Terrific Truffle Recipe

This was my grandmother's favorite Christmas treat. My mother made them for her for many years each holiday. When I was in college, I picked up the tradition. My beloved grandmother, who taught me so much, has passed away. She is still with me though in all I create. I now send these truffles all over the country each year to my family. They are the most scrumptious bites of pure chocolate heaven. Please be aware though that fights have been known to break out over the last truffle. Truffles are a wonderful use of chocolate. So simple and pure, yet versatile beyond belief. I will give the basic recipe which makes about 75-100 truffles depending on size. I will also give all the possibilties for variations that I can think of. The recipe can easily be divided or multiplied for your needs. Melt love into the chocolate, have fun, and wash your hands when you lick them!

Terrific Truffles

1 cup heavy whipping cream
24 oz chocolate
2 sticks butter, softened and cut into small bits
8 T. vanilla/liquor

A Note About Choosing Chocolate: Any mixture of chocolates will do. The finer the original chocolate, the better the final product. There are many great chocolates to choose from: Lindt, Callebaut, Ghiradelli, etc. I usually use a mix of Ghiradelli , strong on the bittersweet side. We like darker chocolates in my family. The darker, the drier though I've discovered. If you want all bittersweet, add 1-2 T. more butter.

Okay, let's get started:
1) In medium sized sauce pan, boil whipping cream until reduced to 1/2 cup. This takes some time, keep an eye on it, swirling pan to prevent overboiling. And yes, it feels wrong to boil cream. Trust me this one time, you won't regret it.
2) When reduced, remove from heat.
3) Add chocolate, stirring to melt. Chips are fine, if you cut from a large block, make sure the pieces are small.
4) Add butter. Return to heat if needed to melt everything completely smooth. Use a whisk and stir constantly. You really don't want to burn the chocolate.
5) When all is melted, add vanilla and/or liquor flavors. You can go all vanilla for pure chocolate flavor or you can really mix it up. I will add 1 T. vanilla because it brings out good things in chocolate. But then, you can use any other liquor for the remaining 7 T. to get whatever flavor you desire. My Grandmother's favorite was rum. I prefer coffee liquors. You might love Framboise or Frangelica. This is where you get to be creative.
6) Mix well to combine and refrigerate for at least three hours or overnight.
7) Form into balls as nicely round as possible. It was really easy this year as my house was really cold. In warmer climates, they get pretty melty as you work them. I've iced my hands before or used a pastry tube to pipe them onto trays.
8) Refrigerate until hard again.
9) Time to finish them. You can dip in tempered melted chocolate to creat a nice hard finish. I prefer to roll them in cocoa powder. It adds a great bite. I mixed 1/2 cocoa powder with 1/2 powdered sugar this year. I really liked the contrast in colors.
The truffles are done now. Package them up pretty and send them off with your love. It really is best to get them in the mail right away before you eat them all. Trust me on this one. You can still make a small batch for tomorrow and they go great with champagne on New Year's.
MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT