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Most years during the holidays I make truffles mostly for friends and family, and this was no exception.  Truffle recipes can easily be found on the internet so I won't bother repeating them here.  What I would like to share is a couple of tips for making them.

These truffles are made of of a flavored inside called a ganache which is coated in chocolate.  The truffles with the nuts on top have a white chocolate ganache flavored with Irish creme.  The ones without nuts on top have a ganache of dark chocolate flavored with Irish whiskey.  Although there is alcohol in these it is used as a flavoring rather than making the chocolates a fancy party shot.  One would have to eat pounds of these chocolates before feeling the effects of the alcohol, then it could be just the effect of the sugar rather than the alcohol.

In the case of making the ganache from chocolate, the chocolate first has to be melted and additional ingredients included.  

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From here the ganache is cooled to that it may be molded into the ball shapes that would then be dipped in the chocolate coating.  Most recipes call for the ganache to cool an hour of so until it can be scooped with a melon baller or spoon and formed into shape.   When I did this I found it difficult to maintain a similar size between one ball and the next.  My solution was to form a block.  

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I take a dish and line it with plastic wrap, add the ganache and refrigerate.  In a little over an hour the block can be removed from the dish for another ganache if your making several batches of chocolates.  Once removed, simply enclose the ganache in the remainder of the plastic wrap and let it sit in the refrigerator until your ready.

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I let the ganache sit overnight to divide the work into two days plus patience is a key to making these chocolates.  If the ganache isn't cold enough when dipping in the outside coating they will tend to melt into the dipping chocolate or become too soft to retrieve from the dipping chocolate.  Once removed from the plastic wrap the block can be cut with a knife into cubes which can then formed into round balls.  I find I have much more control over the size of the ganache ball this way than with a melon baller.

The ganache balls are placed on a wax paper lined cookie sheet and sent back to the refrigerator.  Usually by the time I finish making all the ganache balls the first ones are ready for dipping.  

Dipping doesn't take that long for each ball but if your making a large number of candies the time will add up, be patient.  When I first started making these I found an article on the internet that suggested I use a spoon to dip the chocolates.  I found I couldn't drain enough of the dipping chocolate off the coated ganache ball.  I then moved to a fork to let more of the chocolate drip off between the tines of the fork.  This worked better but the ball tended to roll off the end of the fork too easily.  What I needed was a fork with fewer tines.  Before I went to the garage to cut the tines off my metal fork I realized a plastic fork would work just as well.

I dug into my wife's party supplies and found a plastic fork.  Breaking the two center tines out of the plastic fork worked great.  The chocolate ball settled nicely between the two tines left on the fork and didn't roll off as easily.  I later found out that there were special tools available for dipping chocolates but I decided to stick with my broken plastic fork instead.

The chocolates turned out delicious.   Friends and family all enjoyed them and maybe I got carried away since we are all still enjoying them.  I just think of it as another way to stretch out the holiday season.