The Cooking Chronicles: Chocolate Truffles

Mack’s Grandma mentioned a while back that she liked chocolate truffles, so I thought this season would be a good time to try out the recipe I picked up at the Truffology 101 session I attended a few weeks back.

I bought milk chocolate callebaut chunks at Save-On-Foods, along with a bulk container of golden syrup. I measured out the ingredients on a small baking scale I have at home, and prepared the ganache as directed. I covered the resulting mixture with saran wrap and placed it in the fridge to cool overnight.

In the morning, I pulled out the glass bowl to discover that the mixture hadn’t really solidified into the clay-like consistency I was expecting – it was more like a thick syrup. As a result, I spread the mixture out onto a sheet pan, and put it in our equivalent of a “blast chiller” – out on our back step, hoping the –25 weather would help matters. Half an hour later, the mixture still hadn’t congealed to the necessary thickness. I did some digging on the internet, and found that the substitution of golden in place of corn syrup may have been the problem, though our scale was another potential point of failure.

My Mum, always quick on her feet, suggested that we mix in Oreo cookie crumbs to serve as a binder. While it helped somewhat, the “truffles” still didn’t quite hold their shape, and the dry crumbs made coating the external layer with cocoa, confectioner’s sugar, coconut, or sprinkles a little difficult. The final product, though less attractive than the truffles I had put together during the session, were a nice treat, as they had the added texture of crushed cookies in the mix. We put together enough to fill a small box, and poured the rest of the ganache into a freezer bag.

Chocolate Truffles

Other failed attempts as reported on the internet resulted in people having a ready-made fondue base, or at the very least, frosting for a future cake. So the bag I now have in the freezer will serve some concrete purpose at some point, in addition to reminding me never to use golden syrup in place of its corn-based counterpart.