Chocolate Brandy Truffles

A couple of weeks ago I saw a truffle mania challenge that Heavenly Housewife was participating in. (Check out all the awesome entries at the bottom of this post.) I thought that the basic recipe looked simple enough and that these would make great "thank you"s to my coworkers who donated to my Great Strides campaign for Cystic Fibrosis research.

I've never made truffles before and I was excited to see that a basic recipe looked easy. I was even feeling very inventive because I decided to use brandy instead of grand marnier in the mixture.

The starting steps turned out lovely. The chocolate mixture from the first step looked great.

And I only made a SLIGHT mess with the first couple of steps. I was feeling very good about this whole thing.

What I hadn't planned for was heat and humidity. The second to last step involved shaping the chilled chocolate into ball shapes.

Yeah. Need I say more? This weekend was HOT and HUMID (and kinda miserable). And no, I don't have an AC in the kitchen. Thus the mess.

I decided to put the chocolate in the freezer and deal with it at night when it would be slightly cooler.

I left my apartment and headed outside. A Memorial Day street fair greeted me on my way to the subway.

I put my truffle worries behind me as I traveled to Hoboken, NJ to relax with friends and eat BBQ. I also flew a kite.

I headed back to NYC where my truffles were patiently awaiting me.

The shaping and forming of the truffles at night was a success! I can't wait to try truffles again in the fall/winter. Or year round if I ever move to Alaska.

Chocolate Brandy Truffles (adapted from the Food Network)

Ingredients

1/2 pound good bittersweet chocolate
1/2 pound good semisweet chocolate
1 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons brandy
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cocoa powder

Directions
Chop the chocolates finely with a sharp knife. Place them in a heat-proof mixing bowl. (Erika's Extra: I used Ghiradelli chocolate chips which I didn't chop.)

Heat the cream in a small saucepan until it just boils. Turn off the heat and allow the cream to sit for 20 seconds. Pour the cream through a fine-meshed sieve into the bowl with chocolate. With a wire whisk, slowly stir the cream and chocolates together until the chocolate is completely melted. Whisk in the brandy and vanilla. Set aside at room temperature for 1 hour. (Erika's Extra: I had to set aside in my bedroom with the AC on.)

With 2 teaspoons, spoon round balls of the chocolate mixture onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, until firm. Roll each dollop of chocolate in your hands to roughly make a round ball. Roll in cocoa powder. These will keep refrigerated for weeks, but serve at room temperature.

Check out the other bloggers to see how successful they were in the truffle mania challenge:

Heavenly Housewife - Donuts to Delirium

Stevie - Weird Combinations

Joumana - Taste of Beirut

Shelly - Franish Nonspeaker

Karen - Gourmet Food

Su - Suvelle Cuisine

The Baking Addict - The More than Occasional Baker
 
Bake well and prosper!