Chocolate lovers everywhere will rejoice! These Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles may be vegan but they are luxurious, velvety smooth and positively sinful!
If you read my Nov 13th Newsletter, you know I used “Swap Outs” in my Vegan Chocolate cooking class at the Cooks Warehouse, Decatur, GA, and at the Atlanta Veg Fest. I had to have ganache that was ready to shape into truffles since the class was 2 1/2 hours, and included several recipes, and the VegFest demo was 45 minutes. Thinking about the “game plan” or mise en place before you get started making desserts, makes the process easy, easy when you are making component desserts. It’s so important to me that I included Suggested Game Plans in many of the recipes in Vegan Chocolate: Unapologetically Luscious and Decadent Dairy-Free Desserts.
Guests at my Moo Shoes book party, Wednesday 11/13 and Watchung Booksellers book signing on Sunday 11/17th, will be hearing about making truffles and tasting them too! If you can’t get to either event, you can make and enjoy your own truffles! To make sure your chocolate is slavery free, check FoodEmpowermentProject.com
I’ve added the italics to the recipe to highlight the timeline. I’m no geek or scientist but thinking ahead works. Read the recipe all the way through and you’ll see that while the ganache is very quickly made, it does have to rest and then chill before it can be used. The good news is that 0nce made, the ganache can be refrigerated for a week, or frozen for a longer time.
Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles
Classic chocolate truffles are sinfully indulgent, melt-in-your-mouth, bite-sized confections made from ganache (an emulsion of chocolate and heavy cream). Truffles sometimes include butter, as well as spices, coffee or tea, liqueurs, nuts, and even fruit purées for flavor. Vegan truffles, also based on ganache, are just as luxurious, velvety smooth, and indulgent—but not sinful. A variety of nondairy milks replace the heavy cream and no butter is added. And here is the best part: After making and tasting hundreds of truffles made with nondairy milks, I am convinced they taste more intensely chocolaty than their heavy cream–based cousins.
Makes about 30 (1-inch/ 2.5-CM) Truffles
Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles
Ingredients
- 8 ounces / 227 grams dark chocolate 70 to 72%, finely chopped
- 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons / 210 ml unsweetened organic almond milk or soymilk
- 2 tablespoons / 26 grams organic sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 teaspoon / 5 ml pure vanilla extract
- 2 teaspoons / 10 ml mild tasting extra-virgin olive oil
- A few pinches of flaked sea salt for coating and serving (optional)
- Dutch-process cocoa powder for coating
Instructions
- Add the chocolate to a heatproof bowl and set aside while you heat the milk.
- Pour the milk into a small saucepan. Add the sugar and salt. Cook over medium heat, whisking a few times, to a low boil.
- Immediately remove the saucepan from the heat. Pour the hot milk over the chocolate all at once. Rotate the bowl so the chocolate is completely submerged. Cover the bowl with a plate and let stand undisturbed for 4 minutes.
- Add the vanilla and olive oil and whisk from the center out only until smooth and glossy. (If the chocolate is not completely melted, refer to page 36 for instructions on using a water bath to melt the chocolate.)
- Keep the bowl of ganache at room temperature while you test the final consistency. A properly made truffle ganache is firm enough to scoop and shape but still tastes creamy. Dip a teaspoon into the ganache, set the coated spoon on a small plate, and refrigerate for 10 to 15 minutes. After chilling, the ganache on the spoon should be smooth and firm but still taste creamy. It is unlikely, but if the glaze is too firm, add a tablespoon of room temperature milk and repeat the test. Add a second tablespoon if needed.
- Cool the ganache in a shallow dish at room temperature for 30 minutes. (The ganache sets up fastest and most evenly in a 9-inch / 23-cm glass pie pan or similar dish.) Refrigerate uncovered until the surface is no longer soft, then place a piece of parchment paper or plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the ganache, covering it completely, and refrigerate for at least 3 hours or until very firm. The ganache can be refrigerated at this point for up to 1 week in an airtight container.
Make The Truffle Centers
- Line a shallow container with parchment. Remove the ganache from the refrigerator. Use a spoon to scoop out 1-inch / 2.5-cm pieces of ganache and another to push the ganache off the spoon into the container. (If you prefer more uniform truffles, use a 1⁄2-tablespoon scoop.) When a half dozen or so are made, roll and press the pieces into irregularly shaped rounds. Repeat until all the ganache has been used, washing and drying your hands as needed. (If at any time the ganache becomes too soft to shape, refrigerate until cold and proceed.) Cover and refrigerate the truffle centers in layers separated by parchment paper for 15 to 25 minutes before finishing with the cocoa coating.
Recipe Notes
Recipe reprinted with permission from VEGAN CHOCOLATE © 2013 by Fran Costigan, Running Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group.
Recipe reprinted with permission from VEGAN CHOCOLATE © 2013 by Fran Costigan, Running Press, a member of the Perseus Books Group.
Photo Credit: ©Kate Lewis 2013
Your newsletter and these posts are just great. So enjoy reading your info. Edit note: I think the recipe up there is missing the word sugar in the third item down? I read the directions and I think that must be what is missing but wanted you to know it asap.
I am so happy for your success, and I cannot wait to get my copy!
Thanks Krystn for the confidence and noting the error. The words organic sugar are missing. The correction to the ingredient list is 2 tablespoons organic sugar. The sugar is noted and added correctly in the procedure.
Have a good day! Please let me know as soon as you get your copy!!
All best
Fran
I just tried this recipe out of your book. It doesn’t seem to be firming up after 6 hours! I will let it go overnight and see. Maybe reduce the liquid?
Hi Strawberry. I’m so sorry you had trouble. I have not had problems with So Delicious Coconut milk, but if your ganache is too soft to shape after 24 hours, sinply add more melted chocolate to the still liquid ganache after your test and next time, just use less milk. Please clariy for me which truffle ganache you made as well as the amount of So Delicious Coconut Milk you used, and the chocolate (Percentage). Certainly, it sounds like you know what you are doing!
Fran
Thanks for your reply back. Yes I tested it but I think if anything there is too much liquid. I don’t know why it didn’t work. I do mean this exact recipe posted here. I did use coconut milk (So Delicious brand). So if you think that’s an issue let me know. I was going to redo it with almond.
What did you use the soft ganache to make? Glaze a cake?
I ended up frosting some brownies with it and spooning it into my mouth. I guess I was asking for clarification because the recipe says to add 2 more Tbsp liquid, but is the initial measurement still 3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. Recipes always confuse me on that one! Thanks!
Hi Strawberry!
The measurement for the liquid as listed in the ingredients list is 3/4cup plus 2Tbls. Did you use another 2Tbls? That would explain the softer consistency. The other 2Tbls is in case the truffle ganache is too firm.
So you know, and I will blog about this, if ganache is too firm, as I say in recipe, add more milk. Conversely, and I didn’t say this, if it is ever too soft, add more melted chocolate.
Since too soft was your problem, next time use a little less milk. Say 3/4C- you can always add more per the recipe.
Best
Fran