Homemade Chocolate Truffles: Are They Really Better Than Store-Bought?
Do you love satisfying your sweet tooth with some of the most delicious candy you can imagine?
Of course! Who doesn’t?
When you have a craving for something chocolaty and decadent, you might be tempted to reach for a candy bar or some other quick fix. But did you know that there’s a much better way to indulge your taste buds on chocolate?
It’s the chocolate truffle!
Chances are, you’ve probably had a chocolate truffle before. These are pretty common sweets served at parties or given as gifts, especially during the holiday season. However, if you’ve only had truffles that are store-bought, you’re really missing out!
Homemade chocolate truffles are a great solution for anyone looking for a little touch of something more special in their snacks. Although there’s definitely nothing wrong with a store-bought truffle, there’s just something a little more substantial about biting into a gooey, smooth, delicious truffle that was made from scratch.
But what if store-bought is all you’re interested in? This article is here to show you what a difference you can experience when you try making truffles for yourself. In the beginning of the article, I’ll tell you what makes a truffle homemade versus store-bought, and what you can expect out of your homemade chocolate truffle.
Later on, I’ll show you how to make homemade chocolate truffles from start to finish, so even if you’ve never tried to make sweets before, you’ll be able to pull it off with no problem. Finally, I’ll give you three of my favorite recipes for milk, white, and dark chocolate truffles to help you get started.
By the time you get through this article, you’ll be ready to chow down on some incredible truffles you’ve made yourself! So what are you waiting for? Let’s get started exploring the difference between homemade and store-bought chocolate truffles.
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What Are Homemade Chocolate Truffles?
In order to understand what makes chocolate truffles homemade you first need to know what makes a truffle, to begin with! A chocolate truffle is a sweet treat that consists of a center coated in some type of chocolate. This is a very loose translation of what makes a truffle a truffle, but it’s a good place to get started!
Chocolate truffles are traditionally made with ganache centers, which means that they’re filled with a smooth, rich chocolate. The outside is sometimes just more of the same type of ganache, coated simply in powdered cocoa or confectioner’s sugar. When a truffle is soft, creamy, and only coated in a powder or nuts, this is known as a French truffle.
On the other hand, the outside of a truffle is sometimes instead made from a hard candy shell. This can be achieved by melting chocolate chips or using melting baking chocolate, depending on what the recipe calls for. In most cases, this type of truffle is known as an American truffle, and it’s probably what you think of when you imagine these candies. American truffles may have smooth ganache centers, or they might be filled with something more liquid instead.
There are other kinds of chocolate truffle that might show up in recipes. These include Swiss truffles, which are made by pouring the chocolate into molds to set up in perfect shapes before they’re topped with cocoa powder; Belgian truffles, which are usually filled with nut-flavored paste or buttercream for a completely different flavor profile; and other specialty truffles, like vegan or paleo recipes.
Homemade chocolate truffles can be one of these types of truffle or something completely different altogether. There are tons of different varieties, and the best part of creating a chocolate truffle from scratch at home is that you can control what you make and how you put it together. You choose the ingredients, the flavor, and everything you want to include or omit in your truffle. If you’ve got special dietary restrictions, you can even take care of those without worry when you make a truffle at home. As you can see, a homemade chocolate truffle gives you a lot more room for creativity and for flavor options than buying in the store does.
In later sections, I’ll discuss the differences between having a homemade truffle and a store-bought one, as well as the pros and cons for both. For now, it’s time to learn what, exactly, makes a truffle store-bought!
What Are Store-Bought Chocolate Truffles?
The opposite of a homemade chocolate truffle is a store-bought one. These truffles are generally sold in packages of a few to a dozen at a time, and they can cost quite a lot of money, depending on the brand you choose to go with. They’re usually sold in specialty chocolate stores, although some more well-known brands can be found in just about any type of market or grocery store. Store-bought chocolate truffles get very popular around the holidays, and in particular, around Valentine’s Day! You’re much more likely to see them gracing the shelves of your local stores when the gift-giving season rolls around.
