Truffles (4 Star)

I have to admit that I am really proud of these truffles that I made for Christmas gifts this year. I have never made anything so pretty or fancy so this was quite exciting to me. They even tasted as good as they looked. What's more, the recipe, from Pioneer Woman, was quite simple.















I tried a lot of different chocolate flavors. There happened to be an awesome sale on Guittard chocolate chips so that is what I used for the coatings and the centers (except as noted). For the center flavors I used milk chocolate, extra dark chocolate, white chocolate, butterscotch, Hershey's mint chocolate chips, and Hershey's cinnamon chips. For the coatings I used milk chocolate, extra dark chocolate, and white chocolate. The combinations I tried were as follows:

center/coating

white chocolate/milk or extra dark chocolate
mint chocolate/extra dark chocolate or white chocolate
butterscotch/extra dark chocolate
cinnamon/extra dark chocolate
milk chocolate/white chocolate or extra dark chocolate
extra dark chocolate/milk chocolate or white chocolate

PW said she used Merckens melting wafers for her coatings and I wonder if they don't need to be tempered because she never mentioned tempering. I did need to temper my chocolate chip coatings so that they would harden properly and once I figured out how to do it and got a feel for it, it wasn't too difficult.

Tempering:

Microwave 1 cup chocolate chips on high for 30 seconds. Stir. Repeat 1-2 more times or until the chips are completely melted but still somewhat thick. Add 1/2 cup unmelted chips and stir until melted. (The necessary ratio is 2/3 melted to 1/3 unmelted.) Test by dipping the tip of a cool spoon into the chocolate and allow it to cool. If the chocolate is tempered properly it will harden within a few minutes. If the chocolate is not tempered then the chips were heated too hot. To remedy, add another 1/2 cup of unmelted chips and stir until all melted and smooth. With the next batch, heat for less time. White chocolate melts much more quickly so microwave in 15 second increments.

Or you can microwave 1-2 cups of chocolate chips on high for 20-30 second increments stirring in between until the chips are 2/3 of the way melted, then stir the chips until they are all melted and smooth. This can take a little practice until you get a feel for how much to melt so that there is still enough unmelted chocolate to distribute the "seed" crystals throughout and yet warm enough to be able to melt everything.

While I originally planned to try the sea salt sprinkling that PW was so excited about, I never did because I got so involved with all the other things I experimented with as sprinkles that I forgot. But I definitely will next time.

Sprinkles:

finely chopped toasted almonds
toasted unsweetened coconut flakes (from the bulk bins at Good Earth)
crushed candy canes (used on the mint centered truffles)
cinnamon (used on the cinnamon centered truffles)