# The very easy Chocolate Truffles



## reyesryanmjaube (Nov 20, 2010)

Hello guys, I'm new here and I joined because I know that I can get a lot of info from this forums and I can share some as well.

Ok. Truffles are a god given gift. They're really easy to make and they taste like heaven. I made some for my girl and she totally loved it, even her mom!

I've attached a picture of the truffle 



My girl suggested that I should start selling this. I laughed at the Idea bud I did some rough costing. I just kept the idea buried in my head somewhere. But then my bestfriend messaged me and said that we should sell something this Christmas for extra income and I said, why not.

Ok, there's a few question I just want to ask before I even start selling this stuff.

The truffles that I did was actually my first. I used unsweetened cooking chocolate. I assume unsweetened contains more cocoa bits so I should add more cream. And less if i used normal chocolates. Or was I informed wrong?

The common truffle recipe that's revolving around the net is roughly 1 cup of cream in a pound of chocolate. Now if I add more cream, it will become softer right? But in the field of truffles is soft = good?

I think this will be enough for my first post since I don't want to overwhelm everyone with a wall of post from a new comer. I will just update this from time to time.

Thank you!


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

Greetings from chocolate-country and thumbs up for your truffels!

Maybe you will like this small contribution;

You cannot make good truffels without good dark chocolate! I let you guess which chocolate, begins with a B..... for the origine and C... for the brand, like in Callebaut, oops.

Truffels are actually a ganache dipped in melted chocolate and rolled in cacao powder or chocolate curls, or almond flakes...

The ganache can be made to your own taste. It's mainly chocolate in chunks or pellets with a fat, cream, booze, fruitjuice... Ganache makes the chocolate able to manipulate. The more fat or liquid, the softer the ganache. Try adding your own flavors; orange zeste, praliné (mixture of almond nuts in caramel)...

For the booze, use whatever you like, or just leave it out. Please, experiment a lot with others like rum, Grand-Marnier, why not american whisky...

An example;

- 200 ml cream

- 1 tbsp vanilla extract

- 250 gram black chocolate for the ganache, 150 gram for the coating

- 75 gram butter

- 50 gram cacao powder, 150 gram for the coating

- 1 tbsp cognac

*Make the ganache;*

Heat cream and vanilla-extract for a while. Away from the fire; add chocolate in chunks. Stir regularly to get a homogenous mixture. Let cool to handwarm, add butter, cacao and cognac. Done.

Let the ganache cool for 12 hours in a cool spot (not your fridge!) so the flavors can merge.

*Make the truffels;*

Take teaspoons of ganache and roll in your hands to a ball or a shape you prefer. Put the balls in the fridge to harden. You can put them in the freezer half an hour before going to the coating, this will make your life easier.

*Make the coating;*

Melt 150 gram chocolate on a very low fire or "bain-marie" (stir!) or or use the microwave. Put the cacao powder on a plate or low bowl.

Use a fork to put the truffels one-by-one in the melted chocolate, let drip shortly and put immediately in the cacao powder. Shake the plate with the powder or roll the truffels in it.

　

*Note*; Personally I prefer truffels rolled in chocolate flakes instead of in powder. Melt some chocolate, spread it open with a cakeknife very thinly on a marble or granit surface. Let cool. Use a pallet knife to push the chocolate in front of the knife, this is how you get nice chocolate curls, well, after some practice. Break the curl a little and use this instead of cacao powder. Most Belgian trufferls are made like this.

A nice alternative is to use roughly chopped almond flakes.

Also, please get rid of the unsweetened cooking chocolate! You probably add sugar in your mixture too; no way, use regular chocolat and don't add extra sugar unless you want to commit a mortal sin.


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## reyesryanmjaube (Nov 20, 2010)

Actually, I have diabetes so I use that kind of chocolate. I use splenda or stevia as my sweetener. haha 

Thanks for your input though. Your truffles are kinda different since you dip it in chocolate. Mine are just ganache and covered with powder


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

I've never sold my own food, but I suppose it entails a bit more than just cooking it and asking for money in exchange for what you've cooked. Have you thought about laws, codes, zoning, regulations, licenses, labeling etc...? Do you own or have access to a fully inspected commercial kitchen? Or were you just thinking of selling to family and friends? Do you have liability insurance? What if one of the person who buys from you gets sick and decides to sue you?

