Chocolate truffles are really impressive--and really easy to make!

Do you like those Swiss truffles you see in the store? You know the ones, they have master Swiss chocolatier on the package and they're spherical?

You don't have to be a master chocolatier to make them. In fact, truffles are one of the easiest chocolates to do.

And they make you look like a genius.

My most recent batch came about by accident. My wife doesn't eat gluten so for my daughter's birthday party, I made her (and the rest of us adults) a flourless chocolate cake which I dressed up with a ganache topping.

I had some left over after dressing the cake and with today's prices, I'm not about to throw any of that away! I could always top something else with it, but it wouldn't cover much. I could make my famous ganache-filled brownie cups (keep your eyes open for a future post on that).

Or, I could collect it back up and make some truffles to snack on. That's what I landed on. I poured the remainder from the bowl into a freezer safe container, scraped up what had dripped off the cake, added that with the rest, and tossed in some mint flavor for fun.

Then it went into the freezer until I wasn't as busy and had a hankering.

Ganache freezes just fine and it's a great blank canvas on which to add flavors. You can add the mint like I did, or perhaps a splash of orange liquer, or .... the only limit is your taste and imagination.

A day before I wanted to make truffles, I put the ganache into the fridge from the freezer to thaw. The next day, I scooped it out, rolled it into balls, and then rolled the balls around in a bowl with some cocoa powder.

Boom, classy quick candy that makes you look like a master. A recipe (with variations) is below.

Truffle/Ganache Recipe:

• 8 oz bitter or semi- sweet chocolate, finely chopped.

  • I'd recommend buying a bar and chopping, chips are easy, but sometimes they have chemicals that help them keep their shape better in cookies and this will mess up the ganache's smooth texture.

• 1/2 C heavy cream

1. Put the chopped chocolate in a medium sized bowl.

   
   

2. Heat the cream either over low heat in a small saucepan or in the microwave til bubbles just start to form around the outside of the pan/bowl. You want it just shy of a full boil.

   
   

3. Pour the cream over the chocolate. Let it sit for 5 minutes. Begin gently stirring (resist the temptation to use a whisk and whip--there are uses for whipped ganache like frosting, but if you want it smooth, just gently stir) from the center out until the chocolate is completely melted.

   
   
   
   

There. That's it. Scale up or down in your recipe as needed.

If you're in a hurry, put the ganache in the fridge and gently stir every so often until it starts to firm up. When firmed up, drop by tablespoon onto a sheet pan covered with parchment or wax paper. Roll in your hands and then roll in a bowl of cocoa powder (or perhaps finely chopped hazelnuts?).

Mess it up? No worries. If it's too stiff, remelt by putting in the microwave at 50% power and add a bit of cream. Too loose? Do the same, but add a bit of extra chopped chocolate.

Want more of a glaze for covering, say, a flourless chocolate cake? Increase the cream to 3/4 C, keep the chocolate at 8 oz, and add 2 Tbsp of corn syrup for shine. Put the syrup in with the chocolate and pour the hot cream on. Proceed as before.

Prefer milk chocolate? Up the chocolate in the recipe to 12 oz. Proceed as before.

Prefer white chocolate? Use 12 oz white chocolate and 1/3 C cream. Proceed as before.

You can also drop the cream to 1/3 C, use 8 oz semi sweet and add 2 Tbsp softened butter to the warm ganache. Talk about gilding the lilly!