Chocolate Balls recipe condensed milk

Dessert, Holidays, Recipes, Valentine's Day

Tessa Arias

The following Kitchen Deconstructed experiment was put together by Tessa Arias, the multi-talented blogger behind Handle the Heat and cookbook author of Cookies and Cream: Hundreds of Ways to Make the Perfect Ice Cream Sandwich. Be sure to check out her blog and Ultimate Brownie Recipe Guide.

There’s no gift quite as sweet as homemade candy. Though for many bakers, making candy at home can seem daunting and a task best reserved for the professionals. To introduce you to the wonderful world of homemade candies, I’m going to break down a simple chocolate truffle recipe and through my experimentation teach you how to use its method to make five surprisingly different truffles.

Share the following truffle findings in one Pinterest pin My chief control recipe relies on a standard chocolate ganache base. This recipe also requires coating the truffles in tempered chocolate (learn to temper chocolate here). However, if you want to make your truffles without tempering chocolate, simply coat the truffle balls in melted chocolate and refrigerate until ready to serve. You can even add a teaspoon of coconut oil to help the chocolate harden.

Control Recipe Makes about 24 truffles

1. Place chocolate and butter in a medium heat-proof bowl. In a small saucepan over medium-high heat, bring the cream to a boil. Pour the cream over the chocolate and butter. Let stand for 2 to 3 minutes before whisking until melted and smooth. Refrigerate, uncovered, for 1 hour, or until slightly firmed.
2. Use a small 2-teaspoon spring-loaded scoop, form mounds of chocolate onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Refrigerate 15 minutes. Roll the mounds into balls with the palms of your hands. Return the truffles to the baking sheet and chill for another 30 minutes, or until firm. Dip the balls in prepared tempered chocolate. Let chocolate set before serving. The truffles can be made ahead of time and stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Corn Syrup For my first batch I took the control recipe and simply added one tablespoon of light corn syrup along with the cream. As a result, the truffle mix was a little easier to shape and the resulting truffles were fudgier and chewier than the ultra smooth and rich control recipe. I ended up preferring the result of these corn syrup truffles to that of the control recipe.