Homemade Chocolate Truffles for That Special (but Reasonably Priced) Holiday Gift

Sure, there are chocolate bon-bons—those chocolate candies with mystery ingredients inside. But hard-core chocolate aficionados prefer truffles. Chocolate inside, chocolate outside—all the more chocolate to enjoy. But don't settle for the standard-issue truffles—go for the gusto by making your own—and then wrapping your delectable creations in food-safe tissue paper, placing in and an elegant box, and tying all with a festive ribbon. You have a perfect and elegant hostess gift or gift for a loved one that says, "Enjoy and be happy" with both heart and pleasure in the mix.

Homemade Truffles

Homemade truffles will not look as glamorous as ones you might find at a chocolatier, but they will be made with love—by you, and are therefore far more wonderful. Again, dress your creations up in elegant wrapping (Try Can Creations online and Cost Plus World Market [to check store locations] for wrappings for homemade food gifts) and deliver with pride.

Here's a quick and simple recipe—the results will astound both you and the object of your affections. Plus, there will be plenty left over to take to work and amaze everyone there. Enjoy! Recipe makes about five dozen 1" truffles.

1 pound bar of artisanal bittersweet baking chocolate. (Do not use chocolate chips—your truffles will not taste authentic. Search for gourmet bulk baking chocolate, like Ghirardelli or Callebout or Scharffenberger or Valrhona. If you live near a Trader Joe’s, definitely use their 72% cacao Belgian Pound Plus bar. Why Trader Joe’s? Because their gourmet bulk chocolate is only $4 per pound! And the taste is fabulous.)
1/2 pound white baking chocolate (the bittersweet chocolate is softened and rounded by the addition of white chocolate—my four-year-old calls this “making zebra chocolate”)
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 of a stick)
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream (16 oz)
2 tablespoons fine liquor, such as Chambord, Limoncello, or my all-time favorite, Grand Marnier. (You can also substitute vanilla, but rest assured, even with liquor, your truffles will not taste alcoholy—the liquor blends in perfectly and acts just like vanilla, only with a twist. Your truffles will be safe for children to consume. Vanilla has as high an alcohol content as the equivalent amount of liquor, so your call.)
Shredded unsweetened coconut or chopped, unsalted nuts to roll truffles in. I recommend pistachios, cashews, hazelnuts, or macadamia nuts. Our family favorite is unsweetened coconut, which you can find at Indian stores or in gourmet or health food stores such as Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods. If you use nuts, make sure to get unsalted.)

Boil a few cups of water in a pot. Place a bowl (or another pot) over the boiling water (thus creating a double-boiler, if you don't have one). Melt the chocolates in the upper bowl, stirring to mix the dark and light chocolates (taste, if desired). When the chocolates are melted and mixed, add in the butter, water, liquor (or vanilla) and mix thoroughly. Add in a dollop of heavy cream, stirring it in well before adding another dollop. When the cream is well–mixed, remove the chocolate, cover the bowl, and refrigerate it for severl hours or until the mixture is firm enough to hold its shape (you may need to refrigerate overnight).

Spread out a sheet of parchment paper on the counter (or plastic wrap). Scoop up about a tablespoon of the chocolate and roll into a 1" ball, rolling between your hands to make a nice rounded shape (like making meatballs). Roll the truffle in a plate with the coconut or chopped nuts to coat the outside evenly. Place the coated truffle on the parchment paper. Continue in this way until all the chocolate is gone (be sure to sneak a few for taste-testing and quality assurance).

These simple truffles get such rave reviews, I’ve actually been offered money for them (I charged $2 each, but it’s up to you). The secrets are using the high-cacao content chocolate, and then adding in the white chocolate to mellow and sweeten the mixture slightly (but not too much—mildly sweet is most irresistible). That and the fancy liquor make these truffles a to-die-for gift.

Happy, Homemade Christmas Gifts

Every year, we mix up a batch of homemade Christmas gifts and put them in some sort of fancy container to give out as gifts to family and friends (for kids and each other, we actually buy presents). Here's what we (OK, what I) made this year, with links to some of the recipes or sites for buying ingredients.

Gingerbread Surfer Babes & Dudes (I use the Mark Bittman Gingerbread Men recipe--it calls for lots of butter and molasses. Too yummy! Then, for icing, I use organic powdered cane sugar and other organic ingredients. Then, top it all off with granulated candy sugar with lots of beautiful artificial colors to make everything festive. One can be too good, you know.)

Belgian Tripel Homebrew (The Home Brewery is a great site. And the folks there are super-nice.)

Chocolate Coconut Truffles (Trader Joe's for the bulk Belgian chocolate [only $4 a pound!] and white chocolate [the real kind, not "white chips."]), made from my own recipe.

Layered Peppermint Bark (Again, Trader Joe's for the chocolates. I doubled the quantity of white chocolate in this recipe to make each white layer thick. Heavenly and to-die-for do not begin to do this justice! Add extra peppermint extract for a taste explosion.)

Rosemary Almonds (Also from my own recipe, only this one is on eHow.com. You could not find an easier, nor more satisfying gift to give and to receive. The nuts will be gone in a flash!)

Pomegranate Fruit Compote (Sure, this project started out as "Pomegranate Jelly" and ended up as "Compote" when it didn't set. Oh, well. It's a nice presentation in a festive jelly jar, and it can be yummy on ice cream instead of on toast. Why not? The compote was easy to make, even though it didn't gel as much as promised.)

Homemade Soaps in Yin-Ylang and Yang-Mint (So easy to make "Melt-and-Pour" soaps. Just melt chunks of the block of solid soap base, add in color, fragrance, and botanical doodads. Voila! Recipients rave and oooh. Don't tell them the real truth. This year, I used spearmint leaves and peppermint oil to make a "yang" soap, and ylang-ylang, sage, and tangerine oils, along with sage flowers to make a "yin" soap. Wrap in plastic wrap first, then in a strip of homemade paper, then a ribbon around the strip. Fab!)