMG, Michael Recchiuti read and commented on your blog? That is awesome. His ginger hearts are fantastic.
I’m not sure if Vahlrona 56% chocolate is still available, at least looking online I don’t see it on amazon or on the Vahlrona website or google shopping, etc.
I did find some 55% baking “pearls” on the Valrhona website so I guess I could try those.
So this post is ten years old, but I had to leave a comment that when I read “Don ye now your latex apparel” I laughed so hard I snorted. Too funny and can’t wait to try the recipe.
I love your recipes, I always say that you never steer me wrong and I’ve learned so much from you! Question on this recipe: do you cool the cream completely in between simmers or just let the temperature come down some? Thanks again for all your knowledge sharing!