Recipe: Hand-rolled single-origin chocolate truffles

The holidays are here and its time to celebrate with some special treats.

With us this week to show off her hand-rolled single-origin chocolate truffles is Shelley Bolton, manager and chocolate maker with East Van Roasters.

Ingredients

• 165ml Cream
• 43g Honey (We use Hives for Humanity)
• 1.7g Salt
• 220g EVR Madagascar chocolate
• 33g Unsalted butter
• 300g Madagascar chocolate (for tempering)
• 200g Alkalized cocoa powder

Method

1. Chop the chocolate to roughly the size of peas and set aside in a medium bowl.
2. Weigh out the butter, cut into 1cm cubes and set aside.
3. In a small pot: Bring honey, salt and cream just to a boil, remove from heat. *Be sure not to let it boil too long, as moisture will be lost.
4. Pour half the cream onto the chocolate. Give it a quick stir and let it sit for a minute to allow chocolate to melt. Then give it a good mix to melt as much of the chocolate as possible.
5. Pour remaining half of cream onto chocolate and let it sit for another 30 seconds. *Important: Do not over mix ganache, the fat will separate and the emulsion will break making the truffle greasy and impossible to work with. *
6. Place the spatula in the center of the bowl. With the blade never leaving the bottom, stir the chocolate in small concentric circles. The emulsion will start to form and the ganache around the spatula will be shiny and smooth. Proceed stirring in larger circles to incorporate the rest of the cream.
7. Once all the cream is incorporated, add in the butter. Let it sit for a minute, then give the ganache a gentle stir just until all the butter has melted and fully incorporated.
8. The ganache will need to sit, covered, at least 2hrs in the fridge or overnight, at room temperature.
9. Once the ganache has fully set, prepare the rolling station. At the shop, we temper our chocolate and roll our truffles in three thin coats. This gives the truffle a nice crunchy exterior in contrast to the creamy ganache. If you’re not familiar with tempering chocolate, you can melt some chocolate until it is roughly body temperature and roll your truffles in a thick enough coating to make a shell before rolling them immediately in cocoa powder.
10. To roll the truffles, you can use a teaspoon or a melon baller. Roll ganache into balls using gloves, this will prevent any contamination of bacteria. If you have warmer hands, try running them under cold water for a few seconds before starting. Be sure to dry off any water, as it will cause chocolate to seize. Place truffles individually on a parchment lined tray and allow to set in a cool dry area for at least a couple hours.
11. Once set, melt/temper the chocolate and sift some cocoa powder into a flat-bottomed pan.
12. This next part is easier if you have a helper, but doable on your own (albeit a bit messier!). Wearing gloves, roll the ganache ball in a light to medium coating of chocolate and immediately drop into the cocoa powder. If you have helper, they can move the pan in a circular motion to coat the entire truffle with cocoa powder, and encourage even rounding.