I prepared the ganache and let it sit for about 90 minutes before scooping the truffles. Once the chocolate had crystallized a little more, I refined the shape into spheres. While they chilled in the fridge, I turned to tempering the chocolate for the hand-rolled shell. This is when panic set in.
I knew I'd need to coat all 50+ truffles twice. I also knew that the more chocolate you temper, the longer your working time is. I figured I'd need about 400-500g to accomplish the task. I had 350g. There was a good chance that I could make it work if I had to, but it meant that there was no room for error. If the chocolate wasn't perfectly tempered, I wouldn't have any chocolate remaining to fix it by seeding. I started contemplating workarounds and concluded that I could always add milk chocolate to the dark if necessary. It wouldn't be ideal, but it was an option in the worst case scenario. I took a deep breath and told myself to be patient.
And so I started. Heating and stirring, heating and stirring. When I thought I had the chocolate at the right temperature, I tested it with parchment paper. While waiting for the results, I continued stirring the chocolate. Uncertain if the first test was going to successfully set, I tested the chocolate a second time to confirm it was indeed in temper. It was was ready for coating.
Armed with a pair of latex gloves, I put a small amount of chocolate on my fingers and rolled each truffle by hand. In the past, I've gotten impatient or tired going through this process, so I kept telling myself to keep it a small amount of chocolate and do 3 truffles before adding more chocolate. After the first coat was done, I repeated the process, this time doing 2 truffles at a time. As I progressed, my upper back started to hurt and I slowed down. By the time I was coating the last five truffles, the chocolate remaining in my bowl was rapidly solidifying. I was out of time.
While I managed to finish the fourth piece for this year's assortment, I still had a few more seasonal chocolate projects to complete. I had run out of chocolate -- not milk or white, but dark -- and on the day after all of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales ended. Of all the luck! I checked each supplier I could think of. All of them had raised their prices again and their offers of free shipping were just a memory. Not only would the price be exorbitant, but it would take at least a week or more to receive the shipment.
As a final Hail Mary, I checked Costco. When I looked at their site last week, they only had milk chocolate callets available. Much to my surprise, the 811 formulation was suddenly available. I added it to my cart and checked the shipping estimate. It would arrive within a few days. Naturally, I checked out as quickly as possible.
So production at the chocolate factory was temporarily paused. The weather on Thursday and Friday delayed the delivery, but UPS came through and a 5lb box of chocolate appeared on my front step on Saturday.
Costco has saved Christmas!
