BTW no sugar? Did you mean sweetened chocolate bars? Which brand do you recommend?

Yep, no sugar. Baking chocolate bars or chips are fine. I suggest Scharffen-Berger or Ghirardelli. Hershey's does actually make a good baking and cooking chocolate now, you will find it in the baking aisle of a store. Just don't use a Hershey candy bar. ~Garrett

Your truffles look great! Simple recipe that even the kids can help make. I use Ghiradelli chocolate. Ghriradeli has a sweetened cocoa powder which also comes in white cocoa that would be great to roll these truffles in. Do you have a recipe for white truffles?

Linda, I don't really make white truffles because for me it's too much sweet. However rolling them in white cocoa powder sounds fabulous! If you do try this recipe with white chocolate let us know how it works out! ~Garrett

I love making truffles. Yours are beautiful.

Can't wait to try this, I love truffles. For Linda in Washington State - here is a great White Truffle recipe from Ina Garten-

White Truffles
Prep Time: 45 min, Inactive Prep Time: 1 hr, Cook Time: 10 min,
Level: Intermediate, Rating: 3 stars, Serves: 20 truffles

2 tablespoons heavy cream
7 ounces good white chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons Irish cream liqueur (recommended: Baileys)
1/2 teaspoon good vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped hazelnuts
6 ounces bittersweet or dark chocolate, chopped

Place the cream in a heat-proof bowl, and set the bowl over a pan of simmering water. Cook until heated through. Using a wire whisk, slowly stir the white chocolate into the warm cream until completely melted. Whisk in the liqueur and vanilla. Cover and chill for 1 hour or until pliable but firm enough to scoop.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

With 2 teaspoons or a 1 1/4-inch ice cream scoop, make dollops of the chocolate mixture and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate for about 15 minutes, until firm enough to roll into rough spheres.

Place the chopped hazelnuts on a sheet pan and place them in the oven for 8 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

Melt the bittersweet chocolate in a heat-proof bowl, set over a pan of simmering water.

Drizzle the melted bittersweet chocolate over 10 of the truffles. Roll the remaining truffles in the chopped nuts. Chill until ready to serve.

Hey Nancy! Thanks for providing this great resource! ~Garrett

I am trying this right now! I had some cream and chocolate, I had to reduce the recipe a bit though. Also using ground cinnamon and no cardamom as that's all that I have in my kitchen. I'm using the Ghirardelli chocolate chips, they always work well for me. The ganache already tastes amazing!

Some ganache comments:

I've kept it for at least a week in the fridge, and it appeared to be edible. It certainly didn't smell or taste very spoiled. If you boil the cream, that probably helps preserve it.

Also, do not attempt to make ganache with chocolate candy coating. When people say, "it's not chocolate," it's not just the taste. Covering chocolate will not make ganache. Also, if you try to make white chocolate ganache with covering chocolate, you will get something that tastes like vanilla elmer's glue.

I love chocolate.

I have to say that this is food porn. I can't eat it right now but I can sure drool over it.

These look amazing. I just posted a chocolate recipe on my blog for valentine's day --chocolate covered cherries, though I just might whip up a batch of these too. My favorite flavor for truffles is orange --using orange zest.

Wow, those look stunning. They'd certainly would make me very happy too, were I to be given them.

I so love a good truffle and these look very good! Last time I made them I added some Turkish Delight that I finely chopped - bit sticky and messy to work with but well worth the effort :-)

We did chocolate truffles as part of our Christmas goodie plate, and they were quite a hit. We used Lindt dark and Riter Sport milk chocolates as our bases, and flavored the dark chocolate truffles with orange (1/2-1 t. orange zest simmered in the cream, then filtered out as explained in this recipe for the mint, etc.).

The milk chocolate truffles were more difficult to work with the first time we tried, so the second time around we used a little less cream and kept the ganache colder (freezer). We also used a melon baller to form the truffles so there was minimal melting from the warmth of our hands. To top these babies off, we used the crumbled remains of a failed attempt at almond lace cookies. Super rich and not really true to the spirit of the truffle, but oh so tasty.

Another great base flavouring: espresso coffee.

Other alternatives but more daring: basil, rosemary, orange, tangerine, grapefruit and lavender. Use minute amounts of the latter, very easy to overdo and then it is really really disgusting.

Also I tend use at least 72% cocoa chocolate to make my truffles and prefer the use of mascarpone or creme the marron (chestnut cream). In case of the creme de marron, I do not use additional flavourings as the chestnut flavour need to come out.

While I expect these would store less well, my favorite recipe calls for 1/4 cup cream (boiled down to about a tbsp), 6 oz chocolate, 4 tbsp butter, and a couple tbsp liquor for flavoring... with the cream boiled down like that, they last for at least 2 months in the fridge. They're also harder to roll into balls, but I just cool it in a plastic wrap lined bread pan, and cut it into tiny squares. It's great for Christmas, as you can make them any time in December.

