Chocolate Salty Balls of Truffle

October 17, 2008 9:10 AM

So my wife is going as Chef to the Rock Star themed potluck I previously asked about. Now we have to come up with a recipe for Chocolate Salty Balls. Anyone have a recipe for a sort of insanely good trufflely chocolate ball that we can lightly coat in some good salt? What would be a good salt to use?

I've been looking online for an actual recipe inspired by South Park, but the ingredients listed in the song itself are very vague (2 bags of sugar?!?) and lack salt. Others, like this one, seem... dubious. However, they match the version that Isaac Hayes put into his cookbook.

We'll probably give that a stab, but I think that making an insanely good chocolate truffle and rolling it in some really good fleur de sel or something would be even better than graham crackers and corn syrup.

So, does anyone have any advice on a really really great chocolate truffle recipe, and also a really good salt that we could use to put on it? I'm sure the combination would work, as chocolate covered pretzels are awesome.

posted by Jupiter Jones to food & drink (12 comments total)

I don't have any of the recipes handy, but the truffles I've made have always been pretty much the same: hot cream poured over chopped chocolate, stirred until melted, cooled until solid-ish, then rolled into balls. The key to making them amazing is in using the best quality chocolate you can afford. And if you want to add any other flavors, steep them in the hot cream before adding to the chocolate. Here's an interesting sounding one using rosemary and sea salt - I've never tried it, but I bet it's tasty.

(If I were going to make chocolate salty balls, I would get salted pretzel bites and coat them in melted chocolate. You can buy pretzels that are just slightly more oblong than ball-shaped, and I think they'd totally qualify. It'd be a lot easier, though less impressive, I guess.)

(Also slightly off-topic, you could take a cue from the Minnesota State Fair and do chocolate-covered bacon with salt sprinkled on top. Perhaps you could roll strips of bacon into balls or even wrap them around big marbles and bake until crispy, then cool and dip in chocolate. Sounds gross, but is actually quite tasty.)
posted by vytae at 9:31 AM on October 17, 2008

This instructable explains very clearly how to make great chocolate truffles. I've made them a few times (although never bothered with the chocolate shell, just rolled in cocoa), and they've always been very popular. One of the variants it suggests is "...with rosemary and sea salt", so give it a try!

http://www.instructables.com/id/Anatomy-of-a-Chocolate-Truffle/
posted by metaBugs at 9:33 AM on October 17, 2008

This sounds like so much fun, I'm going to keep checking to see recipes.

But one thing... isn't it Salty Chocolate Balls, not the other way around? Or am I misremembering?
posted by GardenGal at 9:40 AM on October 17, 2008

I've made these Caramel Chocolate Truffles a couple times. They're not difficult to make, but the process is very hands-on. It would be a fun weekend activity. For your variation, I would dip the finished truffles in melted good-quality dark chocolate and then sprinkle them with a little coarse sea salt. (By the way, if you get some of those little candy foils to serve your balls in, people will be VERY impressed.)
posted by jrichards at 10:03 AM on October 17, 2008

from Delia and very easy
posted by mandal at 10:03 AM on October 17, 2008

GardenGal - I thought so at first as well. Apparently it is Chocolate Salty Balls.
posted by Jupiter Jones at 10:05 AM on October 17, 2008

You want something really crazy? How about chocolate foie gras truffles with tamarind, as served at the near-legendary minibar in DC (and enjoyed, albeit for only one transcendent moment, by me)?
posted by MrMoonPie at 11:09 AM on October 17, 2008

If youu make truffles. Get some coarse cane sugar, cover them liberally with sugar and just sprinkle just enough salt for the taste to get the joke across (but it would look like they're encrusted with salt).
posted by bonobothegreat at 12:10 PM on October 17, 2008 [2 favorites]

I like bonobothegreat's idea of using sugar instead of salt.
posted by radioamy at 12:43 PM on October 17, 2008

Mark Bittman's ganache truffles

Be very cautious in the application of salt. It won't take much to ruin any chocolate confection, which in my opinion would be a worse outcome than ruining a cartoon joke. Because, recall, that the name given these fictional treats was not intended to reflect on an actual workable recipe but rather to suggest a sexual entendre about testicles. Might I suggest rolling in a crushed, salted nut instead? I'm a fan of Planters Extra Crunchy Classic Salt Kettle Roasted Peanuts.
posted by nanojath at 2:43 PM on October 17, 2008

If not sugar, then coconut ground to look like kosher salt.
posted by Lesser Shrew at 7:06 PM on October 17, 2008

If anyone's interested, we ended up making these caramel-dark chocolate truffles with fleur de sel from Bon Appetit magazine. They were tremendous. The salt was a really interesting and delicious addition.
posted by Jupiter Jones at 6:49 AM on October 20, 2008