Simple Chocolate Truffles

This is Pierre Hermé's "black-on-black" truffles recipe. It's simple, it's delicious. What more can you ask for in a chocolate recipe? I have to warn you, though, that making truffles is a messy task. But I can assure you that it's absolutely worth it! Try making them once and believe me, you won't return to the truffles that have months as their shelf-life. You might not be able to stay away from your favorite local chocolatier(s) but those mass-produced, preservatives-laden ones? Forget it!

INGREDIENTS:

Make about 3 dozens

9 oz/260 g good quality bittersweet chocolate (Valrhona Caraïbe recommended), finely chopped

1 cup/250 g heavy whipping cream

3 Tbs/50 g unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature (it is important to have butter at room temperature)

Good quality Dutch-processed cocoa powder 

METHOD:

Put the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl large enough to hold all the ingredients. Make a well in the middle.

In a sauce pan, bring the cream to a full boil, then pour the hot cream into the center of the chocolate. If there is a skin on top of the cream, strain the cream through a fine mesh. Use a flexible rubber spatula to gently stir the cream into the chocolate in concentric circles increasing in size until the ganache is smooth. Let it rest for a minute.

Add the butter piece by piece, stir gently to blend, make sure each has completely integrated before the next one is added. 

Put the ganache in the refrigerator. When it is cool, cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 3 hours. It can stay chilled overnight.

Put a generous amount of cocoa powder into a bowl. Sift the powder if you see lumps. Place a sheet of parchment/waxed paper on a baking sheet. Scoop about a tablespoonful of the chilled ganache for each truffle, put the dollops on the lined baking sheet. I used a small ice cream scoop for ease but you could just use a spoon.

Dust the palms of your hands with cocoa powder and roll the mounds of ganache between your palms to form rounds. There's no need to make them perfectly spherical, they could be edgy just the way truffles the mushrooms are. Drop each ball into the cocoa powder, roll it around so that it is well coated and then gently toss it between your palm to shake off the excess powder. Once it is finished, return it to the lined sheet. 

This is how they look like, in various stages of doneness:

I made these using Valrhona Caraïbe but with Guittard cocoa rouge so they look a little, well, rouge.

The truffles can be served as soon as they are made or they can be stored in the refrigerator for a day or two, covered and away from food with strong odors. I find that a tin can/box lined with parchment/waxed paper is perfect to keep these.

You could play with adding your favorite kind of pepper powder or finely chopped candied orange peels, or some liquor (adjust the amount of cream to accommodate the extra liquid), or steep peppercorns in the cream before adding the strained cream to the chocolate (PH has a recipe using Sichuan peppercorns). The choices are endless, well, sort of! Have fun making them by yourselves, or with friends and family!