Chocolate Truffles combine chocolate, cream, and a few flavor enhancers to deliver a velvety smooth, rich, indulgent confection. These fancy treats can be quite expensive to purchase, but couldn’t be easier to make at home! Truffles make an impressive gift for friends or to serve to guests.
What Are Chocolate Truffles?
They’re a type of chocolate confection made by combining chocolate and cream. The combination forms a soft, rich chocolate ganache that is rolled into a ball. The ball is then coated in a thin layer of chocolate or rolled in powdered sugar, cocoa powder, coconut, nuts. etc. Truffles are kind of like fudge taken to the next level of decadence.
Easy Chocolate Truffle Recipe
Chocolate Truffles can be complicated to make, but my intent with this recipe is to make the process as easy as possible.
We do this by using Ghirardelli® chocolate-flavored melting wafers. While most chocolate truffles recipes will call for the most expensive chocolate possible, I find it isn’t necessary for made-at-home truffles. This chocolate is still rich and indulgent tasting, but ultimately, it’s so much easier to work with. Plus, you don’t need to mess with finely chopping the chocolate or tempering it. I think you’ll be amazed at how simple the process is with these wafers!
How To Make Chocolate Truffles
The full recipe is below, but here are our top tips for recipe success:
- Don’t rush the chilling time. The mixture needs to be soft enough to scoop out of the bowl while remaining firm enough to roll in balls. If the chocolate has chilled longer than indicated, just leave it out a bit (30 minutes or so) at room temperature to get it to a scoopable consistency.
- Don’t freeze the chocolate; it will ruin the mixture.
- Use a wide and shallow bowl to help the mixture set quickly and more evenly.
Chocolate Truffle Tips, Continued
- Cover the chocolate with plastic wrap. This helps to avoid condensation.
- Be sure to use heavy cream. Regular milk or half-and-half will not set up to the proper consistency.
- Use dark chocolate. While it would make sense that semi-sweet or milk chocolate could stand in place of dark, they aren’t the same. There is more milk, sugar, and cocoa butter in semi-sweet and milk chocolate than in dark chocolate, so the resulting mixture will be too soft and won’t roll nicely into balls. The same applies to white chocolate– it has far too much milk to work with this recipe’s ratios.
Variations
Trying Out Different Flavors
- Make smaller truffles but scoop out 1-1/2 teaspoons of the mixture instead of a tablespoon.
- Flavor with a different extract than vanilla. Try peppermint, coconut, almond, orange, raspberry, or hazelnut extracts or emulsions.
- Dip truffles in melted chocolate instead of rolling chocolate truffles in a powdered topping.
How Do You Eat Chocolate Truffles?
- Enjoy them whenever! They’re the perfect sweet pick-me-up treat but aren’t overly heavy — they are quite small, after all!
- Truffles are the perfect sweet to serve to guests who have indulged in a big meal and aren’t hungry enough for a large dessert (like Cheesecake Bars) but want to end on something sweet.
- Truffles make a great gift; package a few in decorative boxes, bags, or tins and give them out for a fun holiday or birthday treat.
Storage
Storing Chocolate Truffles
Store chocolate truffles in an airtight container in the fridge for weeks! When you’re ready to enjoy one (or two), allow them to come to room temperature first.
Chocolate Truffles are best eaten at room temperature because this is where they are velvety smooth and melt perfectly in your mouth.
My Number One Chocolate Truffle Recipe Tip:
Chocolate Truffles are supposed to be a creamy, melt-in-your-mouth consistency at room temperature. However, this also means the chocolate will soften quickly– making balls messy and hard to roll.
So here’s how to avoid the stickiness: Scoop out all the truffle portions onto a large lined baking sheet. Refrigerate the unrolled portions for about 30 minutes. This will help them to dry out slightly. After that, roll into balls straight from the fridge. (Thanks Sally for this tip!)
Quick Tip
If you find they’re still too sticky, chill them a little longer or chill your hands by holding a freezer bag (or bag of frozen veggies) for a minute before rolling.
More Indulgent Dessert Recipes
- Chocolate Cheesecake with a chocolate ganache and chocolate cookie crust
- Chocolate Covered Strawberries with a white chocolate drizzle
- Bakery Style Chocolate Cookies with chocolate chips
- Buttercrunch Candy peanut butter and chocolate confection
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie with a chocolate cookie crust
Chocolate Truffles
Ingredients
- 1 bag (10 oz.) Dark Chocolate Melting Wafers (Note 1)
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream (Note 2)
- 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste or extract (Note 3)
- Coating options: blended sweetened coconut, finely crushed nuts, sprinkles, Dutch-process cocoa powder, powdered sugar, crushed candy cane, etc.
Instructions
- MICROWAVE: Add the entire bag of chocolate wafers, 2 tablespoons butter, 1/2 cup cream, and 1/8 teaspoon salt to a large, shallow, microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in bursts of 30 seconds, stirring between each burst for 20 seconds, until mostly melted (about 90 seconds total). It's ok if it's not totally melted. Stir and then cover the bowl with a large plate or pot lid and let stand for 5 minutes without disturbing.
- CHILL: After 5 minutes, remove the plate and stir until smooth. Once totally smooth, add in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract and mix through. Cover with plastic wrap directly touching the surface of the chocolate and chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours up to 6 hours before rolling into balls. Don't freeze -- it will ruin it! (Want to chill longer? See Note 4)
- SCOOP OUT PORTIONS: Set out a tray and line it with parchment paper. Use a tablespoon measuring spoon to scoop out the chocolate and then use a spoon to coax the chocolate out of the measuring spoon and onto the lined tray in small blobs (we aren't rolling yet!)
- CHILL AGAIN: Place the tray of chocolate blobs in the fridge for at least 20 minutes, preferably 30 minutes, uncovered. This will dry out the chocolate slightly so it will be easier to roll.
- ROLL: After 30 minutes, remove the tray from the fridge and, working quickly, roll them into balls. Place the tray back in the fridge at any time if the balls are getting too hard to roll because your hands are too warm or the temperature of the kitchen is too warm. Once rolled, return each ball to the sheet pan. When all the balls are rolled, place the pan in the fridge again for 10 minutes.
- COAT: While the balls are firming for 10 minutes, set out your preferred coatings in small shallow bowls. We like rolling some in finely shredded coconut, some in cocoa powder, and some in powdered sugar. Roll balls into toppings and serve truffles at room temperature. (If truffles are chilled, pull them out of the fridge and let them come to room temperature before enjoying -- this is where they have the melt-in-your-mouth consistency.)
- STORAGE: Store Chocolate Truffles in an airtight container in the fridge for weeks! When you're ready to enjoy one (or more) allow them to come to room temperature first. They're best eaten at room temperature because this is where they are velvety smooth and melt perfectly in your mouth.
Video
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
