Chocolate Truffles Recipe. All Variations

Posted on 10th of May, 2012 by Lévana

I think you can tell: These are nothing but trouble! A snap to make, dairy-free, luxurious, luscious. I am including all variations. I would walk miles for the Sea Salt Caramel Truffles, my favorite. But trust me: All of them are worth making.

Reinventing Cream: For a richer texture, I use a simple trick which you will often encounter throughout my books, to augment the “milk” fats in many dishes: I add soy or rice milk powder (easy to find in health food stores or online) to my dairy-free milk and obtain the rich and dense texture of cream, or quite close.
As always, use very good quality chocolate: why bother with anything else?
These truffles keep very well in the refrigerator, so you might want to double or triple the recipe, then take them places: divide the mixture and add the flavor of your choice to each smaller batch.
So, here comes! Told you they were trouble!

BASIC TRUFFLE MIXTURE

Ingredients:

1/2 cup soy or rice milk powder
1/2 cup soy or other non-dairy milk (oat, rice, grain, almond)
1/2 cup natural margarine spread (health-food stores)
2 cups semisweet real chocolate chips, very good quality
1/4 cup pure cocoa powder
1/2 cup confectioners sugar
Flavor of your choice (suggestions follow)

Cocoa powder for rolling the truffles

Instructions:
Whisk the milk powder and the milk in a small saucepan until smooth. Turn on the heat, set at a low flame, and add the margarine, chocolate chips, cocoa powder and sugar. Whisk until the mixture is just melted, making sure it is perfectly smooth. Refrigerate the mixture until set, a couple hours. Handling minimally, shape into little balls (do not smooth: leave them a little bumpy, that is the trademark of truffles). Roll the truffles into cocoa powder. Keep refrigerated and tightly covered in plastic wrap until serving time.
Alternatively, roll the truffles in chocolate sauce (1 cup chocolate chips melted with 1 tablespoon oil), grated coconut or coarsely ground toasted nuts instead of cocoa powder.

Truffle flavors.
The possibilities are endless, pretty soon you will add your own flavors to my repertoire.
Add when melting the basic truffle mixture

• Sea Salt and Caramel: My great favorite.  A fancy sea salt will not be a waste here.  1 tablespoon sea salt and 1 tablespoon pure caramel extract (health food stores, or online. In a pinch, settle for Starbucks caramel syrup)
• Espresso bourbon truffles: 1 tablespoon instant espresso powder, decaf OK, and 1/4 cup bourbon. Reduce the milk to 1/4 cup
• Peppermint truffles: a few drops peppermint extract (health food stores).
• Nut truffles: 1/2 cup coarsely chopped toasted hazelnuts or pecans to the mixture. Or place a toasted hazelnut in the center of each truffle.
• Raspberry truffles: 1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam and 1/4 cup Creme de Cassis; bring the cocoa powder to 2/3 cup, and reduce the milk to 1/4 cup.
• Peanut butter truffles: Replace the margarine with 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter.
• Spicy truffles: Get racy!  Add one (just one!) of the following:  all ground: 1 tablespoon wasabi, 1 teaspoon matcha green tea powder, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne, 2 tablespoons cinnamon, 2 tablespoons ginger, 1 tablespoon cardamom, 2 tablespoons orange zest.

Filed under: Chocolate Recipes, Chocolate Truffles Recipes, Dairy-Free Chocolate Truffle Recipes, Dairy-Free Dessert Recipes, Dairy-Free Recipes, Gluten Free Recipes, Gluten-Free Dessert Recipes, Kosher Natural Foods, Kosher Recipes, Kosher Whole Foods Recipes, Levana, Levana Kirschenbaum, Pareve Recipes, Recipes, Vegan Chocolate Truffle Recipes, Vegan Chocolate Vegan Recipes, Whole Foods Cookbook, Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen