Lesson #15: Adventures in Truffle Making - part 1

While my husband and I lived in Arizona, we LOVED See's Candy. These stores are mostly on the west coast - although you can find mini stores in some airports and in the mall around Christmas time - and they have fabulous candy which you can (and we do!) order online. See's carries a wide variety of chocolate truffles, so I thought I try making them.

Well, my first attempt kinda worked... First, and foremost, the flavor on these creamy lemon truffles in fantastic. They have a semi-sweet chocolate coating with a creamy, melt-in-your-mouth white chocolate ganache. The white chocolate is dotted with lemon zest which provides just enough acid to cut the sweetness of the chocolate. That's the good news!

The bad news is that my technique needs work. Unlike what I imagine a pastry chef would do, I didn't temper the chocolate. This is basically where you melt the chocolate and then bring it up to a certain temperature by adding some unmelted chocolate. From what I understand, tempering chocolate allows the chocolate to properly set and gives in a satin smooth finish. Second, my dipping technique was a little messy. There are globs of chocolate on top and they don't look very pretty at all.

But, man, these are good! I threw them in the freezer and pull one out every once in a while for a treat. I decided that I'm going to keep on working on making truffles. I'll keep you posted :)

LESSON LEARNED: Truffles are delicious, but I need some practice making them!

Recipe for Creamy Lemon Truffles