Ingredients
3 lb chocolate (semi-sweet or semi-bitte, rsweet)
1 qt cream, very heavy
1/2 lb butter, sweet (i.e. unsalted butter, )
1 cocoa powder
Directions
Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler. Do not cook the
chocolate. This should be done SLOWLY over minimum heat.
Boil the cream. Once the chocolate is completely melted and the
cream just boiled, combine in the top of the double boiler. Take off
the top pan from the water, and (off heat) mix until completely
combined. Keep stirring until it is relatively cool. Allow to sit
until it is cool enough to put into a refrigerator.
Refrigerate overnight (NO SHORT CUTS HERE!!!).
The next morning, melt this wonderful mixture again in a double
boiler. When it is completely melted again, mix in the butter until
it is completely absorbed. Whip, either with a hand whisk or a very
slow electric gizmo, until the butter is completely absorbed and the
mixture is cool again. This can take an hour or longer, depending
upon the chocolate, etc. Let cool and refrigerate overnight once more
(this is not as critical as the first cooling; a few hours will be
enough).
Heat once again and whip until cool. Refrigerate until it is thick
enough to pipe through a pastry bag. Using a 1/2 nozzle, make little
balls on a big piece of parchment paper that has cocoa powder spread
on it. Roll in the powder. Keep chilled until just before serving.
Let them return to just above room temperature before eating.
NOTES:
* French-style chocolate confectionery -- For those of you who are
crazy enough about chocolate to go to the extremes that I do, here is
the recipe for the chocolate truffles that I make. The formula is
taken from Paul Bocuse's "French Cooking," but the directions are my
own.
* If you like Grand Marnier or Kahlua or rum or whatever in your
chocolate, the last melting step is the time to add. I think it's a
small but forgivable sin myself.
* I recommend Guittard chocolate. You can buy their semisweet chips
in 12 ounce bags. You can also buy it in 10 pound bars. You can also
buy 10-pound bars of Guittards "French Vanilla Semi bittersweet"
which is so good you might eat all of it before you cook with it.
Guittard makes 5 types of bittersweet if you like you chocolate
really bitter. I use Hershey's Cocoa. Still the best for my taste.
* Use genuine, real-live, honest "heavy cream" and not
ultra-pasteurized whipping cream. Try a wholesale dairy. I only use
Challenge Sweet Butter. Under no circumstances should you use
anything but unsalted butter in this recipe.
: Difficulty: quite difficult (melting the chocolate 3 times requires
tremendous care).
: Time: 3 or 4 hours of preparation during a 3-day period.
: : Precision: measure the ingredients.
:
: Maurice Bizzarri
: Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust
Servings: 5 pounds
Chocolate Truffles (French-Style) Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Candy; Chocolate; Dessert; French
The History of Recipes
Experts have traced the existence of recipes back into the distant past, in truth as far back into history as early Egypt, and possibly even further than that. In practice though, mostly, these old recipes were just basic hieroglyphic recipes for meal preparation.
During the time of the Roman Empire a man called Apicius assembled a number of documents which described recipes enjoyed by wealthy roman citizens. In his scrolls, Apicius describes how the meals of wealthy Romans were separated into hors d`oeuvre, entrees and dessert, a very modern way of dining. Additionally, he recounts how the Roman cooks made use of a good variety of spices and herbs, including some familiar names such as thyme, fennel and parsley. Over the following few hundred years, the powerful families of Wesstern Europe tried to serve the most exotic meals, and as a consequence, cooks and their collection of recipes could command a high salary. Notwithstanding that, it wasn`t until the 1800s that haute cuisine and recipe books became really popular. Mrs Beeton in the UK, and the equally well-known Fannie Farmer in the US, dedicated years of their lives to collecting, testing, and writing down the recipes that were being prepared for the better households. By the arrival of the 20th century, recipe publications were increasing in popularity mostly as a result of more people being able to read, people having more free time and a general increase in wealth. |
We hope you enjoy this Chocolate Truffles (French Style) recipe.