A lot of people like to buy store-bought chocolate truffles because they’re easy. It’s true that making a homemade chocolate truffle can take a lot of time and effort, but buying a store-bought version is much simpler and quicker, too. Especially if you’re in a hurry to find some good quality chocolate to serve at a party or give to someone for a special occasion, you’re probably inclined to pick up a box of truffles and hope for the best. However, in the long run, you might not be doing yourself or the recipient of your gift any favors by choosing store-bought over making your own truffles at home.
One of the most notable qualities of a store-bought truffle is its taste. While high-quality chocolate truffle brands do provide very good truffle selections, there’s just no way to mimic the flavor of a freshly-made truffle from scratch. Store-bought truffles are unfortunately often made with chemical ingredients which help to lengthen their shelf life and give them a nicer overall appearance. While these benefits may help you in some way, they aren’t always great. Ingesting a lot of chemical ingredients like this may not be good for you or anyone else in your family!
Of course, it’s easy to see why people like to buy store-bought truffles, especially when they’re backed by a well-known and trusted brand name. Most brands provide a lot of different flavors to choose from, and some even offer a selection of French and American truffles, with Belgian and Swiss options thrown into the mix every now and then, too. There’s nothing really wrong with buying truffles from a store, but you’re missing out on a lot of opportunities to create something on your own and enjoy the flavor and texture of a fresh truffle from scratch when you do that!
Popular Store-Bought Truffle Brands
It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with some of the best-known store-bought truffle brands before you look into how to make homemade products that taste even better. Although it’s easy to learn how to make truffles, there’s no harm in taste testing every now and then to be sure you’re keeping to the right type of consistency of texture in your recipes! If you plan to buy store-bought truffles, these brands are the ones you’re most likely to encounter.
- Lindt – If you’ve ever looked for a store-bought chocolate truffle in your local grocery store, you’ve probably come across Lindt chocolates. This company produces the well-known Lindor chocolate truffle, which is known for being one of the most popular Swiss style mass-produced truffles in the world. Although the chocolates are definitely Swiss by definition, they still compare pretty closely to American truffles. If you’re looking for something more like a French truffle, this isn’t the place to find it. However, if you’re in search of a variety of different flavors to pick from in your chocolate truffle, this company can help you out. Choose from milk, white, or dark chocolate truffles with tons of different fillings.
- Godiva – This is probably the most well-known chocolate truffle brand in existence. If you’ve ever gone looking for quality store-bought chocolate, you’ve probably encountered Godiva. This brand has been supplying customers with elegant chocolate truffles for years, and they are still going strong! Godiva offers a huge selection of both American and French style truffles, with an emphasis on American ones. You can choose from tons of different flavors and toppings here, and pick and choose what you’d like when it comes to sampler boxes in some cases, too. Godiva chocolate truffles are quite expensive, but if you buy online, you might be able to take part in one of the many sales that go on throughout the year.
- Booja Booja – Unlike the other two brands listed here, you might never have heard of Booja Booja before. However, if you’ve ever gone shopping for chocolate truffles online, you’re much more likely to have run into this brand name floating around out there. Although Booja Booja isn’t sold in a lot of stores, it can sometimes be found in specialty shops and more upscale and eclectic grocery stores like Whole Foods. Booja Booja specializes in champagne chocolate truffles, which are made with real champagne as one of the ingredients. You can purchase small sampler boxes of many of their different flavors, or go with a larger set of your favorite selection.
What’s the Difference?
As you can see, homemade chocolate truffles and their store-bought counterparts are pretty different! However, they do have a little bit in common, too. Before you can decide which one is best for you, you’ll need to think about the similarities and differences between the two different types of truffles. Only then can you really tell what makes homemade chocolate truffles stand out in almost every situation!
Similarities
- Both homemade and store-bought chocolate truffles can easily be put together or found in a variety of different styles. Whether you prefer American or French truffles, you can find a delicious recipe in almost no time to help you make these types. On the other hand, both are fairly equally easy to find in stores, as well.
- Unless you search specifically for low-calorie or vegan truffle recipes, most homemade truffles have the same caloric and fat content as those you find in stores. They’re not exactly healthy snacks, but making them yourself at home doesn’t change that unless you find health-conscious recipes.
- Although it might be hard to hunt down chocolate truffles in stores, it’s also time-consuming to make them at home. In this way, both types of truffle take some effort to achieve, although in different ways.
Differences
- Homemade chocolate truffles do not contain chemical preservatives and other types of unnatural ingredients. Store-bought chocolate truffles, on the other hand, are likely to have chemicals included, in order to help keep them fresher longer and make them look more visually appealing.
- Homemade chocolate truffles are easier to be creative with. Although there are tons of different flavors of store-bought truffles available, what happens when you’re looking for a combination you just can’t find anywhere? This is when it makes a lot more sense to just make the truffles yourself!
- While it might cost quite a bit to stock up on quality chocolate to make truffles at home, buying store-bought truffles can be even more expensive. Because of this, it’s actually still very economical to make truffles yourself, rather than to pay the upcharge for having a company make and package them for you.
- When you try a freshly made homemade chocolate truffle, you’ll see just how smooth and creamy it can really be! When you buy a box of truffles in a store, it’s unfortunately pretty difficult to figure out how long they’ve been sitting there. Although they might still taste good, the texture is never going to be quite like it is right when the truffles are finished.
- It can be a lot more fun and worthwhile to make truffles than to just go out and buy them! Sometimes, it’s nice to have a little bit of bragging rights, especially if you’re serving your chocolates to guests or giving them as gifts. In these situations, having an item you made yourself can really go a long way.
How to Make Truffles from Start to Finish
Now it’s time to learn how to make homemade chocolate truffles easy! With this guide, you’ll be able to put together a delicious batch of chocolate truffles in almost no time. This outline is designed to show you how to make chocolate truffles the French way, and then the American way, so you can choose between the two. It’s written with milk chocolate truffles in mind, but you can alter the ingredients to create the type of truffle you want. If you don’t see what you’re looking for in this guide, read through it to understand the process, and then check out one of the three recipes listed below for different options!
1. All chocolate truffle recipes have three stages: the ganache/filling, the setting up, and the dipping/coating. It’s easy to break each recipe down into these steps.
2. For the ganache or filling step, you’ll put together your specific, flavored filling. In many recipes, this requires heating heavy cream to just before boiling, then pouring it over your chunks of high-quality chocolate in a heat-proof bowl to melt them.
3. After that, you will add in the ingredients you want to flavor your chocolate. At this point, you can add butter or coconut oil to make it smoother and more rich, or you can add flavored extracts, liqueurs, or even chopped nuts or other ingredients to bring your truffles together.
4. From here, you’ll move on to the setting up stage. Depending on the recipe, the ingredients you’re working with, and the type of truffle you’re making, you’ll either let your filling set up at room temperature, in the refrigerator, or in the freezer. Most of the time, you’ll want to put it in a bowl and cover it for this step.
5. Setting up can take anywhere from an hour to overnight!
6. Finally, you’ll be ready for the dipping/coating stage. First, you’ll need to scoop out your truffle filling and roll it into balls. This can be done by hand, with an ice cream scoop, or with a melon baller. It all depends on the size of the truffle you want to make.
7. Some recipes will tell you to chill your truffles again for a bit after handling the filling. Others will move right on to dipping.
8. You can melt your dipping chocolate either in the microwave or by using a double boiler. To set up a double boiler, you’ll need to position a heat-proof bowl over a small saucepan, leaving at least a couple of inches between the bottom of the bowl and the bottom of the pan. Fill the pan with an inch of water and simmer it over low heat. You can melt the chocolate slowly and carefully in the bowl on top of the simmering water.
9. Once the chocolate has melted, dip your truffles using a fork. By picking them up out of the melted chocolate with a fork, you’re better able to tap the side of the bowl and remove the excess chocolate from the truffle.
