Truffle Science
December 5, 2010 3:38 AM Subscribe
Purpose of butter in truffle recipes and other truffle related questions.
For the last 2 years I've made truffles to take to family at Christmas. I can't remember which recipe I used and when I google truffle recipes there are so many different recipes.
The recipe I used was very simple - just cream and chocolate but I can't remember the ratio.
I think this is the basic recipe I used but I'm not 100% certain. I made them a little differently - the first time I used Green & Black's festive chocolate bars (one was spiced fruit & rum and the other was dark chocolate and gingerbread), the second time I couldn't get them so I had to improvise but both times they turned out pretty good. If I used the snowball recipe (I think I did) I remember that using that ratio the dark ones were quite hard and the milk quite soft - although I didn't measure precisely when splitting the cream between the 2 bowls - I will measure properly this year.
From my own experience I know that the dark chocolate needs more cream than the milk and I would imagine white chocolate needs even less cream than the milk but even taking into account those differences the ratios of cream to milk in recipes online are all over the map. Then some recipes use butter as well as cream, I can't find any explanation of why/how that affects the recipe.
This year I plan on making white chocolate + raspberry, milk chocolate + rum & spiced fruit, dark chocolate + cherry and dark chocolate with ginger biscuit chunks. Any tips on the best cream to chocolate ratio? What effect does replacing some of the cream with butter have? How much should I adjust the ratio for white and milk chocolate?
I've made them twice before and they were delicious both times but I'm going the extra mile this year - I've bought nice boxes, foil cases and pretty things to roll them in and decorate. I want them to be fairly easy to roll but firm enough to hold their shape well.
For the last 2 years I've made truffles to take to family at Christmas. I can't remember which recipe I used and when I google truffle recipes there are so many different recipes.
The recipe I used was very simple - just cream and chocolate but I can't remember the ratio.
I think this is the basic recipe I used but I'm not 100% certain. I made them a little differently - the first time I used Green & Black's festive chocolate bars (one was spiced fruit & rum and the other was dark chocolate and gingerbread), the second time I couldn't get them so I had to improvise but both times they turned out pretty good. If I used the snowball recipe (I think I did) I remember that using that ratio the dark ones were quite hard and the milk quite soft - although I didn't measure precisely when splitting the cream between the 2 bowls - I will measure properly this year.
From my own experience I know that the dark chocolate needs more cream than the milk and I would imagine white chocolate needs even less cream than the milk but even taking into account those differences the ratios of cream to milk in recipes online are all over the map. Then some recipes use butter as well as cream, I can't find any explanation of why/how that affects the recipe.
This year I plan on making white chocolate + raspberry, milk chocolate + rum & spiced fruit, dark chocolate + cherry and dark chocolate with ginger biscuit chunks. Any tips on the best cream to chocolate ratio? What effect does replacing some of the cream with butter have? How much should I adjust the ratio for white and milk chocolate?
I've made them twice before and they were delicious both times but I'm going the extra mile this year - I've bought nice boxes, foil cases and pretty things to roll them in and decorate. I want them to be fairly easy to roll but firm enough to hold their shape well.
It's always easier to add more cream or chocolate
You have to be very careful if you're going to try that - it's never worked for me. Adding something cold to melted chocolate will shock it. If you keep the cream hot, it may work better but it's my understanding that this is why recipes typically have you heat the butter and cream and then add the chocolate.
Butter definitely keeps the truffles softer and fudgier. I prefer truffles without it, myself; 1/3 cup cream to 1 12-oz bag of semisweet chocolate chips is my preferred recipe. It scoops well and can be adjusted into spheres without completely collapsing. I couldn't tell you how to adjust it for different chocolates although I've seen those instructions online so I'm sure it's out there.
posted by Lady Li at 10:21 AM on December 5, 2010
You have to be very careful if you're going to try that - it's never worked for me. Adding something cold to melted chocolate will shock it. If you keep the cream hot, it may work better but it's my understanding that this is why recipes typically have you heat the butter and cream and then add the chocolate.
Butter definitely keeps the truffles softer and fudgier. I prefer truffles without it, myself; 1/3 cup cream to 1 12-oz bag of semisweet chocolate chips is my preferred recipe. It scoops well and can be adjusted into spheres without completely collapsing. I couldn't tell you how to adjust it for different chocolates although I've seen those instructions online so I'm sure it's out there.
posted by Lady Li at 10:21 AM on December 5, 2010
Response by poster: I have been able to adjust ones that were too hard when set but only after reheating (in the microwave :S). I don't know if there's a trick I'm missing but I can't tell whether they're the right consistency before they set
1/3 cup cream to 1 12-oz bag of semisweet chocolate chips is my preferred recipe
That's what I mean about recipes being all over the map. If I've calculated correctly that's about 80ml cream to 340g chocolate - over 4.25g chocolate to 1ml of cream - compared to the snowballs recipe which has 1g of chocolate to 1ml cream. I've seen recipes with ratios of 1.2:1, 1.7:1 and 2.6:1. The Jamie Oliver recipe uses 1:1 and adds butter. I'd love to experiment and try them all but I'm fat enough already ;)
posted by missmagenta at 11:21 AM on December 5, 2010
1/3 cup cream to 1 12-oz bag of semisweet chocolate chips is my preferred recipe
That's what I mean about recipes being all over the map. If I've calculated correctly that's about 80ml cream to 340g chocolate - over 4.25g chocolate to 1ml of cream - compared to the snowballs recipe which has 1g of chocolate to 1ml cream. I've seen recipes with ratios of 1.2:1, 1.7:1 and 2.6:1. The Jamie Oliver recipe uses 1:1 and adds butter. I'd love to experiment and try them all but I'm fat enough already ;)
posted by missmagenta at 11:21 AM on December 5, 2010
The ratio I've seen most often is 1 cup (about 236.6 mL) heavy cream to 1 pound (about 453.6 g) chocolate.
See:
Simply Recipes
Cooking for Engineers
Smitten Kitchen (actually 2/3 cup to 11 oz, but that's close enough)
To test the consistency of the ganache, you could try the cold plate test used for jam--stick a plate in the freezer and dribble a bit of the chocolate mixture on it when it's ready. I'd imagine that it would cool quickly enough to give you an idea of what the finished truffles would be like, without having to chill the whole batch.
(Disclaimer: I have no practical truffle making experience. I just read a lot of stuff on the internet :)
posted by junques at 11:16 AM on December 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
See:
Simply Recipes
Cooking for Engineers
Smitten Kitchen (actually 2/3 cup to 11 oz, but that's close enough)
To test the consistency of the ganache, you could try the cold plate test used for jam--stick a plate in the freezer and dribble a bit of the chocolate mixture on it when it's ready. I'd imagine that it would cool quickly enough to give you an idea of what the finished truffles would be like, without having to chill the whole batch.
(Disclaimer: I have no practical truffle making experience. I just read a lot of stuff on the internet :)
posted by junques at 11:16 AM on December 6, 2010 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
Regarding ratios, there's tonnes of tips online. It's always easier to add more cream or chocolate if you need to, so just keep adjusting until it feels right.
posted by smoke at 3:48 AM on December 5, 2010