Chocolatier comrades-in-arms,

On a trip recently to Chicago, I had the opportunity to sample the
products at Vosges Haut Chocolate, an upscale chocolatier that
specializes in unusual ingredients in their truffles such as spices and
cheese and so on. What impressed me about their products was that they
had perfectly spherical shapes to their truffles.

How do they get such perfectly round shapes? From visual inspection,
the chocolates are not molded: they don't have the high gloss of
molded chocolate, they don't have any seams that I can see, and they
have a flat 'foot', so it appears they are enrobed or dipped. But
they are perfect spheres and very smooth. And the ganache is pretty
soft, which would seem to be difficult to form into spheres.

Can perfect sphere shaped truffles with a soft-ish ganache be done by
hand? Or is this some "trick-of-the-trade" using some kind of mold
system that assures uniformity? It's probably my lack of skill, but I
find I need to use a pretty stiff ganache for hand-rolled-dipped, and
my truffles always have a certain slightly non-spherical quality. I'd
love to be able to do better.

Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

-Bruce
PS: Yes, I realize I could have just asked the nice woman at the
Vosges counter, but of course it didn't occur to me until I was back
home.

NM-Bruce wrote:
> Chocolatier comrades-in-arms,
>
> On a trip recently to Chicago, I had the opportunity to sample the
> products at Vosges Haut Chocolate, an upscale chocolatier that
> specializes in unusual ingredients in their truffles such as spices
> and cheese and so on. What impressed me about their products was
> that they had perfectly spherical shapes to their truffles.
>
> How do they get such perfectly round shapes? From visual inspection,
> the chocolates are not molded: they don't have the high gloss of
> molded chocolate, they don't have any seams that I can see, and they
> have a flat 'foot', so it appears they are enrobed or dipped. But
> they are perfect spheres and very smooth. And the ganache is pretty
> soft, which would seem to be difficult to form into spheres.
>
> Can perfect sphere shaped truffles with a soft-ish ganache be done by
> hand? Or is this some "trick-of-the-trade" using some kind of mold
> system that assures uniformity? It's probably my lack of skill, but I
> find I need to use a pretty stiff ganache for hand-rolled-dipped, and
> my truffles always have a certain slightly non-spherical quality. I'd
> love to be able to do better.
>
> Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
>
> -Bruce
> PS: Yes, I realize I could have just asked the nice woman at the
> Vosges counter, but of course it didn't occur to me until I was back
> home.

Perfectly round truffles are not important to me--I like things to look as
if they've been touched by the human hand--but the likelihood is that they
are using a mold at some point in the process. Perhaps they are molding and
chilling the ganache alone (someone once described to me a method he had
devised for doing this which involved using a mold and freezing, or
partially freezing, the centers). Perhaps they are very thinly coating a
mold, filling it, then redipping the resultant round.

I had a few of their truffles when the chocolate exhibition was at the Art
Institute in Chicago and was unimpressed. Especially for the price. But to
each his own.

NM-Bruce wrote:
> Chocolatier comrades-in-arms,
>
> On a trip recently to Chicago, I had the opportunity to sample the
> products at Vosges Haut Chocolate, an upscale chocolatier that
> specializes in unusual ingredients in their truffles such as spices
> and cheese and so on. What impressed me about their products was
> that they had perfectly spherical shapes to their truffles.
>
> How do they get such perfectly round shapes? From visual inspection,
> the chocolates are not molded: they don't have the high gloss of
> molded chocolate, they don't have any seams that I can see, and they
> have a flat 'foot', so it appears they are enrobed or dipped. But
> they are perfect spheres and very smooth. And the ganache is pretty
> soft, which would seem to be difficult to form into spheres.
>
> Can perfect sphere shaped truffles with a soft-ish ganache be done by
> hand? Or is this some "trick-of-the-trade" using some kind of mold
> system that assures uniformity? It's probably my lack of skill, but I
> find I need to use a pretty stiff ganache for hand-rolled-dipped, and
> my truffles always have a certain slightly non-spherical quality. I'd
> love to be able to do better.
>
> Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
>
> -Bruce
> PS: Yes, I realize I could have just asked the nice woman at the
> Vosges counter, but of course it didn't occur to me until I was back
> home.

