My brain has been overwhelmed with flavor profiles for truffles. My fridge & freezer are filled with truffles at different stages of production. I’ve had a few failures (I’ll address that in a moment) & a few really successful rounds. One might say that I’m slightly obsessed. In fact, BRB, I’m going to update my SM bios to reflect this…
So I have good news & bad news. I’ll give you the bad news first. I am not a professional chocolatier by any stretch of the imagination. Almost everything I know about candy-making of all sorts comes from hands-on experimentation. I have not as-of-yet been able to successfully produce a white chocolate truffle. I was experimenting with a saffron-orange blend that I was very excited about, and while I got the color (lovely & golden) & flavor profile spot-on, I cannot seem to get the consistency right. I’ve tried changes to the chocolate/cream ratio & I’ve tried Ghiradelli’s suggestion of adding butter to my melted white chocolate (they’re Ghiradelli, they should know, right?) to no avail. The genache is still too thin to roll and my truffles flatten into delicious but totally unappetizing pancakes. In general, I am not a fan of white chocolate, and this is not decreasing my white chocolate hatred. Grrrr. 😡 Please, if you are a lover of, or have successfully made truffles using white chocolate, I implore you to leave me a comment telling me how you did it.
On the upside, I have come up with a flavor profile that’s my biggest triumph to date. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but these are definitely my favorite so far…
Cardamom & Orange Truffles
Ingredients:
- 2/3 C heavy cream
- 1 1/2 tbsp cardamom pods, smashed
- 1 tsp dried orange zest
- 1 1/3 C dark chocolate chips
- orange sugar, powdered sugar, cocoa powder etc for topping
Instructions:
- Smash cardamom pods using the side of a knife until they are all split open.
- Put smashed pods and any seeds spilling out into a small saucepan & pour cream over them.
- Bring cream to a gentle simmer over med-high heat. Cover and remove from heat. Allow pods to steep in cream for 12 mins.
- Meanwhile, slowly heat a large pot of water for the double-boiler. I like to use my pasta-pot.
- In a bowl large enough to rest over the top of the water pot, combine chocolate & orange zest.
- When cream has finished steeping, pour it through a wire mesh strainer into the chocolate & zest mixture. Discard spent cardamom pods.
- Heat chocolate, zest, and cream slowly over the double-boiler until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth.
- In a small bowl, refrigerate genache mixture 6-8 hours or overnight.
- When you’re ready to roll the truffles, you will want to have clean, warm hands. I used my smallest Pampered Chef scoop, so my truffles were about 1/2 oz each. I spread a small amount of each topping on a plate so I could easily top each truffle in the topping of my choice.
- Scoop out the truffle mixture, making sure to level-off your scoop. Quickly roll it in your hands to desired shape and while the chocolate is slightly melty from the heat of your hands dip it into the topping of your choice. Place finished truffle on a sheet pan lined with wax paper. Continue until all of the truffles are rolled & topped to your liking.
- Chill truffles for several hours before serving or gifting. I like to freeze mine so they will keep their shape better & longer. Place each truffle in a mini-cupcake wrapper for adorable presentation!
I love these truffles rolled in some orange sugar! Flavored sugars are easy to make, and the longer the sugar is in contact with the orange zest, or lavender buds, or rose petals, or whatever you’re flavoring it with the stronger the aroma & flavor will be. Running out of flavored sugar? Just top off your container with some more sugar & wait for the magic to happen.
Orange Sugar
Ingredients:
- 1/4 C granulated sugar
- 1 tsp orange zest
Instructions:
- In a small resealable container combine sugar & zest.
- Close & shake to combine.
- Allow zest to flavor sugar overnight before using. The longer the zest is in the sugar, the stronger the flavor/aroma will be.
Reluctant food blogger 