Royce Anderson - Chocolate Truffles and Strawberries: Easy, Homemade Chocolate Gifts

Simply Delicious

Chocolate Truffles and Strawberries

Royce Anderson

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including scanning, photocopying, or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder. Copyright 2012

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Table of Contents

The best gifts are from the heart. I have found, over the years, the best gifts are gifts that I create or make. Simply Delicious Chocolate Truffles and Strawberries is step by step photo guide about making two delicious chocolate treats that your special someone will adore. And the fact that you made these delicious treats just for them will melt their heart.

These treats are perfect for gals and guys-after all who doesn't love chocolate. Truffles and strawberries make great gifts for a variety of gift giving occasions. Christmas, Valentine Day, Mothers Day and birthdays are ideal times for hand crafted gifts. With a few simple ingredients and the instructions in Simply Delicious Chocolate Truffles and Strawberries, you can create the perfect gift.

I recommend you read the entire book at least once, before you start to make the treats, to be sure you understand the process.

This book will show you how to make three varieties of truffles, temper chocolate and make Chocolate Covered Strawberries. In approximately three hours you will learn several different culinary techniques. You will create several dozen truffles and approximately two dozen Chocolate Covered Strawberries.

The first step is to gather your ingredients and equipment.

For the truffles you will need:

9 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

2/3 cups heavy cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup cocoa powder

1/4 cup powdered sugar

For the Chocolate Covered Strawberries you will need:

1 pound fresh strawberries

8 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

1 ounce white almond bark (optional)

The equipment you will need:

heavy bladed knife and cutting board

double boiler pan

wax paper

toothpicks

fork

rubber spatula

latex gloves

chocolate or instant read thermometer

6" x 15" piece of cardboard

12 #4 5/8" pan head metal screws. You can substitute nails for the screws, although screws work better.

Truffles are really easy to make. First you make a mixture, called ganache, from the cream, chocolate and vanilla.

Take your chocolate and chop it with the heavy chef knife. Start at a corner; angle the knife down and away from the chocolate. As you square the corner, rotate to the next corner. Chop chocolate into small and equal size pieces.

Place the chopped choc olate in a heat resistant bowl.

Place the cream in a small saucepan and heat on medium heat.

Watch the cream closely and when bubbles begin to form at the edges of the pan, remove from the heat.

Pour the cream over the chopped chocolate and begin stirring the cream into the chocolate.

Completely incorporate the cream and chocolate, add the vanilla; stir thoroughly.

Let the ganache cool to room temperature and then refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours.

Let s move on to prepping the strawberries.

Wash the strawberries and discard any that have an excessive amount of green. Set aside to dry.

Next we need to make a way to set the berries upright after we dip them into chocolate. Take the piece of cardboard and draw two lines along the length. Mark the lines in two inch increments and push the screws or nails into the cardboard. Set aside. Just before dipping the berries, cover cardboard with wax paper. Press the wax paper down around the screws.

After the ganache has been in the refrigerator for one hour, check to see if it is ready to form into truffles. It should be stiff enough to roll into balls. If ganache is too soft to form, place back in refrigerator and check in twenty minutes.

When ganache is ready, take a teaspoon of material and place in your gloved hands.

Roll ganache into marble size balls. You should end up with about 30-36 balls.

Divide the balls into three groups, one group to coat with powdered sugar, one to coat with cocoa and the final group to dip into the tempered chocolate. Set the final group aside for dipping.

Place the powdered sugar and the powdered cocoa into two small bowls. Drop balls into the powdered sugar and then roll in your hands to coat. Repeat this process with the powdered cocoa group.

Set aside and resist the temptation to sample. Trust me they are delicious.

Place tooth pick s into the reserved ganache balls and prepare to dip them.

Tempering the chocolate used to coat the truffles and strawberries w ill give a professional appearance. Un-tempered chocolate will have a dull appearance and could be streaky.

Use a chocolate thermometer or an instant read thermometer marked in no more than 2 degree increments. Do not use a candy thermometer; they start at 100 degrees F.

Tempering requires you to heat the chocolate to 115 degrees F., add additional chocolate to reduce the temperature to 84 degrees F. and then briefly reheat to 89 degrees F.

Care should be taken to not overheat the chocolate; keep the chocolate below 120 degrees F. during the initial melt and below 91 degrees F. on the reheat cycle. If you exceed 120 degrees F. in the initial melt the chocolate will not temper. Set it aside and use to make more ganache.

If you check the chocolate for temper and it dries dull, dont worry. As long as you did not over heat in the initial melt just repeat the process; heat to 115 degrees F., cool by stirring to 84 degrees F. and then reheating to 89 degrees F.