10. Place the truffles on a baking sheet lined with wax paper to chill and let the candy coating set up.
11. If you’re making French truffles, you won’t need to melt anything. All you’ll have to do is roll out your chilled truffles and then roll them in either cocoa powder, confectioner’s sugar, chopped nuts, or whatever topping you choose to use. Then, serve them at room temperature.
1. Milk Chocolate Truffles
This recipe for homemade milk chocolate truffles is a great place to get started when you’re learning how to make truffles from scratch. Milk chocolate is a great flavor that most people really enjoy, so this recipe can give you an excellent frame of reference to help you better understand how to make truffles, and how many different ways you can experiment with yours to make them exactly what you want.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 4 hours
Difficulty: 2
source: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/milk-chocolate-espresso-truffles-103024
Ingredients
- ½ cup heavy whipping cream
- 1 pound chopped high-quality baking milk chocolate
- 2 tbsp Kahlua (optional)
- 2 tsp instant coffee powder or espresso powder
- 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Instructions
1. Set up a double boiler on your stovetop. Refer to the previous section on how to do this.
2. Stir chocolate slowly in the double boiler until it melts.
3. Add heavy cream and coffee powder and stir again, slowly, to combine well.
4. Remove from heat.
5. Whisk in Kahlua if using.
6. Let stand 15 minutes at room temperature, then cover and chill for 2 hours in the freezer.
7. Place cocoa powder on a large plate.
8. Scoop out truffles from the mixture by hand or using a melon baller to form 1-inch balls.
9. Roll in cocoa powder to coat thoroughly.
10. Place on a lined baking sheet and cover loosely with tin foil.
11. Chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
12. Serve.
2. White Chocolate Truffles
If you’re looking for something a little bit different from the classic milk chocolate variety, try this recipe for homemade white chocolate truffles instead. This is a great option if you’re looking for a gift to give for the holidays, or if you’re hoping for a truffle you can decorate. With a few drops of food coloring added to the chocolate or the filling, you can create white chocolate truffles in just about any color!
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hours
Difficulty: 4
source: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/white-truffles-recipe.html
Ingredients
- 14oz high-quality white baking chocolate chopped finely
- 2 tbsp heavy whipping cream
- ½ tsp high-quality vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp Irish cream liqueur, optional
- ½ cup hazelnuts, chopped
Instructions
1. Set up a double boiler. Refer to the section on how to make homemade chocolate truffles for directions on how to do this.
2. Place cream in the bowl in the double boiler and cook until just simmering.
3. Add half of the white chocolate pieces and whisk in slowly until melted fully.
4. Add liqueur, if using, and vanilla extract and whisk to combine slowly.
5. Remove from heat.
6. Cover and chill in the freezer for 1 hour.
7. Scoop mixture into balls by hand or using an ice cream scoop. Place on a lined baking sheet.
8. Chill in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.
9. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and place chopped hazelnuts on a sheet pan.
10. Roast for 8 minutes, then let cool to room temperature.
11. Using a double boiler once again, melt remaining white chocolate.
12. Dip truffles in white chocolate to coat and place on a lined baking sheet to set up at room temperature for a few minutes.
13. Roll in chopped roasted hazelnuts.
14. Chill, then serve.
3. Dark Chocolate Truffles
Anyone who likes a little bit more of a bittersweet flavor in their chocolate should love this homemade dark chocolate truffles recipe. It combines the best of sweet truffles with all the flavor and richness of darker chocolate to create something truly delicious. If you want to know what kind of homemade chocolate truffles Nigella recommends, this recipe comes straight from that site. Best of all, it’s a simple recipe that pairs well with just about any type of truffle topping you’re interested in using. Change the recipe a bit and try it with nuts, coconut, cocoa powder, or something else entirely!
