How to Make Chocolate Truffles? Video Demonstration & Recipe

It’s that time of year when people across the world celebrate love and indulge in chocolate. I make homemade chocolate truffles for the overnight accommodations turndown service at Jordan, and thought I’d share my favorite chocolate recipes in this how to make chocolate truffles demonstration video. With a few essential tools, tips, and ingredients, you’ll find that making chocolate isn’t so hard after all. Our Jordan recipes for the truffles’ tempered chocolate shells, as well as both soft and firm chocolate ganache fillings in different flavors, are included below. We hope this tutorial awakens your inner chocolatier. Cheers!

Recipe: Basic Dark Chocolate Ganache (Soft)

Three variations of soft chocolate truffle ganache recipes are included below. Use the Basic Dark Chocolate Ganache (Soft) instructions for each ganache, as only ingredients vary.

Ingredients ~

• 4 oz. cream
• 4 oz. dark chocolate discs (San Francisco-based TCHO is our preferred brand)
• 1 Tbsp. soft butter

Instructions ~

1. Bring cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate.
2. Cover for 2 minutes and stir smooth.
3. Mix in soft butter.
4. Allow it to cool to room temperature; once filling has cooled to room temperature, it is ready to use. While filling is cooling, make the Tempered Dark Chocolate Shell (see below recipe).
5. Pour tempered chocolate into your candy mold.
6. Be sure to tap out all the air bubbles and scrape off the excess chocolate using a flat spatula (see demonstration video above).
7. Allow chocolate to set up slightly, just to form a shell in the candy mold.
8. Tip the mold over and pour the majority of the chocolate back into your bowl and scrape the mold clean. (You should be left with a shell that has an empty cavity.)
9. Using a piping bag, pipe your ganache filling into the chocolate shell, leaving room to cap it off with more tempered chocolate.
10. Once they are all full, cover the candy mold again with tempered chocolate, tap out excess air and scrape clean.
11. Place in a cool area and allow the chocolates to completely set, about 20-30 minutes.
12. To remove from the mold, twist the mold to loosen the chocolates and turn over.
13. If they do not release clean, refrigerate for 5 minutes and try again.

Recipe: Tempered Dark Chocolate Shell

Ingredients ~

• 1 lb. dark chocolate discs (San Francisco-based TCHO is our preferred brand)

Instructions ~

1. Gently heat 2/3 of your chocolate (chopped or discs/pieces) over a double boiler, stirring constantly until melted. Chocolate will be melted at 120 degrees.
2. Be careful that no steam or water gets into your chocolate as it is being melted.
3. Cool the chocolate by adding fresh chocolate pieces and constant agitation, or stirring, until it reaches about 84 degrees.
4. Quickly return your bowl to the heat and heat the chocolate to 88-89 degrees, stirring constantly.
5. Chocolate is now tempered and ready to use.
6. If chocolate hardens and needs to be remelted, or gets above 91 degrees, you must re-temper it.
7. See Basic Dark Chocolate Ganache (Soft) recipe above for tempered shell/molded chocolate use instructions.

Recipe: Milk Chocolate Ganache (Soft)

Ingredients ~

• 4 oz. cream
• 6 oz.milk chocolate discs
• 1 Tbsp. soft butter

Instructions ~

Follow instructions in above recipes for Basic Dark Chocolate Ganache (Soft) and Tempered Dark Chocolate Shell.

Recipe: White Chocolate Ganache (Soft)

Ingredients ~

• 4 oz. cream
• 8 oz. white chocolate discs
• 1 Tbsp. soft butter

Instructions ~

Follow instructions in above recipes for Basic Dark Chocolate Ganache (Soft) and Tempered Dark Chocolate Shell.

Recipe: Dark Chocolate Ganache (Firm)

Three variations of firm chocolate truffle ganache recipes are included below. Use the Dark Chocolate Ganache (Firm) instructions for each ganache, as only ingredients vary. Garnishes are optional and only limited to your imagination.

