Making Truffles

Truffles are really easy to make and a great gift during the holidays. I wanted to give everyone a little something to take home with them after our Thanksgiving dinner, so I figured truffles would be perfect (hopefully you see it as me being like Martha Stewart, NOT Sandra Lee). Truffles are a mixture of cream and chocolate, although there are many variations (you can add liqueurs, nuts, fruit – the possibilities are endless!). I decided to make the most basic truffles:

Ingredients:
1 bag of chocolate chips (I bought a bag from Trader Joe’s)
3/4 cup cream
Nuts, fruit, cocoa powder, liqueur (if you want to jazz up the truffles a bit)

Here are the extras I rolled truffles in:

(l-r): cocoa powder, toasted coconut shavings, crushed almonds, and crushed pistachios

All you need to do is boil the cream, pour the cream onto the chocolate chips, and stir the chips until the cream is incorporated (which is actually a ganache). Refrigerate (or freeze if you’re impatient like me) the ganache in a bowl for about 45 minutes (or until it’s firm but stlil workable).

While the ganache is solidifying, use a food processor to chop pistachios and almonds (separately). Sara helped chop up all of the nuts to a fine consistency so we could roll the truffles in the nuts. Also, toast some coconut shavings in the oven but don’t forget to move the shavings around with a spoon once in a while so the they can cook evenly.

To roll the truffles, you can either buy a melon baller or a small cookie scoop, but I didn’t have time to pick either of them up so I used the tablespoon measurement to make equal sized truffles. It actually worked out really well! After the balls are shaped by hand, roll the truffle in cocoa powder, nuts, or anything you’d like! I would’ve taken pictures, but our hands were VERY chocolately.

Here are some of the truffles:

After you roll the truffles in the topping of your choice, refrigerate until an hour before serving. I bought little take-out containers at a craft store (although the prices online are about $1 cheaper) and put the truffles in the container for each guest to take home (the plates without truffles are mine and my brother’s):

You can also see the cranberry sauce I made! One bag of chocolate chips makes about 40 truffles, depending on how large your scoop is.

Next up: green bean casserole from scratch!