It has been a little over a month since my last post. I’ve no excuses. I’m simply enjoying my summer. I’ve been baking at least once a week, swimming with my boys, taking early morning runs, and sneaking off to read Ken Follett’s Edge Of Eternity while my kids watch Zootopia for the 35th time. I know, I know. They shouldn’t be watching too much TV, especially during the summer months, but in my defense I was a huge TV watcher as a child, and look at me now– I sneak off to read books, and I’m adorable. Anyway, I made these scrumptious milk chocolate almond truffles almost two months ago. They didn’t last very long on the dessert platter, but their photos, having been imprisoned on camera, felt stifled long enough. I’m happy I’ve set them free, I only wish I had more of them to eat.
I adapted this delicious recipe from the British magazine Baking Heaven, who got their recipe from Mich Turner and Divine Chocolate. The biggest lesson I learned from baking these truffles was how to properly temper chocolate. We’ll get to that in a bit. To begin, I first baked a dense, gluten free, chocolatey-almond cake.
Then I destroyed the cake.
I stirred in a little vegetable oil, and then formed the cake into balls.
I poured tempered milk chocolate over each one, and then set them aside to harden.
Finally, I adorned each truffle with a drizzle of melted white chocolate.
Okay, so here is the thing about tempering chocolate… if you want your chocolate to have a nice shine and a good snap when broken then you must temper it. Tempering is the act of raising the chocolate to a certain temperature (usually done in a double boiler), then lowering the chocolate temperature, and then raising the temperature once again. After that, you must quickly work with the chocolate while it is at the final temperature, otherwise your chocolate will look like this:
Do you see the discoloration? That is called bloom. Yes, it’s unsightly, but it still tastes delicious, so if you do mess up your tempering it’s not all bad. Silver linings.
- 7 TBS (100 g) Unsalted Butter, diced
- 5 oz. (140 g) 70% Dark Chocolate, broken into pieces
- 6 Large Eggs, separated
- 1 and ¼ cups (140 g) Ground Almonds
- 1 tsp. Almond Extract
- 3/8 cup (85 g or a heaping 1/3 cup) Sugar
- Vegetable Oil (optional)
- 14 oz. (400 g) Milk Chocolate, divided
- 4 oz. (113 g) White Chocolate for decoration
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan. Line it with parchment paper, and then grease the parchment. Set aside.
- In a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the butter and chocolate. Stir occasionally, and then remove from heat when smooth. Set aside to cool for about 5 minutes.
- In a medium-sized bowl, stir together the egg yolks, ground almonds, and almond extract. Stir in the cooled melted chocolate/butter mixture.
- In another bowl, and using a hand held mixer or standing mixer, whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form. Continue whisking, adding the sugar a little at a time. Finally, whisk well until stiff peaks form. Stir 2 tablespoons of the egg whites into the chocolate mixture, and then gently fold in the remaining egg whites.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared baking pan, and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until risen and firm to the touch. Set on wire rack to cool. When ready, break the cake apart into crumbs. If cake crumbs are too crumbly to hold together then stir in one to two tablespoons of vegetable oil. Using a medium-sized ice cream scoop, form cake into balls. Place each ball on a wire rack that is set over a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place the whole thing in the refrigerator.
- Finely chop up the milk chocolate. Refrigerate about 100 grams of the milk chocolate, or ¼ of the total chocolate. In a bowl that is set over a saucepan of simmering water, heat the remaining milk chocolate. Be sure that the bottom of the saucepan does not touch the water. Stir the chocolate occasionally. Using a candy thermometer, monitor the chocolate’s temperature. When the temperature reaches 104 degrees F. immediately remove the bowl from the heat.
- Stir in the refrigerated milk chocolate, a little at a time, until it has all melted. Again monitor the temperature. When it goes down to 82 degrees F. place the bowl on top of the saucepan of simmering water.
- Bring the temperature of the chocolate back up to 87 degrees F. As soon as it has reached this temperature it is ready to use.
- While the chocolate is at 87 degrees F, pour about 2 to 3 tablespoons worth over each truffle ball. A small cup with a spout or ladle might work best here. Be sure to pour around the top so that all of the sides get coated evenly. Monitor the temperature of the chocolate. If the temperature begins to fall lower than 85 degrees then place the bowl of chocolate back over the saucepan, and bring the temperature back up to 87 degrees F. After each truffle ball has been covered, set aside so as to give the chocolate time to harden.
- In a microwavable bowl, heat the white chocolate in 30 second increments. Stir and then heat again if not fully melted. When ready, pour it in a piping bag and drizzle a little white chocolate over each truffle.
- 8-inch square cake pan
- Saucepan
- Bowl
- Standing or hand-held mixer with whisk attachment
- Candy thermometer
- Wire rack
- Medium-sized ice cream scoop
- Large baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- Ladle or cup with spout
- Piping bag