I'm sorry, don't mean to be a party pooper... but I believe those are things you need to consider before you start selling your own food.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Truffles are  great, but the shelf life on them is not the same as a drugstore box of chocolate.  With fresh cream, impeccable hygiene, and good technique, figure on 3 weeks shelf life--at room temp.

Chocolate and bon bons (truffles included) should NEVER be stored in the refrigerator, or "sugar bloom" will result.  You can succesfully freeze them, but they need to be vacuum packaged and undergo a 48 hr thawing process.  I do this quite often, and it works with delicate bon-bons, and molded bon bons with transfer sheet imprints as well.

In the confectionary business, packaging is what sells, and in many cases, the packaging (and labour involved) is more expensive than the materials and labour for the chocolates.

Please, please, don't use "Baking chocolate", if you want to go the diabetic route there are some decent bulk chocolates made with malitol.

With ChrisBelgium, we know where his loyalties lie in chocolate,--and why not?  Belgium makes some excellent chocolate.  But, as I tell my customers, the Swiss know a thing or two about chocolate as well.  Then again, so do the French.  There is a lot of good chocolate out there and a lot of garbage.  Learn to read lables and know your ingredients.

Hope this helps,

Foodpump

--or should I say "Eduard-aus-der-Schweiz"?


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## reyesryanmjaube (Nov 20, 2010)

French Fries said:


> I've never sold my own food, but I suppose it entails a bit more than just cooking it and asking for money in exchange for what you've cooked. Have you thought about laws, codes, zoning, regulations, licenses, labeling etc...? Do you own or have access to a fully inspected commercial kitchen? Or were you just thinking of selling to family and friends? Do you have liability insurance? What if one of the person who buys from you gets sick and decides to sue you?
> 
> I'm sorry, don't mean to be a party pooper... but I believe those are things you need to consider before you start selling your own food.


I live in a country where you can get away with anything. If you're talking about the legalities of a soon-to-be-small-time food seller like me then almost all the laws pertaining to it can get neglected, yeah, as much as I wouldn't want to admit, our country sucks in a lot of aspect. But if I make it big, that's where all the things you said can be and will be implemented.


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

Oh sorry I just assumed you lived in the U.S. - then by all mean, go for it! We used to eat chocolate truffles every single Xmas when I grew up. And no offense to Chris, but we never ate Belgian chocolate of any kind, as it was considered sub-par. The Swiss chocolate was considered a step up from that, but really the French chocolate was the only one "allowed" in the house. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/lol.gif

I recently went to Switzerland and was shocked to see that even the best, deluxe "boutique" chocolatiers on bahnhofstrasse in Zurich all list "Palm Oil" as one of their first ingredients. If a chocolatier did that in France he would get shot or at least go to jail or something. I still bought a box for some friends and we ate them, and they were ok but honestly I wasn't impressed.


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## ishbel (Jan 5, 2007)

I think Belgian chocolates are great, ditto Swiss. Italian or French? Naaaah, not so much /img/vbsmilies/smilies/wink.gif (Sorry, FrenchFries!)


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

French Fries said:


> ...We used to eat chocolate truffles every single Xmas when I grew up. And no offense to Chris, but we never ate Belgian chocolate of any kind, as it was considered sub-par. The Swiss chocolate was considered a step up from that, but really the French chocolate was the only one "allowed" in the house...


I'm not even trying to convince people to change their own preferences, but it might be helpful for the OP and all of us if you just listed your favorite brands.


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

reyesryanmjaube said:


> Actually, I have diabetes so I use that kind of chocolate. I use splenda or stevia as my sweetener. haha
> 
> Thanks for your input though. Your truffles are kinda different since you dip it in chocolate. Mine are just ganache and covered with powder


Oh, I didn't know there was a diabetic challenge. Sorry.

Do try the method of plunging them in chocolate first! It's the original way to make truffels. You'll like the variation in textures; biting through the thin outer chocolate layer and then into the ganache... yumm


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

> French Fries said:
> 
> 
> > ...We used to eat chocolate truffles every single Xmas when I grew up. And no offense to Chris, but we never ate Belgian chocolate of any kind, as it was considered sub-par. The Swiss chocolate was considered a step up from that, but really the French chocolate was the only one "allowed" in the house...
> ...


