Chocolate truffle
A ganache centre, rolled or moulded and coated. Named for its resemblance to the fungus, and the confection where the ratio does more work than the recipe.
What it is
A truffle is, at its core, a set ganache — chocolate and cream emulsified, cooled until firm enough to shape, then rolled in cocoa powder or enrobed in tempered chocolate. The classic French version is irregular and dusted, which is where the name comes from.
What determines whether a truffle works is the ganache ratio, and that ratio changes with the chocolate rather than with taste: roughly two parts chocolate to one part cream for dark, three to one for milk, four to one for white. A truffle made with milk chocolate at the dark ratio will not firm up enough to roll, which is the most common failure and reads as a technique problem when it is a materials one.
Because a truffle contains cream, it is perishable in a way solid chocolate is not — days to a couple of weeks refrigerated, rather than months.
- Category kind
- A confection form — this describes how it was constructed
- Legal status
- Industry convention, not a legal definition
- Also called
- truffle
- Flavour families
- sweet, caramel, bitter
- Texture
- creamy, smooth, melting
What the percentage means here
A truffle carries the percentage of the chocolate in its ganache, where it is stated at all. Because the ganache is diluted with cream, the finished confection is considerably less intense than the same percentage eaten as a bar.
Working with it
Needs a firm ganache ratio for the chocolate used, and enough chilling to shape. Rolling in cocoa is the forgiving finish; enrobing in tempered chocolate requires the tempering to be right.
Commonly misunderstood
That truffles contain truffle. The name is a visual comparison to the fungus, made because the classic dusted version looks like one dug out of soil.
Related
Commonly confused with
- BonbonA truffle is a rolled or enrobed ganache; a bonbon is a moulded shell with a filling. The base gives it away — a bonbon's is flat and sharp.
An easier starting point than
- Ready-made chocolate shellsNamed on the Ready-made chocolate shells record as a place to start instead. A ganache centre, rolled or moulded and coated. Named for its resemblance to the fungus, and the confection where the ratio does more work than the recipe.
- Nama chocolateNamed on the Nama chocolate record as a place to start instead. A ganache centre, rolled or moulded and coated. Named for its resemblance to the fungus, and the confection where the ratio does more work than the recipe.
Covered in
- How to store chocolateThe case where the filling's shelf life governs rather than the chocolate's.
- Choosing chocolate as a giftThe perishable option, and why it needs to be eaten soon.
- Best chocolate for trufflesThe confection itself.
- French chocolate explainedThe French sense of the word, and the North American one it collides with.
- Valentine's chocolateThe piece most associated with the occasion in Western markets.
Compared in
- Truffle vs bonbonSet against Bonbon, which readers frequently believe is the same thing.
- Nama chocolate vs truffleSet against Nama chocolate, which readers frequently believe is the same thing.
Techniques that work with this
- Making trufflesSet ganache, shaped and coated. The ratio determines whether it can be rolled, and the ratio changes with the chocolate.
- Storing finished chocolatesFilled chocolates keep for days to weeks depending entirely on the filling, not on the shell.
- Packaging chocolatesCocoa butter absorbs whatever it is stored beside. The wrapper is doing more work than it looks.
History and culture
- The French chocolatier traditionThe French confection form, and the one the word means outside North America.
- Nama chocolateThe nearest European relative, and the comparison that shows what the shell does and does not do.
- Valentine's chocolateThe piece most associated with the occasion in European and American markets.
Sources
- ChocolateHQ editorial synthesis — ChocolateHQ(citation identity confirmed; passage not re-read)