What the Heck is a Truffle Anyway?

If you've been following my journey in the Professional Chocolatier program, then you realize by now that there are specific guidelines that have to be met for each assignment. Having completed a caramel, I was on to my next adventure: a truffle (not a ganache made with cream).

Now, I had understood to this point that a truffle was by definition made with ganache and that the definition of ganache was a combination of hot cream and chocolate. So, what exactly was I being asked to make? Confused, I spent a lot of time researching truffles. Most sources stated it was ganache formed into a ball or cone shape and coated in something (chocolate, nuts, cocoa powder). Were the instructions saying that ganache was off limits? Or was it only cream-based ganache that was off limits? And on the school's website I found a recipe for a ganache truffle that was a flat rectangle. So does truffle refer to the centre or the shape or some mystery still to be revealed? Maybe I was over-thinking this, but it seemed like an oxymoron (creamless ganache, ganacheless truffle). Reviewing the assignment again, I saw that the example was a butter truffle, so I began searching for truffle recipes without cream (God bless boolean operators) and found recipes for "water ganache" and wine and butter based truffles. I also found recipes for "pot truffles," but decided that probably wasn't what they intended with this assignment. Eventually, I decided to make a wine-based truffle.

Lucky for me, I had some Newman's port wine left in my cupboard. I prepared the ganache (without cream) and slabbed it, then let it crystallize for 24 hours. Once it was ready for enrobing, I cut it into 1" squares, dipped them in dark chocolate, and decorated them according to the assignment requirements -- a piped decoration made with a contrasting chocolate that had been tinted using candy colours. I chose to combine candy red and sky blue to produce a sort of winey pink colour.

I realized through this process that 1" squares are a little too big when enrobed, not that anyone would really quibble about having too much chocolate, I suppose. Nevertheless, I was really happy with the flavour of the port wine and dark chocolate together. And they looked good too. I do need to practice my enrobing technique more, though. I guess that just means more truffles and bonbons in the future? Or maybe just bonbons. Afterall, I'm still not sure what the heck a truffle is.