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 3 hours
Difficulty: 2
source: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/dark-chocolate-truffles-recipe.html#lightbox-recipe-image
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp Irish cream liqueur (optional)
- 2 tbsp butter, softened to room temperature
- 7oz high-quality 70% or higher dark chocolate, chopped
- 3 tbsp heavy whipping cream
- 1/3 cup cocoa powder
Instructions
1. Place cream and sugar in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.
2. Stir together and bring to just before boiling, then remove from heat.
3. Add butter, chocolate, and liqueur (if using) to cream mixture, and stir gently and slowly until completely melted.
4. Place, covered, in refrigerator and chill for at least 3 hours.
5. Remove and roll into 1-inch balls by hand.
6. Place cocoa powder on a large plate and roll truffles in powder one at a time.
7. Place on a lined baking sheet and return to refrigerator for 1 hour.
8. Serve.
Tips and Tricks for Making Better Homemade Truffles
When you follow the recipes listed above, you’ll be able to put together some really amazing truffles! However, if you’re looking for a few tips to help you make your truffles even better than ever before, check out this list.
- Choosing chocolate can be complicated! Pick a chocolate that’s at least 50% cocoa and designed to be used in baking. High-quality baking chocolate has an excellent flavor and won’t add any unnecessary extra sugars or other unwanted ingredients to your truffles.
- If a recipe specifically calls for chocolate chips or CandiQuick, you can substitute for baking chocolate if you choose.
- Adding something like butter or coconut oil to your coating chocolate can help it stick better to your truffles, and make it look shinier, too.
- It’s never a requirement to temper chocolate when making truffles at home. Tempering is a complicated process that’s very hard to do if you’re not a professional, or at least very experienced! If a recipe says to temper chocolate, you usually do not have to. This mostly affects the way the truffle looks in the end.
- If you want to make molded truffles, use silicone candy or ice molds to help get the shapes you want. These are easy to use and even easier to clean since they can go right into the dishwasher!
Homemade Chocolate Truffles Pros & Cons
Are you convinced yet? If you still need a little bit more to bring you over to the side of homemade truffles, here is a list of the pros and cons of making truffles in your own kitchen.
Pros
Cons
- You can control every aspect of homemade truffle making, from the ingredients to the number of truffles you make and everything in-between.
- You can enjoy the taste and texture of a freshly-made truffle right after you finish preparing it.
- Homemade truffles make even better gifts than store-bought ones.
- It’s cheaper to make truffles at home than it is to buy them in stores.
- It’s easy to find a recipe for just about any kind of truffle you can imagine when you search online.
- It’s easier to find store-bought truffles than it is to make truffles yourself.
- Sometimes, very complicated truffle recipes can be difficult to complete, especially if you’ve never made sweets before.
- Making truffles is a messy and time-consuming project that requires a pretty good amount of kitchen space.
Conclusion
So, have you made the final decision on whether or not homemade is really better than store-bought? From all this information, you are probably ready to go out and grab the ingredients you need to start making homemade truffles right away! It’s easy to see that homemade really does make a big difference, especially when it comes to making chocolate truffles. Although store-bought can give you a lot of options, and might be able to keep a little bit longer, that’s more or less where the benefits of buying truffles from the store end.
When you make truffles yourself at home, you’re in control of how many to make, what you put in them, and what kind of flavor you accomplish. You’re also able to play around with existing recipes to make something entirely new and original just for yourself and your family. Homemade chocolate truffles can make great gifts because you’ve put a lot of time and effort into creating them. They’re more than just something you went out and bought at the local market!
So the next time you’re looking for a solution for your sweet tooth, consider making truffles yourself. Although the recipes might sound a little bit complicated, it doesn’t take long to learn about truffle making and practice it in your own kitchen. The more truffles you make, the better you’ll get at mixing, dipping, and rolling, and soon you’ll have some incredible batches of truffles to show for all your effort!
Attribution: flickr photo by Better Than Bacon https://flickr.com/photos/slurm/5494186213 shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
Attribution: flickr photo by Cooking Gluten Free https://flickr.com/photos/cookingglutenfree/5322386094 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-SA) license
Attribution: flickr photo by punkin3.14 https://flickr.com/photos/gwendy/7139598495 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-SA) license
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