at Sat, 22 Oct 2005 14:18:10 GMT in <1129990690.786010.139790
@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, wrote :

>Greetings!
>
>I recently got a box of home-made chocolate squares (1/2" x 1/2", about
>1/8" thick at most). My friend said her relative made it but she
>didn't know anything more than that except all ingredients were organic
>and that I need to finish them in a few days while they are "fresh."
>(not a problem).
>
>The texture of these squares is silky and smooth, probably made with
>dark chocolate, not too sweet. They also hold their shape in room
>temperature, does not melt in your hand when you pick it up, but not
>"crunchy" like after dinner mints - they are a cross between really
>dense mousse/fudge and softened chocolate, dusted with cocoa powder.

What you have are chocolate truffles (which will melt in your hand, given
enough time, so don't put them or store them near something warm), and you're
fortunate, because these are the essence of simplicity to make as well. Here's
what you do.

Truffles:

16 oz bittersweet chocolate (recommendations to follow)
8 oz 40%-fat heavy cream or 7 oz whipping cream and 1 tbsp butter
Cocoa

Grate the chocolate with a box grater into a bowl, or chop very finely with a
heavy chef's knife. It's important to get the particle size as small as
possible. Don't let the chocolate melt.

Bring the cream (and butter if using) just barely to a simmer (only the first
bubbles should be breaking the surface) and pour over the grated chocolate.

Fold with a spatula until the mixture is smooth, glossy, and evenly-coloured.
There should be no streaking. Minimise motions (i.e. don't beat it in) Set
aside to cool.

When it cools just enough to solidify, you can beat slightly to increase volume
for a softer, fluffier consistency. How much is up to you. I usually keep them
pretty dense and increase the volume only half again as much. Set aside again.

Once the mixture is completely cool, use a spoon or melon baller to scoop out
small, mushroom-sized pieces. Dust your hands with cocoa, roll the piece to get
an approximately round shape (it should be very rough, like a mushroom truffle)
and then roll in cocoa. Set on wax paper.

If you wanted to get the square-shaped style you received, at the folding
stage, you'd gently spread the mixture into a square baking pan lined with wax
paper. Once it solidified, you would turn out the block onto another sheet of
wax paper, this one dusted with cocoa powder, peel off the top wax paper layer,
cut into squares, then dust all the squares liberally with cocoa powder.

Flavour variations: This basic recipe (called "firm ganache") will also accept
a wide number of different flavours. The possibilities are nearly endless. The
basic idea is to infuse your flavour during the heating-the-cream stage. Common
options include vanilla (add a vanilla bean to the cream), coffee (add finely
ground coffee), chile powder, cinnamon... you get the idea. Pour the finished
cream through a strainer into the chocolate if you don't want the texture of
the infusing agent (e.g. coffee makes the truffle somewhat "bitty"). More
advanced variations occur when you want to make a nut-flavoured ganache or a
fruity one. In the nut case, you need to get the appropriate nut butter.
Replace about 1/3 of the chocolate with nut butter. You stir the nut butter
into the cream as you're heating it, then pour everything over the chocolate.
For fruit variations, it's a similar approach, but now you need to make a fruit
paste by condensing down your fruit of choice to pasty consistency. In this
case I would replace up to half the chocolate with the fruit paste, for a good
strong fruity/chocolate flavour. The really adventurous may want to experiment
also with combined flavours, like coffee/walnut, blueberry/cinnamon,
coffee/cinnamon, lemon/mint...

It's nice to roll these flavoured truffles in something other than cocoa, both
for visual identification and because it makes a nice contrast. For the coffee
and cinnamon cases, it's obvious what to do. You can use vanilla sugar for the
vanilla, and in an earler post I described using interesting fruit-flavoured
Vitamin C powders from Alacer for many of the fruit flavours. Crushed mints
make an interesting texture and flavour combination for mint truffles (although
be careful - don't overdo it), and of course chopped nuts are a natural in
nutty truffles.

A lot of people put something alcoholic in truffles. However, you needn't
consider it mandatory or the default, as I see a lot of recipes seeming to
suggest. I prefer them without, and to be quite honest I find that the alcohol
and chocolate clash in terms of flavour. But I don't object if you want to do
this.

Choice of chocolate is also vital. You MUST get a high-quality bittersweet.
Attempting to economise and buy cheap chocolate will backfire and result in
bitter-tasting, rough, pasty disasters. So Baker's brand, for example is right
out. So is Hershey's. I recommend a 70%-cocoa solids class chocolate, but
again, do yourself a favour and pick a good one. Some chocolates (expensive to
relatively economical) that I've found work well:

Guittard Gourmet Bittersweet (superb, economical)
Guittard Ecuador Nacional (relatively economical)
Ghirardelli Bittersweet or 60% (economical)
Callebaut 7030 (mid-priced)
Valrhona Guanaja (expensive)
Michel Cluizel Los Ancones (awesome, expensive)
Amedei Chuao (unbelievable, very expensive)

The key point is that you want good strong chocolates with characteristic
flavours and not too much bitterness. Some 70%'s, for example Green & Black's,
are just too bitter. Others, such as Domori's Porcelana (a superb chocolate,
btw, just not for this application), are too mild. All of the ones I listed
above are bold and distinctive, and will stand out well. I've chosen a cross-
section of different types of character too.

--
Alex Rast

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