My guess would be the sugar. If I want to take the edge off bittersweet
chocolate, then I substitute semi sweet chocolate for part of the
bittersweet in the recipe.

When I tried chocolate pots de creme once it was gritty and I found out
that the cream was too hot when I added the chocolate and that can also
make it gritty.

marcella

In article .com>,
"Michael" > wrote:

> I mentioned recently that I've been making some orange
> truffles that I'm really happy with. Everybody at work
> liked them, too, but one guy took some home to his wife
> who is an expert truffle maker and she said the darned
> things are gritty! Haha! I know what she's talking
> about. Although I thought that batch was smoother than
> most, I've noticed just a slight grit to the centers.
>
> I'm using good chocolate, Guittard's classic bittersweet,
> so I don't think that is the problem. There could be
> several reasons they have a grit to them, but I'm
> thinking that most likely it's because I'm adding sugar
> to the mix to take a little edge off the bittersweet.
>
> I'm heating up 1 1/2 cups of heavy cream, stirring in
> 1/4 cup of sugar, and then turning the heat down to
> just about nothing and adding 24 oz of chocolate.
> Although that might seem like a lot of cream, the
> higher percentage chocolate seems to require it. I
> add half a stick of unsalted butter, too.
>
> I have several questions:
>
> 1. Is the sugar most likely the reason for the grit?
>
> 2. If yes, is there a better way to sweeten it so that
> I don't damage the truffle texture?
>
> 3. Is there some other reason it might be getting
> gritty? I have mentioned that because I like the centers
> soft, I have to refrigerate it quite a while (usually
> overnight) to thicken it, and then I have to put it in
> the freezer for about half an hour (but the last time
> they might have been in there for several hours) after
> I ball it up. Could this be making it grit?
>
> 4. It wouldn't be because of the orange liquer I add
> to it, could it? I wouldn't think so.
>
> 5. I'm fairly careful about the temperature that I
> bring the chocolate to. I don't think that's causing
> the grit but I guess it could. I heat the cream to
> almost boiling and then turn it down to practically
> nothing, and I stir the chocolate in it constantly.
>
> Thank you! Michael