The finished product(s)
The innards! Immediately after construction; at r.t.p. (<-- that's room temperature and pressure. Pardon my geek talk.)
Dulce de Leche! Almond butter! Chocolate! Sounds awesome? You bet it was. In taste, at least. Flavourful yet not overpowering. However, the recipe was somewhat a miss for me. Thank goodness it was easy to make, or I'd have been really upset :(
The soul of the truffle (the recipe I used referred to this as the ganache, though I don't think it qualifies as a ganache. Yet again, I'm no expert, so... ignore my ramblings!) neither set well nor kept well in the refrigerator. The nice thing about this is that it's really easy to make - melt chocolate, mix in the stuff, roll, coat, set, refrigerate. Plus the ganache had a very workable texture at room temperature, making truffle-making a breeze for noobs like me. Hey, even my grandma can make this! Oh wait, scrap that - my grandma makes wonderful nommables.
Back to the truffle. After setting, the texture was very brownie-like. Moist and thick, like a fudgy brownie, but nothing like a truffle. After refrigerating for about 45 minutes, it gained a much smoother texture. Beyond that, the truffle became hard and urgh... how should I describe it... rough? Definitely not the melt-in-your-mouth feel that I was going for. However, I don't think that it's any fault of the recipe; I cheated by using cheap 70% dark chocolate, adding too much dulce de leche and using cocoa powder of much lower quality than I should have. I'm definitely trying this out again with better ingredients and following the recipe more closely. I'm sure that will yield a much better truffle :)
Don't take my complaints to heart, however! Despite the textural issues, the taste is gorgeous! Nutty, creamy and chocolatey all in one bite! You can definitely substitute almond butter with any other nut butter. If you've never tried almond butter, it has a much milder and subtle flavour compared to peanut better (everyone's munch-time friend), so it doesn't overpower the milky goodness from the chocolate and dulce de leche.
Recipe! Taken from gourmet.com
My comments in [brackets]
For the truffles:
4 oz. 60% bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped [I used 70% dark chocolate!]
2 tbs dulce de leche at room temperature
2 tbs well-stirred natural nut butter [mine used almond butter!]
For the coating:
1/4 to 1/2 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder [I used Toll House's. I do not suggest you use that. Invest in a higher quality one or you might regret it like I did]
2 oz. 60% bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
Getting down and dirty:
1. You first make the truffles! Melt the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water (i.e. using a water bath), stirring till smooth.
2. Once chocolate is melted and smooth, remove from water bath and mix in dulce de leche and your choice of nut butter. You will get a slightly stiff but malleable mixture.
3. Leave it to cool slightly before rolling teaspoons of the stuff into balls.
4. Place the balls onto a tray, and chill completely (about 30 minutes).
5. While the truffles are biding their time in your ol' box of cold things, sift your cocoa powder onto a tray (or anything that you will be comfortable with rolling your truffles in. I used a plastic take-out container lid, specifically the one from Lulu's Noodles).
6. Melt the remaining chocolate the same way as you did in step one.
7. Remove the pan from your heat source, but do not remove the bowl from the water. This ensures that your chocolate does not solidify.
8. Dip your chilled truffles into the melted chocolate one at a time, lifting it out with a fork.
9. Allow excess chocolate to drain off, then throw it into the cocoa powder and coat away!
10. Let the truffle stand till the coating is set, then shake off excess cocoa in a sieve (I didn't bother with this, haha)
That's it! Apparently, you can sift out the remaining cocoa and return it to it's original container, but I didn't do it (mainly because I don't have a sieve).
Also, according to the recipe, it can be frozen up to 2 weeks and thawed at room temperature an hour before serving. They also tell you to not store the truffles at room temperature, or the chocolate police will arrest you.
I'm serious about the part on the chocolate police.
