Cooking For Engineers

[spider]

I JUST WANT TO SEND A MASSIVE THANKYOU TO YOU FOR THIS AMAZING GANASH RECIPE, I HAVE MADE CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES ON MANY OCCASIONS AND AS A RESULT MY DAUGHTER ASKED ME TO MAKE THEM FOR HER WEDDING FAVOURS, ( 200 IN ALL ) FOR SOME REASON MY USUAL METHOD WAS NOT WORKING ON THIS OCCASION, SO I DECIDED TO DO A SEARCH TO SEE WHAT I WAS DOING WRONG, THEN I FOUND COOKING FOR ENGINEERS, I FOLLOWED YOUR RECIPE AND COULD`NT BELIVE HOW EASY IT WAS, PERFECT CRAEMY, SMOOTH, AND SO EASY TO WORK WITH, I WILL NEVER USE ANOTHER RECIPE FOR TRUFFLES, THANKYOU, THANKYOU, THANKYOU. XXX

[Amy_from_england]

Great instructions
Unfortunatly I realised (whilst staring at the heap i just finished) that I'm not actually a big fan of dark chocolate...major d'oh moment there...

I might try making some milk chocolate ones next time

Thank you!

Amy
-taking these into work-

[michelle]

I have made this recipe twice now; thank you for sharing it! I had previously been struggling because every time I tried making these, the chocolate seized. This works well for me because I'm simply adding the hot liquid to the still solid chocolate and allowing it to melt from the heat of the whipping cream. I think I'd tried this before and it didn't work but I probably had the ratios wrong. I have been adding a small amount of honey to the cream when heating it and then coating them in ice cream "crunchies" (aka dark chocolate krunch) and these truffles are a hit! Everyone at work loves them! My husband says they rival the family friend's truffles which previously had been the best truffles he'd ever had! Thank you again for posting this!!

[Lori]

thats a great recipe! The steps with the pictures makes it really simple to follow! I'm going to try the shell for these and hope they come out! If not, I have cocoa powder and powdered sugar as another option

[beccaj]

Hi - I'm a home cake maker based in the UK and I have found your instructions for tempering chocolate very helpful - I don't use a candy thermometer, but have learned how to guage the temperature of the melted chocolate using my finger (a clean finger!). I can now coat my chocolate ganache covered cakes successfully with beautifully glossy dark chocolate hand made shards - this has become one of my most popular wedding cakes!
I will be making the truffles for this Christmas for family and friends, using more chocolate to cream than I use for my cake ganache filling.
One question I have is: When I have added alcohol to ganache in the past (rum or brandy) it makes the ganache seize up immediately. Is the adding of alcohol in the timing - should I add it to the cream as it heats to stop this from happening?
Thank you
Rebecca

[summer]

can u substitute the dark chocolate for milk baking chocolate?

[Guest]

Why would my ganache not get hard enough to roll...what did I do wrong. Such as easy recipe and I messed up. HELP!!!!

[Michael Chu]

[Guest]

can i just use a bag of hershey's semi sweet chocolate instead of dark chocolate, and would i need a different amount of chocolate?

[Michael Chu]

[Carrie Causey]

I almost just wrote this in an email (because it's rather long) but I thought that maybe a reply might be helpful to others.

My truffle story this season is long and sad - taking up about a week of evenings. I started out wanting to make molded truffles and cherry cordials. Bought a couple of molds, and tried. Didn't work out too well for the cherries (my center was too soft - my fault) so I moved on to truffles. Your ganache recipe worked great. Rolled up lots of balls and put them in the freezer. I have been having a hard time with making my chocolate shell. I can't seem to make it an even thickness all the way around by just brushing the chocolate up the sides like I'm supposed to - i was getting cracks and leaks when I unmolded them. So I tried putting a puddle of chocolate into the bottom of the mold, letting it harden, then centering my ganache ball on top and pouring more chocolate on top - hoping it would flow around the sides. But, 90 degree chocolate is a bit too thick to flow around the ball entirely, and I got big gaps, even after whacking it on the counter. My last resort was to put a spoonful of chocolate into my mold, then press my other mold down to imprint the inside and make the cavity. It worked great! Except that my shell stuck to the top mold, not the bottom one, and shattered when I tried to remove it.

So, I gave up on molds and just decided to roll them between my hands in chocolate. My ganache began to melt instantly upon contact with the chocolate - even straight from the freezer. This is the whipped viennese center - maybe that's why. Anyway, I now have a tray full of ugly, half covered, ganache-oozing balls.

I know that my temper is right, because all my mistakes have been really shiny and have a good snap. I start working with the chocolate at around 91 degrees, and try to use it all before it hits 88.

I'm not really sure about any question... if you have any comments about my technique, or if you know anything about using chocolate molds, I'd be grateful. For now, my white/almond ganache and my dark/orange ganache are being saved in the freezer for New Year's Chocolate fondue.

Merry Christmas everyone, and I hope you have better luck than me!!

[Jun]

I'm going to be making my first batch of truffles, and was wondering why you wouldn't just melt the chocolate for the ganache in a double boiler instead of chopping it up and melting the chocolate by adding the heated cream? I would think it would be easier in the double boiler and less trouble because you wouldn't have to chop it up into little pieces..

Also I was wondering if you can add orange juice to the cream mixture along with orange zest?

Has anyone tried the flavors of coffee, orange zest and cinnamon together? Would this be too many flavors in a truffle? I am debating on those 3 flavors together or maybe a combination of 2.. i.e. orange zest and cinnamon, but would like to know if I would use cinnamon stick or powder? And do I need to strain out the zest or can I leave it in? I prefer the non-alcoholic truffle so am not using the typical liqueur.

Thanks for your help!

[Guest]

The truffles worked great for me. It took a really long time to shape the ganache balls I think I needed to let it harden longer. I also striped red and green white chocolate on top of the truffles, it looked awesome and covered up my messups.

[Guest]

I made two batches so far of these, with Green & Black's Oragnic chocolate. One batch is milk chocolate, the other is dark chocolate with rock sugar and honey dissolved into the cream.

The milk ganache is quite sticky even out of the freezer, which I suspect may be due to the brand I'm using (high cocoa butter content), but I just enrobed them to avoid them being too squishy if rolled in cocoa powder.

Pro-tip for those of you failing at tempering or who feel intimidated: Ghiradelli makes a candy chocolate specifically made to harden quickly, to stay shiny, and to snap. Microvave, mix, roll the truffles, bam. Done. Might be a good baby step for some of you. I bought some awhile ago due to time constraints and failing at tempering, but now I've got my training wheels off and I'm tackling it much better now.

I also read that in the event that your ganache turns into an oily mess, a few good pulses in the food processor will re-emulsify. Can't testify to it, but it's worth a shot for anyone with that problem.

Awesome instructions. Love it.

[chanman]

@Jun

Melting it in a double boiler will cause some separation.

I've re-melted my ganache a few times and have a lump of fat-studded chocolate that I've scraped off the top of my bowl. Still trying to figure out what to do with it. Anyone have any ideas on how to cause the fat to re-emulsify?