My Morning Chocolate

chocolate truffles with roasted almonds and rainbow sprinkles

According to lore, the invention of chocolate truffles was an accident, developed in 1920s France when an apprentice of Escoffier’s poured hot cream into a bowl of chocolate instead of the bowl where he was making pastry cream. Of course, Escoffier turned this mistake into the lovely rolled chocolate balls we eat today.

And the first time I made truffles, I messed with the recipe.

I used half-and-half instead of heavy cream because I have a thing about heavy cream. It’s all fat, and it’s bad for you. (I know, it doesn’t make any sense because I eat many other fatty things, but we all have our food phobias, right?)  As you might imagine, the truffles never set. I had to eat the chocolate mixture with a spoon.  This isn’t a bad thing, but this year I made them for Mother’s Day so the setting stage was an important one.

This time, I bought my very first container of heavy cream. And I’m kind of excited about it. It’s not like I’m drinking the stuff, so I don’t know why I was so against using it in the first place.

I made chocolate peanut butter truffles from a recipe in the December 1998 Gourmet magazine.  The mixture is very easy to make, messy to roll, and delicious to eat.  And you can coat the chocolate in anything you want.  I rolled mine in roasted almonds (roast whole almonds in a 415 degree oven for 8 to 10 minutes), rainbow sprinkles (because everything looks more tempting in rainbow sprinkles) and powdered sugar (which didn’t work as well, as you can see below.  They still taste good though!)

Chocolate truffles with powdered sugar (check out the especially bumpy one in the back)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles
from Gourmet, December 1998

2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into bits
3/4 cup chunky peanut butter
2 teaspoons vanilla (I omitted this because I didn’t have it)
about 1/2 cup finely chopped salted peanuts for coating (I used roasted almonds, sprinkles, and powdered sugar)

In a large saucepan combine the chocolate chips, the cream, the butter, and the peanut butter and heat the mixture over moderate heat, stirring, until the chocolate is melted completely.

(Left) All of the ingredients ready to be melted in the pan; (Right) What the mixture looks like when it's melted and combined

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the vanilla and a pinch of salt.  Transfer the mixture to a bowl and chill it, covered, for 4 hours, or until it is firm.  Form the mixture by heaping teaspoons into balls (or, if you’re like me, jagged rocks) and roll the balls lightly in the peanuts (or whatever coating you choose).  Chill the truffles on a baking sheet lined with wax paper for 1 hour, or until they are firm.  They keep in an airtight container, chilled, for 2 weeks.  Makes about 40 truffles.