Are we talking chocolates as in a box of chocolates that you can offer to someone at Christmas? If yes, then my favorite "brands" are not brands, but are local artisan chocolatiers, in Grenoble, in the Alpes, where I grew up. They still exist today and they still make, in my opinion, some of the best chocolates I've ever tasted.

Here they are:

Zugmeyer: http://www.chocolats-zugmeyer.fr/

Bochard: http://www.chocolaterie-bochard.com/chocolat/chocolat/7-chocolat.html

We're talking about "Maitre Chocolatiers" who've been doing this as a family business for 60-80 years, not about chains or national brands.

Some of the Belgian chocolates I've tasted were the Leonidas (http://www.leonidas-chocolate.com/), which honestly were actually quite good, but much creamier and ... well less "cocoa" taste, very sweet and no complexity. The French taste is also typically much less sweet vs other countries (especially the U.S.). Even Belgian chocolates are too sweet for me. French chocolate, in my opinion, is the perfect marriage of subtlety and complexity. They're not bitter, they don't overwhelm your senses the second you put them in your mouth, but they keep working at your palate for the whole time you're eating them, and, like a good wine, they continue working their magic long after you've swallowed them.

Now if we're talking chocolate tablets, that's a different story, and even in France we eat tons of Belgian (Cote d'Or - actually one of my childhood favorites) and obviously Swiss (Nestlé, Lindt, Toblerone, Suchard...) chocolate, along with our French chocolate (Poulain, Valrhona...). But keep in mind most of those big Swiss names actually make their dark chocolate in France - or well, to be more detailed, they make some dark chocolate in France, and some dark chocolate in Switzerland. In my opinion it's no secret that some of the best dark chocolate tablets is probably the one made in France by those Swiss brands. The best milk chocolate tablets in the world are in my opinion the ones made by Swiss brands in Switzerland.


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

Ishbel said:


> I think Belgian chocolates are great, ditto Swiss. Italian or French? Naaaah, not so much /img/vbsmilies/smilies/wink.gif (Sorry, FrenchFries!)


Aaah that's alright Ishbel: different cultures, different taste educations, different childhoods, different memories, different tastes.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

> But keep in mind most of those big Swiss names actually make their dark chocolate in France - or well, to be more detailed, they make some dark chocolate in France, and some dark chocolate in Switzerland. In my opinion it's no secret that some of the best dark chocolate tablets is probably the one made in France by those Swiss brands. The best milk chocolate tablets in the world are in my opinion the ones made by Swiss brands in Switzerland.


 Mmmm.... Lindt still makes it's couvertue in Kilchberg--just outside of Zurich, and in Berne. I usually get my shipments of Lindt in 300 kg lots several times a year, and it is indeed mnfctrd in Kilchberg. Lindt has many European subsiduaries, and these make bars, novelities or confections, but use couverture from the "mother factory." Carma, another factory just outside of Zurich still makes it's own couverture, but the factory is now owned by "Ma Callebaut", Max Felchlin, a very high end mnfctr is in the Kanton of Schwyz, and is bean to bar as well. The huge Swiss retail giant "Migros" has it's own chocolate factory--"Frey" and it is bean to bar as well

It was Rudolphe Lindt who made the first "Fondant Chocolate", chocolate as we know it today, and attributed it's smoothness to "conching" a processing method he developed. All the other European countries were right behind and improved on the design. Good chocolate is the product of good beans--properly harvested, fermented, and dried,- and good manufacturing processes. The European nations stand out becasue they have always invested heavily in machinery to process the chocolate.

Needless to say France has/had her colonies from which she imported cocoa, as did Belgium, Germany, and Holland. Each cocoa growing region has it's own type of tree, climate, and soil, much like wine. I get a bit upset when customers come to me and say "Country "X" makes the best chocolate", and I stop and take the time to educate them that there is NO "Best", but very good chocolates, all unique and wonderfull.

Milk Chocolate was a collaboration between two French Swiss, Daniel Peters, and Henri Nestle. Peters had a chocolate factory and Nestle had just invented a process for making milk powder. Peters went to his grave, regretting the fact he had never bothered to patent his process of making milk chocolate, Nestle went on applying his process to coffee.....


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

foodpump said:


> > But keep in mind most of those big Swiss names actually make their dark chocolate in France - or well, to be more detailed, they make some dark chocolate in France, and some dark chocolate in Switzerland. *In my opinion* it's no secret that some of the best dark chocolate tablets is probably the one made in France by those Swiss brands. The best milk chocolate tablets in the world are *in my opinion* the ones made by Swiss brands in Switzerland.
> 
> 
> I get a bit upset when customers come to me and say "Country "X" makes the best chocolate", and I stop and take the time to educate them that there is NO "Best", but very good chocolates, all unique and wonderfull.


