Truffle making? (ingredients, wedding, steam, recipe)

[rrah]

Not sure if this should be here or recipes. I decided here because it's more a technique thing I think. Mods feel free to move it.

I've successfully made dark chocolate truffles in the past. I made about 600 or so for our daughter's wedding that turned out beautifully.

I decided to make several types of truffles for Christmas. One recipe has Nutella in it. One makes the chocolate ganache first and then folds/stirs in the Nutella. The ganache was smooth and shiny like it should be. Once I started stirring in the Nutella it started to look grainy. No amount of stirring could make it smooth. It tastes great, but I would like for it to look great too.

I don't know if that's the way truffles look when one adds an additional ingredient, it wasn't a good recipe, or the ganache started to separate. Any ideas? Any ways to fix it? I wore my arms out stirring the stuff.

[Medtran49]

Did it get too hot, or maybe water from steam got into it?

[charlygal]

Sounds like your chocolate seized. Do a Google search on how to prevent/fix seized chocolate.

[rrah]

I've decided this was a poorly thought out recipe. The ratios of ingredients seems off. My fault for not thinking it through better. The chocolate didn't seize until the room temp Nutella was added. I did try to fix it, but it still looked a bit grainy. Rolling them out this morning. It looks okay, plus they are covered in nuts so....

The recipe also said it only made 16 truffles. Way off.....at least double that amount. It's a bit of a pain because I'm giving them for gifts and this just adds to my work.

Husband says they taste great though.

Thanks both of you for the suggestions. I'm going to have to do some more research on adding ingredients to truffles. I plan on making some salted caramel that uses caramel sauce.

[Coney]

Can I scrape your bowls? If you have too many, I can give you my address.
Really, it all sounds delicious.

[historyfan]

I always have a steaming kettle of water on stand by when I make chocolates & divinity. Even though a drop of water seizes chocolate, a small amount of hot water unseizes chocolate.
Next time try incorpoating a spoonful of the hot chocolate sauce into the cooler nutella. Then stir the now warmer nutella mix into hot sauce.

Also a humid kitchen can cause problems with chocolate making, so I avoid doing it on a rainy day.

[rrah]

Coney--you can have the bowls

Historyfan--Thank you! Not sure I'll use this exact recipe again, but you've confirmed my thinking that the nutella should have been warmer rather than room temperature. I'm going to try this with the salted caramel truffles later this week.

[historyfan]

Originally Posted by rrah

Coney--you can have the bowls

Historyfan--Thank you! Not sure I'll use this exact recipe again, but you've confirmed my thinking that the nutella should have been warmer rather than room temperature. I'm going to try this with the salted caramel truffles later this week.

Salted caramel truffles sound truly wonderful.

[Chint]

Originally Posted by rrah

Not sure if this should be here or recipes. I decided here because it's more a technique thing I think. Mods feel free to move it.

I've successfully made dark chocolate truffles in the past. I made about 600 or so for our daughter's wedding that turned out beautifully.

I decided to make several types of truffles for Christmas. One recipe has Nutella in it. One makes the chocolate ganache first and then folds/stirs in the Nutella. The ganache was smooth and shiny like it should be. Once I started stirring in the Nutella it started to look grainy. No amount of stirring could make it smooth. It tastes great, but I would like for it to look great too.

I don't know if that's the way truffles look when one adds an additional ingredient, it wasn't a good recipe, or the ganache started to separate. Any ideas? Any ways to fix it? I wore my arms out stirring the stuff.

Make the nutella truffles as you have done - but a bit smaller than the final truffle size you want. When they are set just dip them in a fresh batch of normal ganache and Bob's yer uncle.