Ingredients ~

• 4 oz. cream
• 12 oz. chocolate discs
• 1 Tbsp. soft butter
• Finely chopped nuts, sea salt, transfer sheets or other candied garnish (optional)

Instructions ~

1. Spread the firm chocolate ganache filling to desired thickness on a cookie sheet, baking pan or plate and let set up.
2. Once firm ganache is completely set (usually overnight), it is ready to use, make sure to use it at room temperature.
3. Cut into desired shapes–rectangles, squares or even triangles. (Using a hot knife allows for clean, easier slicing).
4. Drop into tempered chocolate and lift out using a fork or dipping fork.
5. Allow excess chocolate to drip off, then run the fork against the rim of your bowl to scrape off the excess.
6. Place onto parchment-lined pan, working from top to bottom and right to left.
7. Before the chocolate has hardened, you can sprinkle on some decorative accents, such as nuts, salt or chocolate shavings.
8. You can also press an image onto the chocolate using a chocolate transfer sheet. Allow it to fully set, about 20 minutes, before removing the transfer sheet.

Recipe: Milk Chocolate Ganache (Firm)

Ingredients ~

• 4 oz. milk chocolate discs
• 18 oz. milk chocolate discs
• 1 Tbsp. soft butter

Instructions ~

Follow instructions in above recipes for Dark Chocolate Ganache (Firm) and Tempered Dark Chocolate Shell.

Recipe: White Chocolate Ganache (Firm)

Ingredients ~

• 4 oz. cream
• 24 oz. white chocolate discs
• 1 Tbsp. soft butter

Instructions ~

Follow instructions in above recipes for Dark Chocolate Ganache (Firm) and and Tempered Dark Chocolate Shell.

Jordan Winery Chocolate Truffles

Preparation time: 60 minute(s)
Cooking time: 10 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 75-100 pieces

Don’t forget the Jordan Cabernet Sauvignon to enjoy with this sweet treat.

Video Transcript

Welcome back to the Jordan Kitchen. I want to show you today something that we do in-house. We try to make as much as possible in-house, and one of those things is chocolate truffles. We use those for our guest accommodations. Today I want to show you how to make a variety of different truffles using the same basic ingredients. You start with cream, and I’m using dark chocolate today. We use the Cho brand of chocolates from San Francisco. I like it because it’s local, it’s organic. It’s a really nice dark chocolate. As far as tools, what you need is a small pot to boil your cream and a bowl to mix your filling in another pot double boiler set up with a bowl for melting your chocolate. You’ll also need to use an offset flat spatula, a piping bag, and your chocolate mold. You’ll also need some soft room temperature butter and then whatever garnishes that you may want to use on your finished product. the basic difference between your chocolate shell or exterior of the truffle is it that is just dark chocolate that I’m using the center that has cream added to it, whether it’s cream or an egg or a butter filling, it’s something that’s going to soften your chocolate and make it so it’s typable I’m going to show you basic soft ganache, that’s what you use into a candy mold. That’s one part cream to one, chocolate. Just for simplicity, that’s four ounces of cream, four ounces of chocolate, and you start by heating your cream.

All you’re looking for is to bring it to a boil, you pour it over your chocolate. And what I like to do is just cover it for a minute or two to keep the heat in there, that’s really going to ensure that it melts properly. Now all the way if you’re doing a firmer ganache, where you have a lot more chocolate than you do to cream, it’s going to be harder to melt that chocolate. if it’s not completely melted, you can turn it into a double boiler on top of a simmering pot of water. And then just gently stir until it’s all the way melted. And you’ll uncover it. And you just want to mix it all together. I’ll probably use something like a spatula because you don’t want to whisk air into it. you don’t want to use a whisk, but you want to just gently melt it, bring it all together. If it’s not coming together, you can use a whisk just not the whole time you don’t want to put a whole lot of air. This is about the consistency you’re looking for for a soft ganache, but it will firm up as it cools. One thing that you can do, a lot of people will add the soft butter. And that’s going to give you a smoother mouthfeel. You only want to add about 10% of butter to your recipe. for this recipe about a tablespoon is good enough and just makes it to incorporate. You don’t want to get lumps. That’s why you use it really soft. Also, if you want to use liqueur in your fillings, you will subtract the amount of liquids you use for your base. If you want one ounce of liqueur, take out one ounce of cream for your recipe so that you still end up with the desired consistency. And you can see the butter thickens it just a little bit. What’s important is to make your filling ahead of time, because if it’s still warm, when you cover it in chocolate, it’s going to melt your chocolate. Or if it’s too cold, such as if he had put it in the refrigerator to set up. It’s going to seize your chocolate or shock it once you go to cover it and then your chocolate will crack. And if you have cracks in your chocolate air is going to get into where you’re filling it and create mold. you don’t want either of those, you want to kind of use it when it’s at room temperature.

