Take your pound of chocolate. Cut it up into equal sized, small, meltable chunks.



If you don't have a food processor, this is probably the hardest step in the whole truffle process, just because it's tedious. If you have a food processor, chop yourself some chocolate and rejoice. Put your chopped chocolate into a heat-proof bowl with extra room for stirring. I'm separating mine into several bowls because I'm making several flavors. I actually put one half-pound of chocolate in each bowl, and used one half-cup of cream for each batch.



Once your chocolate is chopped, put your cream in your thick bottomed sauce pan. Depending on the flavoring you're adding, you might want to add it now. Any flavor that is herb or spice-based, or that you will want to strain out before adding the chocolate, put it in the cream before you turn on the heat. For the cinnamon sticks, orange zest, and cayenne of the Aztec truffle, start the flavorings off in the cream.



Over a low heat, and stirring when you feel like it, scald the cream by bringing it to a boil. (Don't stop too early, or your chocolate won't melt into quite such a fine ganache.) Turn off the flame. If you need to strain your cream (because, say, there are cinnamon sticks floating in it), strain it into a cup you can pour from easily.


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Take your pound of chocolate. Cut it up into equal sized, small, meltable chunks.



If you don't have a food processor, this is probably the hardest step in the whole truffle process, just because it's tedious. If you have a food processor, chop yourself some chocolate and rejoice. Put your chopped chocolate into a heat-proof bowl with extra room for stirring. I'm separating mine into several bowls because I'm making several flavors. I actually put one half-pound of chocolate in each bowl, and used one half-cup of cream for each batch.



Once your chocolate is chopped, put your cream in your thick bottomed sauce pan. Depending on the flavoring you're adding, you might want to add it now. Any flavor that is herb or spice-based, or that you will want to strain out before adding the chocolate, put it in the cream before you turn on the heat. For the cinnamon sticks, orange zest, and cayenne of the Aztec truffle, start the flavorings off in the cream.



Over a low heat, and stirring when you feel like it, scald the cream by bringing it to a boil. (Don't stop too early, or your chocolate won't melt into quite such a fine ganache.) Turn off the flame. If you need to strain your cream (because, say, there are cinnamon sticks floating in it), strain it into a cup you can pour from easily.


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Lucky me, I've still got truffles on the counter


Any questions for the ganache step? This is the heart of a truffle, literally, so if you have any questions here let's pick each others' brains!

Has anyone done this before and run into trouble?

Trivia: Small flies pollinate the cacao tree's flowers, but cacao trees are vulnerable to insect pests such as miridis and capsids, as well as boring type insects. Fungi, viruses, animal pests such as woodpeckers, and botanical pests such as mistletoe can pose difficulties for growers as well.
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Lucky me, I've still got truffles on the counter


Any questions for the ganache step? This is the heart of a truffle, literally, so if you have any questions here let's pick each others' brains!

Has anyone done this before and run into trouble?

Trivia: Small flies pollinate the cacao tree's flowers, but cacao trees are vulnerable to insect pests such as miridis and capsids, as well as boring type insects. Fungi, viruses, animal pests such as woodpeckers, and botanical pests such as mistletoe can pose difficulties for growers as well.
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Is there anyone here who doesn't consider themself to be a very good cook?

Do you think you can handle that anyway? Anything else that could be a source of questions later?

Trivia: The cacao tree's genome sequencing was completed in 2010, so improvements may be able to be made to future plantations of trees.
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