Scharffen Berger Chocolate Truffles

Truffles are always a wonderful addition to a chocolate assortment, so I thought it would go well in my Valentine's Day box.  I opted for plain and to use Scharffen Berger chocolate since it already has a very complex flavor profile.  When flavoring with a liqueur or an oil, I prefer to use Guittard since it has a flatter chocolate flavor that can be easily and tastily influenced. And, even though I like to do lots of experimenting with unique truffle flavorings, I would go so far as to say plain Scharffen Berger Chocolate truffles are my favorite. :)

Stacey's Scharffen Berger Chocolate Truffle Ingredients:
24 oz Scharffen Berger 62% semisweet chocolate
12 oz heavy cream, organic
3 oz glucose
1.5 oz butter, soft, not melted
Chocolate flake
Organic Turbinado Sugar

I buy my glucose from a distributor, but I think I saw some at the Ferry Building's Boulette's Larder before.  For this recipe, I tempered the chocolate (instructions from previous blog) first. Then I added the glucose to the cream and heated it on 30 second intervals in the microwave in a pyrex glass measuring cup until the cream reached 90F as well.  Then I poured the cream into the melted chocolate and stirred in small circles, fairly slowly, in order to keep the emulsion. 

Once the cream is all mixed in, I threw the butter in on top.  You have to make sure the butter is soft but not melted.  If it is melted, it makes for heavier feeling truffles.  At least, that's what the Chocolates & Confections book says.

This is a pretty big batch, so I opted to save my arm and use my immersion blender with the whisk attachment.  Also, I tend to have problems with little globules of butter ending up in there, unstirred, when I do it by hand.

There, all nice and mixed.  I spread a piece of plastic wrap on the surface and then let it set overnight.  The next day, I got my 1-1/8" scooper out that I use for truffling and scooped out the truffles.

I then shaped these by hand into balls, and then rolled them in a mixture of chocolate flake and turbinado sugar.  I start with a 4:1 flake:sugar ratio, but the sugar tends to sink to the bottom.  It's a taste / look thing.  I just add flake and sugar until it looks like this:

And the rolled truffles look like this:

The sugar gives it a nice decoration and also a great little crunch.

I'll leave you with a fun macro shot of them in their little Valentine's Day red candy cups... yummy...