Perfectly round truffles are not important to me--I like things to look as
if they've been touched by the human hand--but the likelihood is that they
are using a mold at some point in the process. Perhaps they are molding and
chilling the ganache alone (someone once described to me a method he had
devised for doing this which involved using a mold and freezing, or
partially freezing, the centers). Perhaps they are very thinly coating a
mold, filling it, then redipping the resultant round.

I had a few of their truffles when the chocolate exhibition was at the Art
Institute in Chicago and was unimpressed. Especially for the price. But to
each his own.

NM-Bruce wrote:
> Chocolatier comrades-in-arms,
>
> On a trip recently to Chicago, I had the opportunity to sample the
> products at Vosges Haut Chocolate, an upscale chocolatier that
> specializes in unusual ingredients in their truffles such as spices and
> cheese and so on. What impressed me about their products was that they
> had perfectly spherical shapes to their truffles.
>
> How do they get such perfectly round shapes? From visual inspection,
> the chocolates are not molded: they don't have the high gloss of
> molded chocolate, they don't have any seams that I can see, and they
> have a flat 'foot', so it appears they are enrobed or dipped. But
> they are perfect spheres and very smooth. And the ganache is pretty
> soft, which would seem to be difficult to form into spheres.
>
> Can perfect sphere shaped truffles with a soft-ish ganache be done by
> hand? Or is this some "trick-of-the-trade" using some kind of mold
> system that assures uniformity? It's probably my lack of skill, but I
> find I need to use a pretty stiff ganache for hand-rolled-dipped, and
> my truffles always have a certain slightly non-spherical quality. I'd
> love to be able to do better.
>
> Thanks in advance for any thoughts.
>
> -Bruce
> PS: Yes, I realize I could have just asked the nice woman at the
> Vosges counter, but of course it didn't occur to me until I was back
> home.
>
I have seen a source of hollow truffle balls that are perfectly round.
You just fill them with genache before it hardens. I believee out of
Houston.

Problem is..... who wants perfectly round truffles? I admit I only sell
mine to a limited number of people mainly to offset the cost of the
chocolate. I might sell 15- 20 dozen a month. The point is the people
that buy my truffles like to see the little imperfections that tell them
they were hand made. They like that some aren't perfectly round and that
there is a small puddle of chocolate at the base. I believe if I molded
mine, they wouldn't appreciate them near as much.

NM-Bruce wrote:
>
> Can perfect sphere shaped truffles with a soft-ish ganache be done by
> hand? Or is this some "trick-of-the-trade" using some kind of mold
> system that assures uniformity? It's probably my lack of skill, but I
> find I need to use a pretty stiff ganache for hand-rolled-dipped, and
> my truffles always have a certain slightly non-spherical quality. I'd
> love to be able to do better.
>
It could be that they make a firm ganache centre and then added the
enzyme invertase. This breaks downs sucrose into glucose and fructose,
ie invert sugar. Invert sugar does not readily crystallize and is
hygroscopic - it makes the ganache smooth and soft.

However, the action of the enzyme is gradual (especially at 17 degrees
Celcius). Therefore the truffles will be firm when worked (rolled into
perfect round balls, then dipped/enrobed). However, as the enzyme
splits the sucrose into invert sugar over the course of a few days to
a week, the centre softens.

I don't know whether you are familiar with "After Eights" in the US?
These are wafer thin squares of soft mint fondant, enrobed in dark
chocolate. These are made by enrobing solid fondant in chocolate. The
invertase within After Eights then softens the fondant centre over the
course of about one week.

Ditto liqueur centres.