I understand. I'm glad I took the precaution of saying "In my opinion" twice. Maybe I shouldn't have said "the best" but "the one I prefer".

I can't tell you exactly how or where Lindt makes their chocolate, but what I can tell you is that their "Made in France" dark chocolate does not taste the same as their "Made in Switzerland" dark chocolate. Maybe it all comes from the same source but the manufacturing processes and recipes are adapted to the taste of the country, that I'm not sure. But personally I find the Lindt that is "Made in France" to be of superior quality to the one "Made in Switzerland". That is not the case (again, IMO) with milk chocolate.

Here is a PORTION of the chocolate aisle in a French supermarket:


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

FrenchFries, the chocolate that is probably most appreciated in gastronomic circles is the french Valrhona, however, I live at a 15 minute drive from a french supermarket Auchan. I have never, ever seen any Valrhona in their aisles. On the other hand, many artisanal chocolatiers use Callebaut in pellets or in huge blocks. Callebaut has a very strong reputation for "couverture" chocolate, even available in industrial amounts. They are quite specialized in this market, that's also why I suggested at to the OP.

I consider Cote d'Or to be a very, very good home chocolate, both milk chocolate and especially the dark varieties. Lindt is indeed somewhat a good commercial alternative. On the other hand, chocolates such as Swiss Toblerone, contains too much sugar to please my pallet. I think the Suisse chocolates are generally too sweet, they are more known for their milk chocolates, low on cacao, high on sugars and milk, well, milkpowder to be honest.

My preference in eating chocolate however is very general; 70% cacao, low sugar, shiny surface, chunks must snaps off with a sound that says how good it has been tempered and stored, and a very deep longlasting taste, and.. a coffee or a whisky aside is always good company. Most brands have now merged and are dependent of international foodgroups. Chocolate has become as we say "unity-sausage". I very much disagree with your remark on Belgian chocolates being too sweet. Our food in general is very much french orientated. So is chocolate; very _few_ sugar!

*@ reyesryanmjaube *on the remarks on package; their are 2 ways of selling truffles and pralines (bonbons); in the regular big distribution chains where package is indeed very important. On the other hand, the chocolates bought from chocolatiers are mostly offered unpacked. You have to choose from the counters in their store, wherafter they pack it in simpler "ballotins", nothing more than a simple box, sealed with a ribbon. Here's one example from a great Belgian chocolatier to inspire you;

http://www.godiva.be/products/product_detail.asp?iCategoryID=78&iID=933


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

FrenchFries,

O.K., I told you where all Lindt couverture is made.

What would I know about chocolate?


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

foodpump said:


> FrenchFries,
> 
> O.K., I told you where all Lindt couverture is made.
> 
> What would I know about chocolate?


I think maybe we're not talking about the same thing? I was talking tablets, you were talking couverture. I'm sorry, I'm confused. /img/vbsmilies/smilies/confused.gif


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Yes, the tablets are comprised mainly of couverture


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

Well then maybe it wasn't Lindt, that's what I remember but maybe it was another big Swiss chocolate? But I remember the made in France from the same brand tasted better than the made in Switzerland. Can't explain how or why though. You say "mainly" so maybe it was whatever else they do to it that was different?


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## reyesryanmjaube (Nov 20, 2010)

Oh, much discussion going on here. Anyway, I was very busy testing and retesting a lot of kinds of chocolates, cream proportion and other products. I ended up using glucose and guess what, it worked like a charm! Here are my truffles now 

Milk Chocolate Truffles



Dark Chocolate Truffles



I used Callebout Cocoa Powder for the milk choco one and De Zaan Cocoa Powder for the dark one.


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

Congratulations RRMJ, very nice result! They even look very much like real truffles (I mean not the chocolat ones)!

Good luck with your chocolat business ambition.


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## reyesryanmjaube (Nov 20, 2010)

LOL, I love how you shortened my long name and with the correct acronyms too!

Anyway, I had a problem. I got the solution, and now, I have a problem again.

Ok, The greatest problem for me is getting the ganache to be stiff enough but. There is always the option of encasing the ganache with tempered chocolate then rolling it in the desired powdered coating.