Now that you’re feeling ready, you want to prepare your chocolate. And you always need to temper your chocolate. That’s just a really simple way of heating and cooling your chocolate so that it’s usable. I start with melting about two-thirds of the chocolate you want to use using a really dry bowl, a clean, dry bowl. If you get any liquid in here, it’s going to thicken your chocolate so that it’s unusable and you’re going to melt it over a double boiler. you want to be careful. Keep an eye on it because it can steam up and some of the steam can get into the chocolate and ruin it. keep an eye on that. The reason for tempering is so that your chocolate sets up properly and also gives it a really nice shiny sheen and a nice crack to it. If you don’t temper your chocolate, if you use it just when it’s melted, the fat crystals all separate out of it and rise to the top you’ll end up with something like this which is called bloom chocolate. It is still edible, but it just looks terrible.

Okay, you want to melt your chocolate over some simmering water just over between a low and a medium heat. You don’t want it to get too hot. I’m melting. I want to end up with about a pound. I’m melting about two-thirds. That’s just a general rule of thumb. You may have to add more, you may use less. And the reason we’re tempering is because we’re using a nice what’s called couverture chocolate it uses the actual cocoa butter from the cocoa bean, you can go the store and get something what’s called baker’s chocolate and that what they do there is they replaced the cocoa fat or the cocoa butter with just like vegetable oil or some other type of oil. if you decide that it is inferior, but you do not need to temper it, you can just melt it and use it right away. my chocolate is melted, chocolate melts at about 120 degrees, you want to be sure not to get too much higher than that because it can burn. But it’s too hot right now to use. we need to cool it, the way you cool it is by adding your remaining fresh chocolate into there about 1/3. And this is going to encourage all the fat crystals to align properly so that you’ll have the tempered chocolate. Also, what helps to cool it is to continually stir or agitate it. And that will make sure that all your chocolate is of the same internal temperature. And you’re going to want to check it with a thermometer. You want to get it down to about 82 to 84 degrees. And you keep adding chocolate and you keep stirring until you’re about there and check with your thermometer to make sure.

Now the chocolate is where I want it takes about five minutes, sometimes a little less, sometimes longer. When you get it down to about 82 to 84 degrees, it is temporary, but the ideal working temperature for dark chocolate is closer to 88-89. you want to just return it to your double boiler for a few seconds to bring it back up. And then it will be a little runny-er it’ll be easier to work with. As it cools it thickens. if you can get a little bit of that thickness out, it would be easier for you. And each brand of chocolate is a little bit different. I will recommend a slightly higher, slightly lower temperature to work with. If you’re working with milk chocolate that sits up, that’s tempered at about two degrees less than dark. And then white chocolate is about two degrees less than milk chocolate, you want to check the package to make sure what each brand is recommending.

Now the chocolate is tempered and the ganache, the feeling that we made earlier is ready, I put that in a piping bag, that’s going to be a lot easier for you to use. And in order to do what you want to do is fill a candy mold. What we use here is this hard plastic, they’re about twenty-five dollars you can get them online. But also if you’re not going to be using them very often. There are thin disposable trays that you can buy just for about two or three dollars at a craft store, places like Michaels are the top, they’ll carry something like this. And you want to make sure that your molds are clean. If they’ve been air dried, you want to wipe them out so that there are no water spots on there that will transfer to your chocolate. And also it’ll help your chocolate end up a little bit shinier. what you’re going to do, I usually just ladle my chocolate all the way to fill up each mold. If you have a lot of details in the design of the mold you’re using, you might get a lot of air pockets and air bubbles. to get rid of that, you just want to tap it. And you can see the air bubbles rising to the top. And as you’re doing that, you also want to scrape it clean, you can let this sit, and sometimes thirty seconds, five minutes really depends on the temperature in the room and your chocolate. But what you’re gonna be kind of looking at it as it’s sitting, you want to see that there’s like a little bit of a shell starting to set up around, around the outer layer of your chocolate mold. you just let it sit for a little bit and keep your eyes on it. And once you feel that you have kind of a shell, what you’re going to do is actually empty your chocolate back into here and you’ll be left with a shell of chocolate and an empty cavity to fill and just wipe it clean. And then at that point, you want it to set up so you could put it in a cool place to make sure it’s formed before you fill it.