This looks delicious, similarly to previous recipes. This time it didn't work out as well, I might be doing something wrong. First of all, I bought whipping cream (not heavy). When I put it on the hob, after a while it gets dark like caramel. Basically it is burning. Shall I lower the heat even more? Or shall I stop before? I don't really know what I expect to get from that. Thank you.

Lower the heat and warm the cream slowly and it shouldn't burn. ~Garrett

This looks so wonderful and simple-I will try with the almond extract.

I'm definitely digging into these for v-day.

I am looking forward to trying your recipes (almonds and mint), but some of the commentator's ideas are great, too! Lemon, Orange, White.

I've made them before, as PB truffles. I have a recipe for Cayenne truffles (tastes super wonderful), and I've had some interesting chocolates, with pepper in them (the black kind), but I wouldn't know where to start with those.

I am wondering, if i wanted to make blueberry truffles or strawberry (for a new birth), how would I go about that? Have you ever had pieces of berries in there?

Hey Dawn, the truffles are only a bite or two, so if you add berries, maybe just try to mash them up into the cream to steep it and then strain, that might give you the subtle flavor you are looking floor. Using dried fruit would make them a bit lumpy when you rolled them I think.

Another idea would be to buy the berries dehydrated (usually found at Co-Ops, Whole Foods, etc) and grind them into a powder, then roll the truffles in that.

Personally, I want to add some Chinese Five Spice in my next batch or steep the cream with some tarragon. ~Garrett

This recipe looks incredible and I am DEFINITELY making some for Valentine's Day!

Quick question: how should the chocolate be prepared when adding it to the heated (and flavored) cream? Most ganache recipes say that the chocolate should be finely chopped in order to get the correct consistency when blending the two ingredients (choc. and cream). Is this the best method for this recipe as well?

THANKS!

You are correct, Helena. If you are using a bar, break it up. If using chips, then don't worry about it. ~Garrett

Wow! These truffles are gorgeous! That truffle bited looks really yummy!

LOL - so true! When somebody gives me a plant/ornament as a gift, all I can think is "great, something else I have to look after/find space for!" But truffles on the other hand...

Great recipes but you are using the wrong chocolate! Callebaut rocks.

Should I use unsweetened cocoa powder? I went to the store last night to get all my ingredients but found a few different types of cocoa powder.

Yep, go with that. I personally prefer the slightly bitter flavor. ~Garrett

I am going to make these tomorrow! I was thinking of making half the batch orange flavored. Should I just infuse the cream with orange zest? Could I also put some finely shredded zest in with the chocolate?

Thanks!

I would just infuse the cream, that way you are sure you have only pure chocolate to bite into and no bits of zest. ~Garrett

These turned out great, I found it was best to leave the ganache in the fridge for at least 4 hours before shaping them.

I did the cinnamon and cardamom version, and rolled them in a mixture of powdered sugar (⅓ c.), cocoa powder (2 tbsp), and cinnamon (1 tsp).

I also did a cinnamon and cayenne version. For dusting, I added a pinch of cayenne to the mixture I used with the other truffles. During the steeping stage, I put in a cinnamon stick and a heaping tsp of cayenne. These turned out very hot, like I'd planned, but other people might want to just use ½ tsp of cayenne in the cream.

Both types turned out great, I used Guittard chocolate. I mixed milk and semisweet together, in equal parts for the cardamom truffles, but mostly semisweet for the cayenne.

Thanks for this recipe! It's simple, and easily customizable.

I made these not to long ago for my husband who is not much of a sweet eater. So to satisfy my chocolate need and his lack of it, I added a few "special" ingredients to make it worth his while. One batch I made with tabasco, one with chili powder (there is a cocoa chili powder from McCormic that is divine) and one batch with chopped jalapeno and tequila. To my surprise...they were all OUTSTANDING!!!

I made this for Valentine's Day. I never knew making truffles was so easy! My life will never be the same again... really.

This was perfect for a bag of dark couverture chocolate that my dear, selfless boy brought back from his last trip home. I think he was angling for brownies, but he'll be getting truffles instead - three half-batches, in peppermint (using peppermint essence, because I had some to hand); Turkish delight (using 2tsp of rose water, and rolled in vanilla sugar, tempered with cornflour), and spiced orange, using strips of orange zest, vanilla, cinnamon and a pinch of cayenne pepper for heat. Yum!

Thanks for this simple recipe. Can't wait to make these this afternoon! I have one question... I wanted to gift these in confection boxes for Christmas. Do you think they can keep at room temperature for a couple days? Thank you.

Too much dairy to store at room temperature. Best to keep them in the fridge. ~Garrett

This recipe looks great. I'm wanting to make some for my desert reception for my wedding. How far in advance can I start to make them? Can they be frozen?

I would make them the day before they're needed. Freezing them may cause them to melt or sweat or even cause the fat to separate. ~Garrett