Simon

NM-Bruce wrote:
>
> Can perfect sphere shaped truffles with a soft-ish ganache be done by
> hand? Or is this some "trick-of-the-trade" using some kind of mold
> system that assures uniformity? It's probably my lack of skill, but I
> find I need to use a pretty stiff ganache for hand-rolled-dipped, and
> my truffles always have a certain slightly non-spherical quality. I'd
> love to be able to do better.
>
It could be that they make a firm ganache centre and then added the
enzyme invertase. This breaks downs sucrose into glucose and fructose,
ie invert sugar. Invert sugar does not readily crystallize and is
hygroscopic - it makes the ganache smooth and soft.

However, the action of the enzyme is gradual (especially at 17 degrees
Celcius). Therefore the truffles will be firm when worked (rolled into
perfect round balls, then dipped/enrobed). However, as the enzyme
splits the sucrose into invert sugar over the course of a few days to
a week, the centre softens.

I don't know whether you are familiar with "After Eights" in the US?
These are wafer thin squares of soft mint fondant, enrobed in dark
chocolate. These are made by enrobing solid fondant in chocolate. The
invertase within After Eights then softens the fondant centre over the
course of about one week.

Ditto liqueur centres.

Simon

at Wed, 16 Feb 2005 14:50:21 GMT in <1108565421.744961.16030
@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>, (NM-Bruce) wrote :

>Chocolatier comrades-in-arms,
>
>On a trip recently to Chicago, I had the opportunity to sample the
>products at Vosges Haut Chocolate, an upscale chocolatier that
>specializes in unusual ingredients in their truffles such as spices and
>cheese and so on. What impressed me about their products was that they
>had perfectly spherical shapes to their truffles.
>
>How do they get such perfectly round shapes?

There's an easy way to get round truffles, more or less a DUH when you hear
it. Melon baller. You need to have a pretty soft ganache (like Vosges does)
- so use 3:2 proportions (chocolate:cream). Chill well, then use the melon
baller to scoop them out. You can also use the ice-cream scoops (don't
remember the right term, but those things with the hemispherical scoop and
the lever that swipes the bottom of the scoop with a squeeze) of various
sizes (the smaller ones can produce a ball about the size of a walnut) for
larger truffles

You also need to have a low-viscosity chocolate to enrobe them. This means
high cocoa butter. Guittard Coucher du Soleil is 44% cocoa butter and
Rapunzel bittersweet 70% is 48%. Get the centers really cold. But before
chilling dust them with cocoa so that you have a nice adhesion surface.
Otherwise what can happen is that the melted chocolate slides down the
sides because the chocolate/center interface melts and forms a lubrication
layer. A continuous-tempering machine will help, although you can use hand
tempering as well if you work quickly.

Whether you use the dipping method or the pour-over method is largely a
matter of individual choice. Dipping is a bit more even in coating, but
brings the chocolate out of temper faster unless you have a continuous-
tempering machine. In any case, you want to apply a *very thin* layer of
chocolate (this is why you want the low viscosity) Once that hardens, you
can then use repeated passes to get a thicker shell. It's when you try to
get a thick shell in one pass that you lose the spherical shape. By setting
your coated truffles on a bed of nails (space the nails for your truffle
size), you can get them almost perfectly spherical.

For the record, I'll point out that the original, technically "official"
chocolate truffle isn't perfectly round and isn't supposed to be. They're
supposed to look like the mushroom for which they are its namesake.


--
Alex Rast

(remove d., .7, not, and .NOSPAM to reply)

Thank you!
I agree that I like the true "truffle" look, and mostly that's what I
do. I just want to also have a symmetrical sphere in my "book of
tricks"

I don't like to speak poorly of any chocolate...but I also have to
agree on your impression of the Vosges in terms of taste. They do a
great job with marketing; I think that's the key.

Thank you very much Janet, Simon, Holdermans, and Alex. Great ideas.
-Bruce

Alex Rast wrote:
<snip>

>> How do they get such perfectly round shapes?
>
> There's an easy way to get round truffles, more or less a DUH when
> you hear it. Melon baller. You need to have a pretty soft ganache
> (like Vosges does) - so use 3:2 proportions (chocolate:cream). Chill
> well, then use the melon baller to scoop them out. You can also use
> the ice-cream scoops (don't remember the right term, but those things
> with the hemispherical scoop and the lever that swipes the bottom of
> the scoop with a squeeze) of various sizes (the smaller ones can
> produce a ball about the size of a walnut) for larger truffles
>

I use the smallest size of scoop, and in my experience that alone does not
get the kind of perfect round he's describing. I also roll the scooped
ganache between my palms, and even that doesn't get you a perfect round most
of the time. (Of course, I'm not *trying* for a perfect round, but still...)