Now that it’s set up, it’s gonna look a lot like this. You’ll see that you have a border around there, your shell, and the empty areas where you’re going to put your filling that you made. At this point, you start filling your mold. You want to make sure that your filling isn’t sticking out too high because then it’ll be exposed to the air again and there’ll be more likely to mold so want to leave a good amount of room to top it off with chocolate and cover it nicely. Once these are all full, again, you’re going to get your temper chocolate and fill in the rest of the empty area here, and just shake it over to make sure that there’s no air left inside the chocolate mold. And again, I’ll probably usually tap it a little bit to make sure there’s no air in there. And then to finish all you do is just scrape it clean. You’ll have a nice finished truffle This just takes about maybe 20 minutes in a cool area to set up longer is fine too. You don’t want to pull them out too early, because then they’ll lose a lot of their shine, some of them will get stuck, you’ll end up with a ruined truffle.

As your chocolate cools, it’s gonna shrink a little and contract. And that’ll make it really easy for it just to fall right out of the mold. I’ll show you an example, this one has already been set up on this tray, and you’ll see it’s nice and shiny. That’s what you get from the temper, I kind of just loosen it a little by twisting, and then you just flip it right over and they should pop right out. And if you use one of these molds, you don’t have to do anything else to finish it, it’s really usually they come with a nice design, so you have a pretty look. And then a soft Center, which people usually aren’t expecting.

What’s nice about this recipe is you can easily adapt it to create a whole different-looking truffle, which I showed you were a soft filling. And that was four ounces of cream, four ounces of chocolate. But if you want to do a truffle that’s a different style, that’s called a dip, do you need a firm filling for that. rather than four ounces of chocolate, I’ll use 12 ounces of chocolate with my four ounces of cream. And then I just spread that onto a flat tray and let it set up, you’ll end up with something like this, you can really end up with whatever thickness you want. I don’t like it too thin, because I like to cut it a little bit bigger. And once it’s set up, you can cut it into whatever shape you want. Here are a few examples. And they are easy to handle, that’s why you need them so firm. And there you’ll dip into the chocolate, I’ll show you a few things you can do with that. And you can just use a basic fork there are special forks so that but a regular kitchen fork works just as well. you want to drop it into your chocolate and cover it completely, and then lift it out. And you want to avoid getting what’s called afoot. And that’s the extra puddle of chocolate around the base. you just let all the excess chocolate chips off, slide it on the edge of your bowl. And now it’s ready to be put on your baking sheet. Before it sets up, there are a few things that you can do. One of the things is you can just put a little piece of garnish if you want. And that’s just a cocoa nib. A lot of people like to use salt, you can put anything really, if you have a nutty feeling, you might want to put a little sprinkle of some nuts. Another thing you can do is use transfer sheets. And these come in a variety of different colors. It’s usually around four dollars, you can find them at different craft stores places like the sur la table. And what they are, there are just random designs, they’re made with cocoa butter. they’re saying for the chocolate, and you want to put the design side down, and that will transfer onto your chocolate, so then when it cools, you just peel it off and you’re left with a nice design. I’ll just put one right here, you just kind of press it on slightly to your chocolate. Now the design you can do is just create a simple design using your fork. Once it starts to set up, you just put your fork on the top and kind of drag it over.

What’s really nice about this recipe is you can really create many different looks of truffles and really any filling flavor you want you can add into the cream. You can use dark milk or white and end up with such a big variety of truffles. For example, here are just some examples of what you can do if you use the candy mold. All these have a soft center, but different molds and different chocolates make it look like completely different fillings. And if you’re using the firm filling, you can do the same thing where you put a little garnish on some of them. You can use transfer sheets, you can cut them into different shapes, use milk darker white, and it really looks like completely different truffles, but it’s all the same recipe.