A trifle of truffles
Today, driven by the gift of a half-kilo of good quality chocolate, I tried my hand at confectionary crafts for only the second time in my life. When I was very young, my mother used to spoil us with home made fudge, so the idea of a sugar overdose is familiar, but that’s from earlier times. Today, using one of those “it’s so easy even you can do it” recipes that abound on the Internet, I tried making chocolate truffles.
The ingredient list is small: some chocolate, some cream, some butter. Other optional flavours and nonesuch will have to wait until my journeyman period ends. In fact, I ended up with 400 g of 70% cacao, 200 g of bittersweet baking chocolate and a single bar of 50% cacao. Enough to make a second trip to the market worthwhile, as I added a 500 g carton of 35% cream and a quantity of unsalted butter.
I began by reducing all the chocolate to a gooey puddle in the microwave (yes, in a bowl – I’m not a total newbie), and then I brought the cream and 4 tbsp of butter close to a boil in a saucepan. No dairy products were burned in the exercise. Adding my milk to the chocolate, I stirred everything together with a new silicone spatula, amazed at the fractal patterns. The bowl was carefully covered and hidden in the refrigerator for several hours, away from the chocolate thieves that lurk in corners of this house.
I tried scooping out several balls of the cooled product, using a melon spoon, but methinks more time will be needed. The four or five that I rolled in cocoa powder were well received by those present, so this might be worth adding to the list of quick and easy treats for another day.