<snip>

By setting your coated truffles on a bed of
> nails (space the nails for your truffle size), you can get them
> almost perfectly spherical.
>
Now that's an interesting idea....

One of the problems with doing multiple coats when dipping is that each
coat, no matter how thin, tends to leave a foot. I can see how the bed of
nails would eliminate that.

Another method of creating a thin undercoat, that I've mentioned before, is
to roll the center with chocolate between your palms. That also helps
eliminate the foot issue, once you get the hang of it.

> For the record, I'll point out that the original, technically
> "official" chocolate truffle isn't perfectly round and isn't supposed
> to be. They're supposed to look like the mushroom for which they are
> its namesake.

Absolutely.

Alex Rast wrote:
<snip>

>> How do they get such perfectly round shapes?
>
> There's an easy way to get round truffles, more or less a DUH when
> you hear it. Melon baller. You need to have a pretty soft ganache
> (like Vosges does) - so use 3:2 proportions (chocolate:cream). Chill
> well, then use the melon baller to scoop them out. You can also use
> the ice-cream scoops (don't remember the right term, but those things
> with the hemispherical scoop and the lever that swipes the bottom of
> the scoop with a squeeze) of various sizes (the smaller ones can
> produce a ball about the size of a walnut) for larger truffles
>

I use the smallest size of scoop, and in my experience that alone does not
get the kind of perfect round he's describing. I also roll the scooped
ganache between my palms, and even that doesn't get you a perfect round most
of the time. (Of course, I'm not *trying* for a perfect round, but still...)

<snip>

By setting your coated truffles on a bed of
> nails (space the nails for your truffle size), you can get them
> almost perfectly spherical.
>
Now that's an interesting idea....

One of the problems with doing multiple coats when dipping is that each
coat, no matter how thin, tends to leave a foot. I can see how the bed of
nails would eliminate that.

Another method of creating a thin undercoat, that I've mentioned before, is
to roll the center with chocolate between your palms. That also helps
eliminate the foot issue, once you get the hang of it.

> For the record, I'll point out that the original, technically
> "official" chocolate truffle isn't perfectly round and isn't supposed
> to be. They're supposed to look like the mushroom for which they are
> its namesake.

Absolutely.

NM-Bruce wrote:

> Chocolatier comrades-in-arms,
>
> On a trip recently to Chicago, I had the opportunity to sample the
> products at Vosges Haut Chocolate, an upscale chocolatier that
> specializes in unusual ingredients in their truffles such as spices and
> cheese and so on. What impressed me about their products was that they
> had perfectly spherical shapes to their truffles.
>
> How do they get such perfectly round shapes? From visual inspection,
> the chocolates are not molded: they don't have the high gloss of
> molded chocolate, they don't have any seams that I can see, and they
> have a flat 'foot', so it appears they are enrobed or dipped. But
> they are perfect spheres and very smooth. And the ganache is pretty
> soft, which would seem to be difficult to form into spheres.
>
> Can perfect sphere shaped truffles with a soft-ish ganache be done by
> hand? Or is this some "trick-of-the-trade" using some kind of mold
> system that assures uniformity? It's probably my lack of skill, but I
> find I need to use a pretty stiff ganache for hand-rolled-dipped, and
> my truffles always have a certain slightly non-spherical quality. I'd
> love to be able to do better.

Personally, I use a device that is something like an ice cream scoop that
holds about 1 1/2 TBSP of ganache. It has a little "sweeper" in it that
forces it out while leaving it in a perfect shape. I can't remember what
the thing is actually called. Then I freeze the balls for 30 minutes or so
while I temper the chocolate.

Jeff