Chocolate Class: Coffee Truffles

I'm a bit behind. Life has been crazy busy, haven't had a spare moment to blog.

In Wednesday's class, we learned how to make hand rolled truffles. The chocolate truffle is named after the fungus because of it's irregular roundish shape.

The simplest and traditional truffle is a thick ganache, rolled into a ball, and covered with a coat of tempered chocolate. The truffles we made are flavored with coffee, and garnished with some crushed coffee bean.

The procedure is fairly straight forward. The ganache is made by pouring hot cream over finely chopped chocolate, letting the heat of the cream melt the chocolate. That is whisked smooth, then a little butter is whisked in. The ganache needs to cool, and allow the fats to crystallize. That can be done by allowing the ganache to sit at room temperature for four to eight hours. The ganache can be cooled faster by tabling on marble in the manner of tempering chocolate. Place the thickened ganache into a piping bag with a large straight tip. Use the bag to pipe balls of chocolate about the diameter of a quarter onto parchment paper. Let solidify until stiff but moldable. This can be sped up by placing it is a refrigerator for a few minutes. While wearing food handlers gloves, roll the ganache pieces between your hands to make them closer to ball shaped. Do this quickly, the heat of your hands will melt, and possibly even break, the ganache. Have a towel handy to wipe your hands between truffles.

Once rounded, the tr8uffles can be let to stiffen completely. The truffles are finished by dipping twice in tempered chocolate. The procedure is reminiscent of the proper method of breading. One hand is kept clean, the other gets messy. You definitely want gloves for this.

With the dipping hand, pick up a little liquid tempered chocolate with the tips of the fingers. With the clean hand, pick up a truffle, and drop it into the dipping hand. Rub truffle with a thin coat of chocolate. Wipe any excess chocolate on the dipping hand off on the side of the bowl of chocolate, then carefully place the dipped truffle on clean parchment paper. Repeat for the rest of the chocolates. Once the first coat is set, repeat for a second coat. While second coat is still liquid, garnish with a few grains of crushed coffee bean.

All recipes courtesy of Chef James Foran.

Coffee Truffles

8 1.2 oz. heavy cream
1 1/2 Tbsp. fresh ground coffee beans
1 1/2 oz. corn syrup
1 oz. salted butter (softened)
14 oz. + 2 lbs. bittersweet chocolate
1/4 cup crushed roasted coffee beans

Finely chop 14 oz. chocolate, and place in a metal bowl.

Combine cream, coffee, and corn syrup in a sauce pan over medium  heat. Bring just to a boil. Remove from heat, let stand five minutes.

Return to heat, bring back to a boil. Remove from heat, strain mixture over chocolate. Cover chocolate, let stand for two minutes. Uncover, gently whisk until well combined. Gently whisk in butter until smooth. Allow to cool until thickened but pipeable.

Place ganache into a piping bag with a large straight tip. Pipe mounds of chocolate about the diameter of a quarter onto parchment paper. Let crystallize to stiff but moldable.

Wearing gloves, roll truffles quickly until round. Place on clean parchment paper. Allow to solidify completely.

Temper 2 lbs. of chocolate. Lightly coat truffles with chocolate, place on clean parchment paper to harden.

When hard, add a second coat of chocolate of tempered chocolate.  While second coat is still wet, garnish with a pinch of crushed coffee beans.

Happy eating!