Recipe: chocolate truffles your way

Few things in life elicit the kind of universally joyful reactions that chocolate does. Whether it’s in cake form, devoured as a bar, savoured as a hot drink or poured as a rich fudge sauce over chocolate ice cream, there’s something at-once comforting and exciting about chocolate.

When it comes to cooking with chocolate, there’s one guiding principle we cling to: the better the chocolate you use, the better the dish you make.

Using couverture chocolate in your homemade confectionary, for example, not only imparts a richer chocolate flavour, but makes the chocolate far easier to work with. Thanks to the higher percentage of cocoa butter, you’ll find even the tricky art of tempering chocolate is made much easier.

Of course, it’s not just about the chocolate itself; the art of cooking with chocolate is also about the delicious things you choose to add to it. This chocolate truffle recipe is endlessly modifiable, so you can create the exact sweet treat you and your friends would most enjoy. Customise your truffles to suit how you most like to enjoy chocolate, or create a plate full of all your favourites and share it with people you love:

• Roll the chocolate ganache in crushed hazelnuts, pistachios or matcha powder.
• Add a more complex chocolate flavour by rolling the truffles in our hand-picked, organic, single-origin cocoa nibs from the Solomon Islands
• Temper milk or white chocolate to create a crisp shell surrounding the soft ganache
• Dust the rolled ganache in good quality dutch-process cocoa powder for a little acidity and a big extra chocolate hit
• Love chocolate orange? Add a few drops of orange oil to the ganache mix for that incredible, nostalgic flavour combination. Mint oil is a great addition too!
• Make things a little more adult by adding a splash of rum, bourbon or peated whisky to the ganache
• Ginger and chocolate are great together. Shape ganache around a piece of glacé ginger before rolling in natural cocoa powder or melted chocolate.

For the finest quality couverture chocolate produced locally and around the world, as well as cocoa powder, cocoa nibs and all the other chocolatey must-haves, visit your nearest The Essential Ingredient store, or buy online for delivery to anywhere in Australia.