Thinking as a business man, I opted not to include the tempered chocolate ganache encasing since it will add production cost. But after my testing, I figured something has to be done.

I had 6 hour, 12 hour and 24 hour room temp standing test. I tested my truffles on how it can last in room temp. It did last firm up to 6 hours but when the 12th and 24th hour mark came, the truffles deforms with the force coming from your fingers with is undesirable. 

So now, I decided that I want to use tempered chocolate as a casing. Which brings me to my next problem.

Tempered chocolate hardens pretty well. If for example I already made the ganache with the encasing and I let it harden, how can I add the cocoa powder coating? I know it wont stick anymore. My theory is, I'll use a hair dryer and kinda moisten the encasing and then roll them in cocoa powder. Will that work? If not, is there anyway? I want to know since i will do a product testing very soon and if my friends uncle likes my chocos, then he said that I will make the Christmas giveaways for his company. If so, then I need to organize how I work. My plan is make the ganache and coat them with chocolate and before I transport then, I cover them with powder the last minute. 

And another thing, I know this might sound very stupid but... how can I temper chocolate without using any thermometer? I'm not looking for a perfect shiny coating, just enough to encase my ganache. And on estimation, how much tempered chocolate will it take to cover like... 50 truffles (500 grams.) because I'm planning to give most of my friends a set before I start with this small business. Thanks guys, I appreciate all the input in my thread and they are all very very useful 

EDIT:

I just read that when using compound chocolate, we dont need to temper since it does not contain cocoa butter. Is this true? Will the coating still be good enough?


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

RRMJ, maybe Foodpump can give you a lot of good advice, he works quite a lot of chocolate as we all read.

When I was a lot younger, I helped in a bakery many weekends that made their own truffles. I made lots of kilos of these goodies! We dipped the frozen ganache simply in melted chocolate (no previous tempering) one by one with a fork, and immediately dropped them in cacoa powder etc. and rolled them. Done!

I understand you're in the Phillipines, not the ideal place to make these; humidity and heat are the biggest enemies of chocolate. An outer layer of chocolate would help you a lot imo.


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## reyesryanmjaube (Nov 20, 2010)

This just came into my mind. If I add cocoa powder to my ganache, what will happen? Or cocoa powder to my melted chocolate?

Here's a picture from our product testing. I tried to give the chocolates a real "truffl-ey" look.





It kinda looks like a meteor. A very delicious meteor, LOL.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Whe adding cocoa to a ganache powder, not much will happen, other than having a grittier mouthfeel to it.

There's a balance to truffles, too firm and they shape well, but are too firm in the mouth.   Too soft, and they feel great in the mouth  but are too soft to transport.

Think of the the tempered shell around the ganache as an "exo-skeleton", it protects the soft ganache, and also provides a firm "bite"

Classical technique for truffles is to roll the ganache into balls  When firm, dip into tempered couverture and roll in the palm of your hands, giving it a thin shell.as well as sealing out air.  Then do it all over again, but this time, when still wet, toss into cocoa powder--or ground toasted nuts, or chocoalte shavings, or.....

There's cocoa powder, which is reddish -brown,  and "dutched" cocoa powder, which is a dark brown.  Dutched has been treated with alkalai. 

Choose wisely


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## sagemore48 (Nov 29, 2010)

Ishbel said:


> I think Belgian chocolates are great, ditto Swiss. Italian or French? Naaaah, not so much /img/vbsmilies/smilies/wink.gif (Sorry, FrenchFries!)


/img/vbsmilies/smilies/laser.gifI DO LIKE THE Truffettes de France,JUST ONCE IN A YEAR!


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

Sagemore, these are industrial types of chocolates, made by ChocMod in Roncq (near Lille), 10 minutes drive from where I live in Belgium. Here's their website; http://www.chocmod.com/#chocolat/PRESENTATION

Guess where these guys learned to make chocolates?


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## reyesryanmjaube (Nov 20, 2010)

I tried to do things the way it should be done.

Cold ganache roughly rolled and dipped in melted chocolate then let it roll on cocoa powder while still WET and I got this.







I got the irregularity I was looking for! Also, the powder is like "embedded" in the chocolate itself rather than just 'dusted' which gives it a real "dirty" look and awesome flavor depth.

