Limoncello Chocolate Truffles:
How to make them ... and delight your friends

Chocolate recipes. Je'oan D'ark Limoncello Truffles. Chocolate Diets: Women's Stress Buster Diet. Chocolate History. Chocolate science: biology, chemistry, and psychology. Glossy chocolate glossary. Rosenblum on chocolate. Alice Medrich on chocolate. Fran Bigelow on chocolate.

Chocolate Taste Tests: Chocolate Taste Test method by Chantal Cody. The Two Chloés: plain chocolate bars taste test. The Two Chloés: Vosges chocolate bars taste test. The Two Chloés: Zotter chocolate bars taste test.

Je'oan D'ark Limoncello Truffles:
White-Chocolate Lemon Truffle (Truffes au chocolat blanc)
enrobed in Bittersweet Chocolate

Three simple steps:

1. Batter (Ganache)
2. Hints on Melting Chocolate
3. Tempered Chocolate To Cover Truffles:

Bittersweet: Recipes and Tales from a Life in Chocolate by Alice Medrich. See her book to try Raspberry-Laced Chocolate Cake. Or Extra Bittersweet Ganache Truffles. Or Queen of Sheba Cake. Je'oan D'ark Limoncello Truffles. Fran Bigelow on chocolate. Mort Rosenblum on chocolate. Also chocolate taste tests: Chocolate Taste Test method by Chantal Cody. The Two Chloés: plain chocolate bars taste test. The Two Chloés: Vosges chocolate bars taste test. The Two Chloés: Zotter chocolate bars taste test.

Batter (Ganache):

Ingredients: 10 oz. White Chocolate 4 oz. Crème Fraîche (or heavy cream) 2 tbsp. Limoncello 0.5 tbsp. Finely grated lemon zest. Method: (1) Line bottom and sides of a pan with parchment paper. (2) Break chocolate into small pieces; put in a large bowl. (3) Bring cream slowly to a light boil. Remove from heat and cool 2 minutes. Add liqueur and mix. (4) Melt chocolate. (5) Pour all of cream over chocolate; stir till all chocolate is melted and batter is homogenous. (6) Add finely grated lemon zest and mix till batter is homogenous. (7) Let set 1 hour at room temperature. (8) Refrigerate overnight. (9) With gloved hands, form the truffles into balls and lay out, in preparation for dipping in melted tempered Semisweet (52-62% cacao) Chocolate.

The above ratio of cream-to-white-chocolate worked well for us. In contrast, another recipe pro-rates 10 oz. White Chocolate to only 1 oz. cream with 1 oz liquor; while one pro-rates 10 oz. White Chocolate to as much as 5.6 oz cream plus 2 tbsp. butter. Experiment to discover what works for you.

If you make a dark-chocolate, a higher proportion of cream is likely to be better, up to 6 oz. cream with 1 oz liquor.

Hints on Melting Chocolate:

Before you temper your chocolate, melt it gently:

• Do not overheat (or else chocolate will seize up).
• If possible melt over a small pot of simmering water.
• Or melt in microwave, e.g. using Ghiradelli Guidelines:
  1. Heat 11 oz. baking chips in microwave-safe bowl at medium (50%) power for 30 seconds.
  2. Stir till bowl no longer feels warm.
  3. Heat at 15-30-second intervals, stirring until smooth.
• Or, as adapted from the Callebaut web site:
  1. Break 1 lb. Chocolate into pieces small enough to melt easily.
  2. Save 2 oz.; heat the rest in a microwave at 800-1000 W.
  3. Remove chocolate from the microwave every 20 seconds and stir well so the temperature is evenly distributed and the chocolate does not scorch.
  4. Repeat heating and stirring until the chocolate has almost all melted, with only a few small pieces visible.
  5. Remove from the heat and stir the chocolate well, until all the pieces disappear and a slightly thickened even liquid has been obtained.
  6. According to Callebaut, this is sufficient: 'the chocolate is tempered and ready to work with'.
• Alternatively:
  1. Heat at low power for a minute; then stir well.
  2. Heat in further 15 second bursts at low power till three-quarters melted.
  3. Stir to complete mixing and melting.

Tempered Chocolate To Cover Truffles:

Tempering results in shiny, even, crisp, smooth chocolate that can release cleanly from molds. Three factors are important during tempering: time, temperature, and movement. Tempering is accomplished through an alchemical combination of:

1. Heat: sufficient to melt the chocolate but not burn it.
2. Agitation: the appropriate beating of the molten chocolate to facilitate formation of beta-form crystals (the most stable form of cacao crystals). During beating, maintenance of temperature well within the 84-to-94-degrees-Fahrenheit range, where the beta form can become dominant.
3. Time: allow considerable time for the gentle heating, stirring, and temperature stabilization.

This is the point at which to invest in either a tempering machine or a spatula thermometer. You need to control the temperature of the melted chocolate precisely. You also need to stir it continuously and consistently for quite some time. A fully automatic tempering machine can save you a lot of frustration and grief:

Ingredients: 20 oz. Semisweet (52-62% cacao) Chocolate. Reserve 4 oz. in substantial (1 oz.) chunks. Method: (1) Temper the chocolate. (2) Dip the truffles in the tempered chocolate. (3) Add decoration (such as fragments of candied lemon peel) while tempered chocolate is still soft.

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