There’s an old saying that goes the quickest way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. In the spirit of that saying, I decided to go with a food-based Pin Possible for our Valentine’s themed issue. Truffles can be made using many different techniques. There are the cake ball truffles that are cake-based and the chocolate truffles which are pretty much chocolate covered in chocolate. These are a creative way to give your Valentine a personalized and delicious treat. I experimented with five different types of truffles covered in a variety of chocolate and concluded that, next time, I’ll leave the truffle-making to the experts.
Red Velvet Truffles
What you’ll need:
– 1 box of red velvet cake mix (with the necessary ingredients on the box)
– 4 ounce cream cheese
– 12 ounce white chocolate to coat
Instructions:
1. Bake the red velvet cake according to the directions on the box.
2. Let it cool completely to room temperature.
3. Crumble the cake and mix in the cream cheese.
4. Shape into 1 inch balls, cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.
5. Using a double boiler or microwave, melt the white chocolate.
6. Using a fork and/or spoon, cover the balls in chocolate and refrigerate for another hour.
Brownie Truffles
What you’ll need:
– 1 box of brownie mix
– 12 ounce milk chocolate to coat
Instructions:
1. Bake the brownie mix according to the directions on the box.
2. Let it cool completely to room temperature.
3. Crumble and shape into 1 inch balls.
4. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour.
5. Melt the chocolate using a double boiler or microwave.
6. Cover the cake balls with the melted chocolate and refrigerate for another hour.
Oreo Truffles
What you’ll need:
– 24 oreo cookies
– 8 ounce cream cheese
– 12 ounce white chocolate
Instructions:
1. Using a food processor or blender, finely crush the oreo cookies.
2. Mix in the cream cheese using your hands or a strong spoon.
3. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
4. Shape into 1 inch balls and refrigerate for another hour.
5. Melt the chocolate using a double boiler or microwave.
6. Cover the cake balls with the melted chocolate and refrigerate for another hour.
Mocha Truffles
What you’ll need:
– 12 ounce semi-sweet chocolate
– 4 ounce softened cream cheese
– 2 teaspoons instant coffee
– 1 teaspoon water
– 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
– 12 ounce dark chocolate
Instructions:
1. Melt the semi-sweet chocolate over a double boiler or microwave.
2. In a small bowl, combine the instant coffee, water and vanilla.
3. Stir the coffee mixture and cream cheese into the chocolate.
4. Refrigerate for an hour until firm enough to shape.
5. Roll the chocolate into 1 inch balls and refrigerate for another hour.
6. Melt the dark chocolate in a double boiler or microwave.
7. Cover the balls with the melted chocolate and refrigerate.
Cappuccino Truffles
What you’ll need:
– 12 ounce white chocolate
– 1/2 cup of heavy cream
– 1 teaspoon instant coffee
– Pinch of salt
– 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
– 4 tablespoons of butter (about half a stick)
– 12 ounce milk chocolate
Instructions:
1. Melt the white chocolate using a double boiler or microwave.
2. Combine the cream, salt, instant coffee and vanilla extract in a small saucepan over medium-high heat, but do not let it boil.
3. Poor the cream mixture over the chocolate and combine.
4. Add the butter and whisk until smooth.
5. Refrigerate for 3 to 4 hours.
6. Shape into 1 inch balls.
7. Refrigerate for an hour so it can firm up.
8. Melt the milk chocolate using a double boiler or microwave.
9. Cover the balls with the milk chocolate.
In theory, this project was not supposed to be as time consuming and difficult as it ended up being. Maybe part of it was because I was juggling five different batches of truffles, or maybe there’s just some secret to making cake balls that I know nothing about. I have no idea.
It was pretty easy besides the part where you cover the balls with chocolate. That part was an epic fail.
With the first batch, I melted the white chocolate and added milk to the mixture. This ended up making the melted chocolate fairly opaque and difficult to smoothly cover over the cake balls. Maybe it would have worked better with a little less milk, but I scrapped it as a fail.
On the next batch of chocolate, I tried to melt in the microwave. The pesky thing about chocolate, though, is once it scorches, it’s hard to recover it. So I essentially wasted an entire bag because it got too hot and I couldn’t cover anything with it.
At this point, I realized that my makeshift double boiler was the way to go. It was a boiling pot of water with a pot sitting on top of it. And I realized that using just pure chocolate or pure chocolate with milk was not going to cut it, so I looked to the ever-faithful Google. I found that you could either add solid shortening or vegetable oil to the chocolate to give it a finer consistency.
I made the last several batches using a drizzle of oil on top of the chocolate, and it worked wonderfully aside from me burning the chocolate a couple more times.
Like I said earlier, I think I’m going to leave the cake ball and truffle making to the experts, and I’ll stick to baking full-sized cakes. But it’s not a super difficult way to make something sweet and personalized for your Valentine.