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Sweet Treats

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Top tips for decadent chocolate truffles

Truffles are utterly delicious, little melt-in-your-mouth treats made from a mixture of
chocolate, cream and often butter. Chocolate can be a temperamental ingredient to work
with but add a dash of cream and a bit of butter and you’ll be off to an almost foolproof
start. This combination of ingredients is called 'ganache' (a fancy French word for a
gorgeously gooey, chocolatey cream), and it’s the easiest place to start when working with
melted chocolate. Once you’ve made the ganache, there’s so much you can do with it, from

icing cakes to making chocolate truffles. We’ll show you how it’s done in a few simple steps:

Chop, chop, chop
To make ganache, start with good quality, finely chopped chocolate. Small cubes of
chocolate (1 cm by 1 cm) are the best bet because they melt quickly and evenly, so grab that

knife and get chopping.

Set up a double boiler
The most effective way to melt your finely chopped chocolate is over a double boiler. Heat
water in a pot until it starts to simmer gently. Then place a heatproof bowl on top of the pot

– it should fit snugly. Don’t let the base of the bowl touch the water, or it will overheat the
chocolate. Also avoid any moisture getting into the bowl, as this can shock the chocolate and
cause it all to seize into a very uncollaborative lump.

Add cream and butter to make ganache

Place the chocolate pieces into the heatproof bowl along with any other flavours you'd like
to add: orange liqueur, bits of crystallised ginger, or spices. Then add the cream and butter
and stir gently to combine. The gooey muddy puddle you’re left with is now called ganache.

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