Though I still have one more test to do. The ref test. In my country, it's almost automatic that you SHOULD put chocolates in the ref (any kind). The thing is, when you put it in the ref and take it out, the cold temperature from the inside kinda like "condenses" at the surface which is gonna wet my cocoa coating and will make it look unpleasant. I have tried that test with ganache + powder, ganache + chocolate coating (hard) then rolled in powder, they all failed. I just don't know with this type of truffles.

I haven't seen any commercial truffles here but I'm sure most of you have tried some. Are they ref safe? Do they still keep that dirty look after you take it out of the ref? Thank you for all your help guys and yeah, ChrisBelgium, I'm amazed on how those triangular truffles looked. Also the chocolate coated gummy bears! thanks for that link


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

RRMJ_;"...Cold ganache roughly rolled and dipped in melted chocolate then let it roll on cocoa powder while still WET and I got this..."_

That's the way you should make them! Works even faster when you put the ganache rolls in the freezer first! They look fantastic.

BTW, forget about the truffles in that link, it's industrial stuff (low cocoa, high sugar and lots of non cacao related fats), nothing to compare to artisanal work like the ones you just made.

If you really want the very top of artisanal chocolates, take a look at this guy; Dominiek Persoone, one of the 2 chocolatiers ever mentioned in the Michelin guide. Take also a look at the device he developped for sniffing cacao.. especially made for a birthdayparty from a Rolling Stones guitarist!

http://www.dominiquepersoone.be/

Many people around the world put their chocolates in the fridge. The problem of condense doesn't happen when storing them in the fridge, the waterdrops will appear when you get them out of the cold into the heat. Just advice your clients to eat them asap (so they can buy another box).

Cacao doesn't dissolve that easy in liquid, don't worry. Maybe sending an email to Dominiek Persoone will help you out.


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## reyesryanmjaube (Nov 20, 2010)

_nothing to compare to artisanal work like the ones you just made._

Ahh, that made my day. Thank you so much ChrisBelgium. I felt appreciated


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Read my post at the begining of the thread, post #5.  In that post I gave you the information on how to freeze and refrigerate truffles without any condensation issues.

Chocolate will only be "in temper" at 32 celcius, colder than this and it is like peanut butter to work with, hotter than this and you will get grey and white streaking--guaranteed.

What's all the fuss about the thermomter?  You have one in your medicine cabinet,  or any drugstore will have one for a few bucks.


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## reyesryanmjaube (Nov 20, 2010)

Thank you so much for that tip sir!

Anyway, I had a soft opening and received a small amount of orders but that's enough to put a smile on me and my partner's face 

Thank you all so much!



Yeah, if you're wondering. 'Sikulate' (pronounced as 'sikula-te) is what the old settlers here (a mix of Spanish, native Filipino, and Chinese) call them. We had a little problem. Some people keep calling them "siku-late" since we are mostly an english speaking country. And to them, it sounds weird. Can someone here write on how I can pronounce 'sikula-te', you know. With all the punctuations and stuff. I am not well educated of this especially when it comes to our local language (hmmm, weird)

Another thing. The masses know only 2 kinds of chocolate (3, if you include white) and that's milk and dark. So I wanna know, what's the 'bitterest' chocolate among these: Darksweet, Bittersweet, Semi-sweet?

One last thing! They have a good quality sugarfree chocolate here that's unsweetened by anything. I used to add splenda to it for my personal consumption but I now, I want to try Maltilol since splenda has a lot of likers and haters but maltilol is 'generally for baking' as the store staff told me. So my question is, can I add maltilol to my ganache and still give it a good consistency? Will it even blend at all? Won't the chocolate separate? The store staff told me that "You can't add it since it's not oil-based" and that's kinda weird since I added milk to my ganache experiment back then. What about maltilol directly to my melted chocolate? WIll it still harden and give my ganache centers a hard shell?

Sorry for the barrage of questions. All your replies wont be wasted. Thank you guys!!!


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## chrisbelgium (Oct 2, 2010)

RRMJ, as long as the name isn't offending, never mind. People will get used to it but it takes a while. You could however have used Sikolate to get it a bit closer to chocolate. But, give it some time. You will notice that people will always have remarks on anything you do. Let them, when you're trying to always meet their demands on every remark, people will drive you utterly crazy. BTW, nice logo.

