Based on the posts I’ve seen, I’m not the only one but ever since the social distancing/stay at home orders due to Covid went into effect last year, I’ve found myself getting into new hobbies/staring new projects. Like a lot of people, I got into bread making and the number of house plants has definitely increased.
Recently though, I got it in my mind that I wanted to try and make truffles. You know, those pretty chocolate ones you’d find at Moonstruck in Portland or Mignon in Pasadena. So the last time I was at the local baking and candy supply store (A&J Cake and Candy supplies in Glendora), I got a chocolate mold.
Since I had some time today, I decided to give it a try! For my first try, I decided to do a honey lavender truffle. Ever since Covid started, my mom and I have been doing “Disney Saturdays.” I’ll eventually do a blog post about those but basically we started originally by choosing a land from Disneyland and making food from one of the restaurants there and watching a movie related to the land. Well, we eventually ran out of lands so we started watching the Disney animated movies in chronological release order. Today was Winnie the Pooh so a lot of our meal had honey incorporated so I was looking for truffles that had honey in them. I originally thought maybe a honey bourbon truffle but decided to try that one some other time. One of my favorite flavor combos (thanks to Salt & Straw) is honey lavender, so when I saw this honey lavender truffle recipe, I had to try them.
First off, I made the ganache/filling. The recipe called for milk chocolate but I didn’t have any and didn’t feel like going to the store so I used semisweet chocolate chips. Also, despite calling for mixing it butter, the recipe didn’t specify how much butter so I did two tablespoons. I think the milk/lavender mixture could have steeps longer to give it a stronger flavor but I also really love floral tastes, so for some, the five minutes may have been sufficient.
While the ganache cooled and solidified in the fridge, I moved on to the next step. Now, I further deviated from the recipe here in a couple ways. First, I again had to improvise since I didn’t have milk chocolate, so I used dark chocolate, which is my favorite anyway. I used the Ghirardelli 72%. And instead of rolling the filling into balls and dipping it into the melted chocolate, I used the mold I bought to make a shaped truffle.
To get the outer shell, I put about half a teaspoon of chocolate in each little cavity and then kind of moved the mold around til each one was coated in chocolate. I’m sure there’s an easier way to do it, but it worked. Then I put them in the freezer for 5 minutes.
While the mold was in the freezer, I took the ganache out of the fridge and let it warm up a little bit. Once the five minutes was up I took the mold out of the freezer and put a little bit of the ganache in each cavity. This was very messy and did not look very pretty. Now I know how Lucy and Ethel felt in that one episode of I Love Lucy. Luckily I didn’t have to keep up with a conveyor built and wasn’t getting timed.
Next up, I added a little more chocolate on top of the ganache, to create the bottom of the truffle.
After that, I put them back in the freezer for 15 minutes so everything would set. Once they seemed set, I took them out of the freezer and unmolded them. I apparently need to work on this part because I’m sure there’s some technique to it. I just turned the mold over onto a baking sheet and kind of smacked it down a few times and they eventually all came loose.
Well there are definitely things I need to figure out/iron out they weren’t bad for my first attempt at making truffles. They were super tasty and don’t look like a total disaster (or like they belonged on an episode of Nailed It”). I actually am pretty pleased with my first batch! Now, what flavors to try next? I’m thinking a dark chocolate with cherry and a red wine? Or maybe a salted caramel? Hmmm decisions, decisions.
The Jungkfood Journal 