Truffles, Truffles, Truffles

Guess what I made today?

Mmmm. Truffles. Today is the day that I REALLY wish I had that digital camera that Santa should be bringing. I have truly mastered the truffle, and this year I have taken them a step further and have started adding my own stringer. For the non-chocolatiers, a stringer is a mark in the chocolate that identifies the chocolate to the maker. My bittersweet chocolate truffles have a bumpy stringer. My thought there was that it is an intense chocolate not for the cautious- much like a porcupine. :-) I also made a raspberry truffle today. After an enrobing in dark chocolate they got a pink drizzle to identify them as raspberry. The raspberry ones are new to me. I picked up a bag of raspberry chips and thought this would be a perfect time to try them. They turned out nice, and I am very happy with them.

I love playing with chocolate. My truffle centers are so soft, they literally melt upon hitting the chocolate, so it took a few years to master the dipping process. It starts with perfectly tempered chocolate. I had tried rolling them in chocolate, and that melts the truffle. I tried a double dipping, where I dipped the bottoms and then poured the chocolate over the top. That worked okay, but was a little awkward. Last year, I figured out that the best tools for dipping chocolate are my hands. After my chocolate is tempered, I scoop up a handful of chocolate into my left hand. I grab a truffle with my right hand and pop it onto that chocolate blob. Then I use my right hand to scoop up the enrobing chocolate. My hands cool the chocolate just enough that it adheres to the truffle instead of melting it. It's so fun. One of my favorite movies is Chocolat, and I feel like I am in my own little French village when I play with chocolate.

So I'm feeling good today. Truffle making always puts me in a happy place. I need to figure out what I want to make for dinner tonight, but really, it doesn't matter because I am in a chocolate Nirvana. :-) So at that, I will sign off for today. I will be back tomorrow with another day of sugar.