# long life truffles



## chocaho (Sep 29, 2011)

I make truffles now. as ganache.,but i want to make a longer shelf like truffle. Is it more of a candy but with chocolate.  I want to do a truffle flavored like key lime, coffee, ect. I think i can just longer shelf ingredients like evaporated milk instead of cream. Any suggestions.


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## foodpump (Oct 10, 2005)

My friend, you are looking for the Holy Grail.

In developing a long life truffle, your  #1 enemy is water, or rather water activity, commonly expressed as aW.  The more water there is, the shorter the shelf life.  The less water there is, the harder and pastier and hard textured the mouthfeel.

Cream contains about 33% b.f, so 66% is water, check to see how much water is in condensed milk.  Booze does nothing to increase shelf life, as most alcohols are only 40% (80 proof in the US) with the remaining 60% water,

Common techniques to increase shelf life are the use of a " Stefan" or food processor under vacuum ( expensive, 5 G expensive), tempered liquid couverture in ganache, high concentrations of sugar, use of invert sugar, use of coconut fats,  and the use of preservatives (sodium benzoate).

Then there is the "So what" technique of selling truffles with the explcit warning that there is only a 3 week shelf life.  This works best for me, and is the one huge difference between me and the drugstore chocolates--and I use it to my advantage.  You can also succesfully freeze truffles, but there is some technique involved.

If you want learn more, ther are a lot of books out there, but J.P. Wybauw is probably the most knowledgable and experienced author. 

Good luck, and tell me when you've found the holy grail


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