J'aime le chocolat! I love chocolate! And so I had to make chocolate truffles which is basically chocolate ganache rolled up into spheres. The truffles can be flavored with liquers like Grand marnier or even balsmic vinegar. Then they're covered in delectable coatings like cocoa powder, nuts, and matcha powder. The coatings that I used were powdered roast grain, shredded coconut, walnuts, almonds, and cocoa powder.
When I buy chocolate, it has to be dark. The darker the better! I'm one of those chocolate fanatics who can handle biting into 100% cacao...yummy. The first time I ever bit into pure chocolate, I felt like I was tasting chocolate butter. The silky texture, the aroma, the intensely rich chocolate--the experience is quite life changing. I wanted to share this wonderful 100% taste with my friends, but they didn't care too much for it. Actually, I think one of my friends started spitting the chocolate out and tearing up a bit. I guess I'm the odd one. Well at least I'm not alone when I say that it's always a good idea to use the best quality chocolate possible. I really wanted to buy some Varlhona chocolate fèves, but I didn't feel like going all out just yet. Plus, I recently bought Ghirardelli 60% chocolate bars and I think they work just fine! And usually I buy Ghirardelli chocolate chips, but I remembered Ina Garten said that chocolate bars are better quality than chocolate chips...something to do with the added emulsifiers inside of the choco chips. (Ina Garten is my hero!)


I used Ghirardelli's dark chocolate truffle recipe and I had to cut the recipe in half because I didn't have enough heavy cream on hand. I almost had the chance to buy more heavy cream, but my sister wouldn't let me until I used the mere remaining tablespoons left in our fridge...boo hoo! I digress, the chocolate truffle recipe was quite simple and it leaves much room for experimenting. Below, from left to right are the three kinds of chocolate truffles I made. The first one is a green tea infused truffle covered in chopped walnuts. The next one is flavored with roast grain powder rolled in sweetened coconut shreds. The last truffle is coated with cocoa powder and chopped roasted almonds.

Dark Chocolate Truffles:
yield: 30 truffles

Ingredients:
2 (4 oz)  60% cacao bittersweet chocolate bar, chopped into small equal pieces
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
6 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Directions:
1. In a small saucepan, bring the cream to a simmer. Add the butter and stir until melted. Add the chopped chocolate pieces. Stir until completely melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and pour into a shallow bowl.
2. Cool, cover, and refrigerate the mixture until firm, at least 2 hours.
3. Using a melon baller or small spoon, roll the mixture into 1 inch balls. Roll each ball in the cocoa. Enjoy immediately or refrigerate in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.

Note: Instead of only using unsweetened cocoa for coating, I used chopped nuts, coconut shreds, and matcha powder.