::digitaldefection::

everyone likes chocolate, but i never really used to eat too much of it. i mean its good and all but its also pretty unhealthy. most chocolate tends to be the milk variety, which is delicious, but very sweet and fatty. i recently started enjoying more bitter foods, and started eating dark chocolate as a treat every so often. its much more flavorful than milk chocolate (although it is hard for some to handle the bitterness, being that it is sort of an acquired taste), its full of antioxidants, and not as high in sugar and fat.
so i decided to make some truffles. i figure, hey this will probably be one of the harder things i have made in my kitchen, but if i can make chocolate, i can have any woman i want.

the candymaking begins with a trip to anywhere that sells cooking utensils. youre going to need a digital instant-read thermometer, a nice melon-baller, a couple of glass bowls, an ice cream scoop, a rolling pin, a serrated knife (a good bread knife will work fine. you do not want a fine serration though), a large baking pan, and a glass baking dish. after that, head on over to your local gourmet foods store. i went to whole foods, but i recommend trader joes as well, because they are a little cheaper. you could also go to your regular grocery store or whatever and just buy a bunch of chocolate, but it will probably not be as high of quality and you likely will pay more for your chocolate. youre going to need 18 ounces of bittersweet or dark chocolate. i chose two chocolates, one that was 60% cocoa and one that was 75%, but really this is all up to how bitter you want the chocolates to be. the higher the percentage, the more bitter it will be. also, if you wanted to go the cheap and easy route (but not as delicious and complex!) you could just theoretically use plain old semisweet chocolate (even chocolate chips).

youre also going to need a heavy cream (the higher the butterfat, the better), 3 tablespoons of butter (not margarine), chocolate liquer (i chose godiva, but you could use whatever type you want, or even another liquer for a different flavor. i bet a kahlua, dark rum, grand mariner or brandy would be especially good), and light corn syrup. additionally, you need to chose your coating(s). the traditional coating is cocoa powder, but you can pretty much use anything you want. for my recipe i used 3 different coatings, cocoa powder, finely ground espresso (these were amazing), and very finely shaved chocolate. next time i may also try ground almonds, pistacios, toasted coconut, and confectioners sugar are supposedly great too.

now, on to the show.

first, the hard (as in work) part. you have to chop up all that chocolate. if youre going to use shaved chocolate as a coating, you need to go ahead and do that first. just take a regular knife (non-serrated) at a slight angle and whittle the chocolate down. when you have a half cup or so, set it aside so you can move on to the chopping. take your knife in your left hand and set it on the corner of hte chocolate at a little bit of an angle, away from the chocolate. hold the rolling pin (any similar instrument will work. i used a dumbell bar with a towel wrapped around it to keep from destroying the back side of my knife) in your right hand and hammer the knife until it breaks the chocolate off. you want to make evenly-sized pieces of chocolate, about 1/4 inch in size. the move even the size your chocolate is, the more evenly it will melt. this is key!

now that youre done chopping, it is time to make the ganache (the inside filling). take 8 ounces of the chopped chocolate and set it aside. take the remaining 10 ounces of chocolate and put it in a glass bowl with 3 tablespoons of butter. put it in the microwave for about 30 seconds, stir it, and microwave it again for 30 seconds, and stir again. the chocolate should be mostly melted, but not completely. grab a small sauce pan and put it on your stove on medium-high heat, immediately (while it is still cold) pour in 1/2 cup of the cream and a tablespoon of corn syrup. bring the mixture to a simmer (stirring often, keep an eye on it so as not to scald the cream!) and pour the hot cream mixture into the bowl of melted chocolate and butter. using a rubber spatula, stir until smooth and creamy. pour in 2-3 ounces of the liquer, and stir gently until mixed in. pour the mixture into the glass baking dish and put in the refrigerator, uncovered, for 1 hour (make sure to keep it away from anything that might make it pick up smells, particularly uncovered pickles, garlic, and onions).

after an hour, remove from the refrigerator, and make small balls using the melon baller. you need to work quickly, and dont worry about making perfectly round balls, just try to make a good general shape, perferably without any pits and valleys (they are harder to coat later). place the balls on the baking sheet covered in foil, or preferably wax paper or parchment paper. put the balls in the refrigerator for another 30 minutes so they will set back up. while youre waiting, you can go ahead and set up your outer coating. you can use a pie pan or a shallow bowl for each coating. fill each container with about a third cup of the coating and set aside.
when the 30 minutes is up, it is time for the part that will require the most skill. take the remaining 8 ounces of chocolate and melt it to exactly 91-92 degrees. DO NOT MELT IT PAST 94! there are a couple of ways to do this. traditionally, one would use a double-boiler. but if you get ANY water into the chocolate, it will seize up and ruin the chocolate. if you have a heating pad, that is probably the best way, as this will heat the chocolate more evenly and gradually. just stir the chocolate constantly with the bowl on the heating pad until the chocolate reaches 91 degrees, then remove immediately from the pad. if you don’t have a heating pad, no big deal, just microwave for 30 seconds, stir, microwave for 20 seconds, stir, check the temperature, and then repeat for 7-10 seconds until you reach 91 degrees, but remember no more than 92.

cover the inside of your ice cream scoop with melted chocolate and then drop a truffle in it and roll it around until it is covered. quickly drop it in a coating bowl and shake the bowl around until it is completely covered. leave it there and repeat using a different coating. the idea is to give the first truffle about 15 seconds to a minute to cool and allow the melted chocolate to set so you can pick it up. be sure to wipe your hands with a towel after picking it up so as not to cross-contaminate the coatings with different colors. if you so choose, you can put the chocolates into candy cups for display. place the truffles back into the refrigerator and let set for at least an hour. before serving, allow the chocolates to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes, in order to achieve optimal food tasting temperature. cold foods are just not as flavorful.