And the bitterest chocolate is the one with the highest cacao content; 70-80% cacao content will make a delicious bitter chocolate. Mostly appreciated in Europe, a little less in the US where people seem to appreciate more sugar in their chocolate.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

As Chris says, go for a 70-80 % chocolate. The whole "Semi-sweet/bittersweet " schtick is pure B.S., as one U.S. mnfcr will label their stuff as semi-sweet and the other "bittersweet".

For me, when I see _*any *_ Chocolate with the words "bittersweet" etc on it, I run away from it as fast as an, um, "Nigerian Investement scheme".

The percentages (70%, 80%, etc.) refer to the amount of cocoa content in the chocolate, the balance (30%, 20%) is the amount of sugar. This is a pretty good indication of how sweet the chocoalte is.


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## reyesryanmjaube (Nov 20, 2010)

Thank you! I will look for percentages now on.

Now, the truffles i'm starting to sell in a small scale gets quite a good impression among the folks we've sold them to. Here are a few images 





Another question. What is the perfect temperature of compound coating chocolate for it to have the perfect consistency? and when I'm dipping, how can I keep it at that temperature?


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

Should say on the package. In all my 30 years in the bus., I never really worked with the stuff--even in Singapore where temps are on average of 35 C and humidity 90%.

I run away screaming from compound chocolate. The cocoa butter has been replaced with another fat. It has a greasy/waxy mouthfeel and not so great on the flavour either.

Look, a truly great artist is great becasue he/she has mastered all the techniques in that particualr field. Master the technique of tempering _*real *_chocolate (a.k.a. "Couverture") and,

1) you'll never have fears of it,

and

2) it allows your creativity to come out.


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## chocolover (Feb 2, 2011)

Crikey! How'd you manage to make those look so damn good?! I just tried for my first time to make truffles last night and it was horrible.

Literally, the only thing I can taste is cream cheese and nothing else! Also, after I dipped them and placed them on a the wax-paper covered baking sheet, they were flat on the bottom instead of a round shape. This is what I did:

*Crush* 9 of the cookies to fine crumbs via rolling pin & ziplock & then blender such as _magic bullet_; reserve for later use. Crush remaining 36 cookies to fine crumbs; place in medium bowl. Add cream cheese; mix until well blended.

*Chill* this cookie/cream cheese mixture in fridge/freezer for 10 - 30min.

*Shape* into small sized balls (they get bigger when dipped). You can use a teaspoon to measure first ball.

*Chill* the balls in fridge/freezer for 10min - 1hr.

*Dip* the balls into melted chocolate. Fish them out with 2 spoons.

- Place the ball on the spoon and use the 2nd spoon the pour the chocolate. Then pass the ball to the other spoon. This will keep the ball from falling apart.

*Roll* the freshly dipped balls in mixture. (crushed oreo cookies, cocoa powder)

*Chill *the truffles on waxed-paper covered baking sheet for another 20 - 30min then leave in fridge until ready to eat.

After I dipped them in melted chocolate (maybe chocolate too hot?) some of them broke apart and melted when they came in contact with the chocolate.

Yuck. Where'd I go wrong?! Maybe I should have tried a more classic truffle for my first time.


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

French Fries said:


> But keep in mind most of those big Swiss names actually make their dark chocolate in France - or well, to be more detailed, they make some dark chocolate in France, and some dark chocolate in Switzerland.





foodpump said:


> FrenchFries,
> 
> O.K., I told you where all Lindt couverture is made.
> 
> What would I know about chocolate?


Foodpump, I never mentioned anything regarding where their couverture is made. I was talking about their 'made in France' chocolate vs their 'made in Switzerland' chocolate. You seem to know more than I do about chocolate, but like I said, I don't know how or where the chocolate is made, I just know what I'm reading on the package.

I was at Zurich's airport (in Switzerland) last week and looked at the Lindt tablets. ALL their milk chocolates said "Made by Lindt-Sprungli, Switzerland", while ALL their dark chocolates said "Made by Lindt-Sprungli, France".

So according to what you're saying, my guess is Lindt makes their couverture in Switzerland, ships it to France to turn it into their dark chocolate tablets, then ships the dark chocolate tablets back to Switzerland for retail. Interesting!


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

FWIW I looked up more chocolates in a supermarket while in France, and it turns out that Lindt chocolates available in France are made either in France, in Switzerland, or in Germany. All dark chocolate is made in France, most milk chocolate is made in Switzerland, some is made in France, and some in Germany.


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