Truffles: The Fancy Pants No Bake Dessert

Some oven-free desserts are just a little bit classier than others. Consider rice crispy treats, no bake cookies or even puppy chow. All are tasty but certainly not chichi.

Now what about chocolate truffles? They evoke visions of glass cases, tiny gift boxes and high prices, and they're usually prepared by a chocolatier. But why? It turns out they're easy to make at home and just like rice crispy treats, they're no bake. You can even skip the mess of dipping the truffles in molten chocolate and instead, roll them in cocoa and chopped nuts, like I did. 

I followed the Cooks Illustrated recipe and used Ghirardelli semisweet chocolate (instead of bittersweet) to form these beauties. The author of the recipe set out to develop a smooth, non-grainy truffle with the perfect mouthfeel and she achieved it. A few extra things helped in that endeavor. One was the addition of small quantities of corn syrup and butter and the other had to do with the cooling process (2 hours cooling on the counter before putting the ganache in the fridge.) All in all, pretty minimal effort. One thing I did change was the size of the truffles. I prefer mine slightly larger than directed by the Cooks Illustrated recipe and changing that was not a problem. 

Rustic Rolled Chocolate Truffles

Ingredients

The Ganache

• 2 cups (12 oz) semi-sweet chocolate chips or roughly chopped chocolate
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons light corn syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces and softened

The Coating

• 1 cup (3 oz) Dutch-processed cocoa
• 1/4 cup (1 oz) confectioners' sugar

or

• Diced almonds, macadamia nuts etc. (These should be toasted quickly in the oven first for the best taste)

Directions

1. Lightly spray 8-inch baking dish with oil. 
2. Cut two pieces of parchment paper that are approximately 8 inches wide. They should be laid down in the pan perpendicular to eachother so that excess parchment paper comes up over all four sides of the baking pan. This forms the sling with which the formed ganache will be lifted from the pan after solidifying.
3. Microwave chocolate in medium bowl at 50 percent power for 2-3 minutes. Most chocolate should be melted with a few chips retaining their shape.
4. Next, microwave cream for about 30 seconds. Stir in corn syrup, vanilla and salt. Pour mixture over the chocolate. 
5. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit for 3 minutes.
6. Mix the chocolate and cream mixture by hand with a spoon (will prevent air bubbles from forming and making ganache less smooth)
7. Slowly stir in butter one piece at a time until fully incoorporated.
8. Using a rubber spatula, transfer mix to prepared baking dish. 
9. Allow to sit on counter for 2 hours.
10. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours to overnight.
11. Remove ganache block from baking dish using parchment slings.
12. Cut ganache into 30 pieces (rows of 6 by rows of 5)
13. Combine cocoa and confectioners' sugar, sift through fine mesh strainer twice to remove lumps.
14. Using resulting mixture to dust hands, then form each ganache square into a ball.
15. Roll the balls in cocoa/confectioner's sugar mix or in toasted, diced nuts. 

Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or up to a week. Allow truffles to sit at room temperature for 5-10 minutes before serving.