Trying Truffles? Avoid These Common Cooking Mistakes

Food & Cooking Blog

Delicious chocolate truffles seem easy enough to make, but if you've tried making them in the past and weren't satisfied, you're probably a little discouraged. You might have been making one of the below mistakes; check out these errors and you might feel inspired to make these delicacies again.

Using Cheap Chocolate

While using the most expensive chocolate isn't always required, you want to ensure that you're using chocolate that is of good quality. After all, chocolate is the main component in a truffle. You can do everything else right, but if the chocolate itself isn't very good, you might be disappointed with the result.

Using Chocolate Chips

If you've got some extra chips sitting around your pantry, you might want to melt them down for your truffles. This can lead to a gritty taste because of the stabilizers that most chocolate chips contain. These stabilizers prevent the chips from melting in the bag and clumping together, but since that's exactly what you need the chocolate to do for truffles, chocolate chips should not be used.

Don't Boil Cream

The heart of any truffle is the chocolate ganache, a mixture of chocolate, cream, vanilla and a few other things. You're likely to warm the cream in a pot before adding the chocolate and other ingredients. Because it can be slow to heat up, you may find yourself overheating it to the point of boiling. 

If the cream should boil, however, it then becomes too hot to make a successful truffle. That's because when you add the chocolate, the heat will make the cocoa butter separate itself out from the rest of the chocolate. Your ganache will be congealed and slick, which isn't the right consistency at all. Warm the cream slowly to medium heat to avoid trouble.

Don't Overdo Flavors

You might have tried to get creative in the past with your truffles, adding mint or cayenne pepper for a kick. However, if you add too much, the taste can be too strong and the chocolate taste can be too weak. Not only that, but if you're trying to add peppermint oil, almond extract or other liquids, the entire ganache mixture could be too soggy to roll and form truffles easily. Be a bit stingy with flavorings.

With these details, you can try truffles again. For inspiration, you may pick up a box of assorted truffles, such as Abdallah Candies And Gifts, and enjoy them before working on a new batch. You might get flavor combination ideas and be able to keep in mind the consistency and shape to work towards when making your own.

27 September 2017