Mise en Place for the Truffles

• What is mise en place and how could it benefit you? See The Finer Cookie’s post How to Mise en Place.
• Measure the white chocolate in a small saucepan, or a bowl suitable for the microwave.
• Measure the butter and bring room temperature.
• Measure the cream and take the chill out in the microwave.

Assembling the Truffles

• Melt the white chocolate either on the very lowest setting of your stove top, or in microwave in 7-15 second intervals, stirring between each blast.

  

• It’s important not to overheat the chocolate because it will separate.

• Once the chocolate is melted and smooth, add the softened butter and stir until completely melted.
• Then add the warm cream and stir until incorporated.
• Then add the orange oil.

• NOTE: If by chance the ganache separates and the butter fat rises to the top, don’t panic. Warm a few tablespoons of low fat milk, or milk diluted with warm water and add 1 tablespoonful at a time. Whisk thoroughly after each addition. As long as you haven’t burned the chocolate, then the ganache should re-emulsify perfectly.
• Let the chocolate sit until firm enough to roll in a ball, overnight is okay.

• You can refrigerate the ganache for short amounts of time, but not for too long or it might crumble and crack as you roll.

• Prepare the coating by mixing the sanding sugar, citric acid, and the vanilla sugar and setting it on a tray or plate for easy rolling.
• I weigh each truffle to be 16-18 grams so that they will be the same size. Alternately, you can scoop the truffle dough with a #40 size scoop or any other size you prefer.
• Gently roll each truffle between the palms of your hands. Your hands will warm the surface so that the coating will stick to it nicely.

Tips on Rolling Very Round Truffles

• Rolling truffles between your palms (in the typical style) usually produces pointy truffles. A gentle hand is really the secret here. You might want to try rolling them gently forward and backwards on a countertop, or gently rolling them between your palms in one direction then the other. Gentle is the key here.

Second Coat of Sugar

• Once all the truffles are rolled, then refrigerate the tray for 5 minutes.
• Then take each truffle roll them again to smooth them out.

• It’s okay if the sugar embeds itself into the truffle. Roll again in the sugar coating. The second coat should slightly darken and be more even than the first.

Note for Successful Truffles:

It is important to pay attention to the temperature of all the ingredients. Adding cool cream to warm white chocolate would be disastrous, and would force you to put the chocolate back on the heat or back in the microwave. It’s also important to be careful of the order in which you add the ingredients. Be sure to add the cream last.