For many years I have enjoyed making chocolate truffles, and every year I get many requests for the recipes.  This section includes the basic process and two recipes.  If you have any questions you can contact me by email loisap@craftersnotes.com .

Truffles are simple chocolate candies made with cream and chocolate.  The secret to making them is in quality ingredients and techniques.

Chocolate

Chocolate is a mystery!  Chocolate companies take nibs from cocoa plant, roast, press and grind them into a substance called chocolate liquor, unsweetened chocolate or cocoa mass.  Chocolate liquor contains both chocolate and cocoa butter.  Removing the cocoa butter from chocolate liquor leaves cocoa powder.  From combinations of unsweetened chocolate, cocoa butter, cocoa, butter oil, sugar, milk solids and vanilla manufactures make what we think of as eating chocolate.

Unsweetened chocolate - also known as cocoa mass and chocolate liquor.

Bittersweet - contains a minimum of 35% chocolate liquor to be sold in the U.S.  Also contains sugar.

Dark chocolate - does not contain milk but can contain butter oil.  Also contains sugar.

Milk chocolate - contains milk solids. By law it has to contain at least 10% unsweetened chocolate and 12% milk solids.  Also contains sugar.

White chocolate - is not really chocolate because it contains no chocolate liquor.  Good white chocolate will contain cocoa butter.   

Even when the ingredients are listed on the label, chocolate is still a mystery.  Most chocolate has a percentage of cocoa mass marked on it.  This percentage reflects the total amount of cocoa solids and cocoa butter.  So there is no way of knowing the individual percentages, and to make it more confusing cocoa butter can be an additional ingredient.  So the best you can do is to choose chocolate based on your tastes and the percentage of cocoa mass.  When choosing a chocolate for making truffles try and find a milk chocolate with a minimum of 35% cocoa mass, or bittersweet should have at least 50% cocoa mass.