last night yoseff hosted a food and desire themed valentine's day dinner party. i was dateless. it was fine. it was better than fine. we made a nine course meal. i revealed that i'm often a total idiot in the kitchen by spilling about eight gallons of various liquids on yoseff's floor, including when i grabbed for a salt canister and poured some into my hand only to realize that i was actually pouring the contents of a bottle of wine into my palm and subsequently onto the floor. this was, i should add, without a drop of alcohol in my system.
the first part of the aforementioned menu that i'd like to share is a recipe from robert linxe, of la maison du chocolat. while "linxe" and "chocolatier" might be the sexiest last name/profession combination i've ever heard, i have some bad news, which is that i just google image searched him and he's way too old for me.
that being said, the man knows his stuff. i mean, really knows it. full disclosure: i made these truffles around christmas as gifts, and i was pretty sorely disappointed in them. the consistency was miles away from truffly silkiness and they were achingly sweet. i've had this recipe on the back burner ever since. can i tell you something? they are not nearly as labor intensive as they sound. they're actually fun (albeit messy) to make. i have two fairly straightforward pieces of advice: 1. the freezer is your friend, and 2. use the best chocolate you can find. i know this flies in the face of my distaste for ingredient snobbery, and even moreso of namedropping, but these will be profoundly underwhelming if you don't splurge. linxe insists upon valrhona 56% in his recipe--i used callebaut 54%, but i also feel fairly confident in my guess that scharffen berger would work beautifully too. you want a big block of the stuff, not chips.
i deviated a little from linxe's otherwise perfect recipe and added some cinnamon and cayenne to the final dusting of cocoa powder, so that these have a bit of a tingle in the back of the throat. you get a dusting of bitterness from darkly bitter cocoa powder, a slight crunch from a delicate shell of pure chocolate, and then the center, which is outrageously silky, smoothly sweet without being cloying, but with that deep, faintly bitter liquor taste that you get from really high quality chocolate.
oh, and one more thing--during the boiling cream stage, which i did only twice (linxe boils his cream three times because he believes it extends the shelf life of the finished product, which i wasn't worried about because i couldn't imagine these sticking around for more than a few days)--i committed a cardinal kitchen no-no and walked away from the stove while i was boiling it the second time around. it scalded.
here's the weird part though--it acquired a bit of skin, a yellowish tinge, and a couple brown spots, so i was about to throw it out and start a new batch, but i was curious, so i tasted some. okay, i tasted a burnt patch. i fished out an island of mocha-colored milk skin and i ate it. judge away. here's where it gets really weird: it was without a doubt one of the most delicious things i've ever eaten. caramelized, lightly sweet, with some startlingly earthy things going on it, sort of like brown butter but with a much more unapologetically milky, rich taste and smell. it was phenomenal, so i used it. sadly the flavor was lost in the truffling process, but i thought i should share in case anyone has ever experimented with deliberately burning cream and has a clever application for it. i'm nervous to try and recreate it deliberately--and it also seems silly to tinker with perfection.
chocolate truffles with chili
supposedly yields around 60 (i got maybe 35 and i didn't think they were particularly large, but hey!)
- 10 oz valrhona chocolate, 56% cacao (see notes above about brands)
- 2/3 cup heavy cream
- 1/3 cup unsweetened valrhona cocoa powder for dusting
- 1-2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
chop 8 oz of the chocolate very finely and put in a bowl.
bring heavy cream to a boil in a small heavy saucepan. make sure your pan is small, so you'll lose the least amount of cream to evaporation, and heavy, which will keep the cream from scorching. linxe boils his cream three times, letting it cool between boilings — he believes that makes the ganache last longer. if you do this, compensate for the extra evaporation by starting with a little more cream. i boiled it twice.
pour the cream over the chocolate, mashing any big pieces with a wooden spoon. then stir with a whisk in concentric circles (don't beat or you'll incorporate air), starting in the center and working your way to the edge, until the ganache is smooth.
let stand at room temperature until thick enough to hold a shape, about 1 hour, then, using a pastry bag with a 3/8" opening or tip, pipe into mounds (about 3/4" high and 1" wide) on parchment-lined baking sheets. when piping, finish off each mound with a flick of the wrist to soften and angle the point tip. freeze until firm, about 15 minutes. (full disclosure: my pastry bag is in portland, and this also seemed a bit fussy, so i used a spoon and my fingers. they're not as pretty, but it worked.)
in a small bowl, combine cocoa powder, cinnamon and cayenne with a fork until well mixed. taste a bit and adjust for spices--this depends on the strength of your cinnamon and pepper, and how spicy of a truffle you want.
melt the remaining 2 oz of the chocolate and smear some on a latex gloved hand. (full disclosure: i just used a square of plastic wrap on my palm.) gently rub each chilled truffle to coat lightly with chocolate. (the secret to a delicate coating of chocolate is to roll each truffle in a smear of melted chocolate in your hand. linxe always uses gloves.)
toss the truffles in your cocoa powder mixture (linxe recommends using a fork). shake truffles in a sieve to eliminate excess cacao. store truffles in the refrigerator.
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