Here I'll show you two easy truffle recipes that are great to make in bulk for Easter and Christmas gifts for your friends and colleagues. And you'll even learn how to make a cute little gift box too!
Homemade chocolate truffles can taste just as smooth, dark, creamy and delicious as the gourmet, luxury, chocolate gifts you buy in the store. At least, that's what I've found, and I hope you'll agree with me once you've tried this recipe :-)
Ever since I first tasted one, I've wanted to learn how to make truffles, but I always imagined they must be hard to make. But when my Mother's group and I managed to make a batch with our babies crawling around our feet then I knew this was going to become a firm favourite in the last-minute gift ideas basket! Perfect for Easter and Christmas!
On this page I'll outline two easy truffle recipes you can try. The first is my favourite as you'll learn how to coat the ganache balls in a layer of chocolate to give your truffles a really fabulous texture and finish. The second excludes this step, but is still delicious and great for when you're pressed for time.
Delicious Easy Truffle Recipe with outer Chocolate layer
Makes 40-45 truffles.
Ingredients
For this easy truffle recipe you will need:
- 300 ml Double Cream (a.k.a. "heavy cream")
- 300 g quality chocolate
- Extra chocolate for coating (I used 100g each of white, milk and dark chocolate)
- Various outer coatings. We used ground almonds, crushed up chocolate bars such as Flake and Crunchie (which is a honeycomb bar coated in dark chocolate), and cocoa powder. Other options include crushed pistachios or hazelnuts, lightly toasted desiccated coconut, chocolate sprinkles, or anything else that takes your fancy!
I like to use dark chocolate for making the truffle ganache (I've tried both Green and Black's 70% dark chocolate and Lindt with 70% cocoa), but use whatever sort of chocolate you like best. Just make sure you use good quality chocolate - the quality of your truffles depends on it!
How to Make Chocolate Truffles
Break up the 300g of quality chocolate into small pieces and place into a bowl.
Slowly bring the double cream to the boil in a saucepan and then remove from heat.
Pour the hot cream over the chocolate. Stir continuously until all the chocolate has melted and you have a smooth, thick mixture. This is called ganache, and will be the delicious middle of your truffles!
Allow the truffle mixture to cool for at least 3 hours in fridge.
Take teaspoon-sized amounts of truffle mixture and roll into balls. Place these on a baking tray lined with grease-proof paper. Don't worry if they're not perfectly round, it all adds to the charm of homemade, and it won't affect the taste!
Place your ganache balls in the fridge to firm up slightly while you prepare your coatings.
Easy Truffle Recipe: Coating the Truffles
Here I'll describe how we made truffles with a white chocolate and almond coating, milk chocolate and flake coating, and dark chocolate with cocoa or Crunchie topping. But you can use any type of combination you wish!
As a general rule you can coat around 10 truffles per 100g of white chocolate, about 12-15 per 100g of milk chocolate, and 20-25 per 100g of dark chocolate. Not sure why, but dark chocolate is way runnier than milk and white chocolate when melted.
Firstly you'll want to crush up any toppings that need crushing, and place all your toppings in small bowls ready to be used.
Now break up each type of chocolate into separate bowls. Bring a small amount of water to the boil and reduce to a simmer, then rest each bowl over the top of the saucepan. Make sure the bottom of the bowl doesn't come into contact with the water.
Stir the chocolate until it is mostly melted then remove from the heat and continue to stir while the last of the chocolate melts.
Allow your chocolate to cool a bit before you use it to coat your truffles. If you don't, you will find that when you go to coat the truffles the ganache will start to melt through the chocolate layer. Not so good when you are working with white chocolate!
To coat your truffles I find it easiest to work with a fork and a spoon. Rest the truffle on the fork and drizzle melted chocolate over it with the spoon until fully coated.
Now drop the chocolate-coated truffle into your topping of choice. Using a new spoon, cover the truffle in the topping.
Transfer to a tray lined with grease-proof paper and start on the next truffle.
You can always re-roll your truffles in topping after 10-15 minutes once the chocolate has started to firm up if you want to make sure the truffles fully coated. I find this helps keep them really rounded too.
Once you've coated all your ganache balls, put the tray of truffles back in the fridge to firm up.
You can store the truffles in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to one week. I doubt they'll last that long though!
The photos on this page don't really do the truffles justice... if only I could capture the smooth chocolatey melting sensation they make in your mouth. Mmmm...
Alternative Easy Truffle Recipe
Here's another version of the easy truffle recipe which doesn't include an outer chocolate layer. It isn't my video, but I thought it was a really nice demonstration of how to make truffles. I haven't tried this exact recipe with the vanilla essence but I should as I have an amazinghomemade vanilla essencerecipe.
One small note:I find that when you don't have the outer chocolate coating the cocoa powder layer doesn't keep its powdery texture but instead gets absorbed back into the ganache ball. I found that it helps to re-roll the truffles in cocoa just before serving so that they maintain their appearance.
Gift wrapping your Truffles
Now that you've made you're gorgeous truffles you might be looking for a box to present them in. Follow the instructions on ourmake your own gift boxpage to package them up nicely.
Here are the dimensions I used for each box:
Small Gift Box for Four Truffles
To make the small gift box that fits four truffles, use an 8 inch (20 cm) square piece of decorative cardstock for the base. Use an 8.5 inch (22 cm) square for the lid.
You'll also need a piece of plain paper the same size as your base (8 inch square) to make the divider.
Large Gift Box
To make a larger gift box that can fit up to 12 or so truffles, use a 12 inch (30.5 cm) square piece of decorative cardstock for the lid. Use an 11.5 inch (29 cm) square for the base.
Line your gift box with tissue paper, and arrange your truffles as you like. In the first box I have placed 7 truffles, but the second I've piled them in and there are around 12!
What Next?
I hope you enjoyed these easy truffle recipes and instructions! I'm sure the recipients of your gift will too :-)
Are you achocolate lover? Then check out these other choco-pages:
- Brownies in a Jar
- Chocolate-dipped strawberries
- Choc Chip Cookies
- Home
- Food Gifts
- Easy Chocolate Truffle Recipe
