This recipe is based off of the class we did with Aaron at Intrigue Chocolate Co in Seattle
Ingredients
- 1 1/3 cups heavy cream
- ~2 fluffy tbsp fresh ground nutmeg
- ~1 heaping tsp chipotle flakes
- 1 lb bittersweet chocolate
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
Instructions
- Pour the cream into a heavy-bottomed, non-reactive sauce pan
- Add the spices
- Stirring often, bring the cream to a simmer over med-low heat; when it starts to steam, the cream is close. Don’t let the cream scald.
- Remove the pan from the heat and let the spices seep for 15 minutes
- While the spices are steeping, break or chop the chocolate into small pieces. Smaller pieces will melt faster, but leave some larger pieces to encourage good tempering.
- Remove the spices from the cream, squeezing out all of the liquid. A find mesh sieve and a steel spoon are useful for this.
- Return the cream to a simmer over med-low heat, stirring often
- Remove the cream from the heat
- Immediately stir the chocolate pieces into the hot cream
- Stir until blended and smooth, carefully scraping along the sides/bottom
- Pour the chocolate mixture into a square silicon cake pan
- Put the cake pan in freezer for about an hour, or until the ganache is solid (but not frozen)
- Remove the ganache from the cake pan
- Sprinkle cocoa powder over the top and bottom of the ganache sheet
- Cut into rectangles
- Toss the ganache pices in the cocoa powder until they are coated with cocoa powder
The flavor will continue to mature for a week. These should be refridgerated and will keep in the fridge for about a month.
Flavor ideas
- Alder smoked salt and honey bush (relative of rooibos)
- Alder smoked salt and agave
- Fresh mint (8 – 4″ sprigs recommended)
- Something using some of
- black tea
- peppermint
- star anies
- lavender
Tips
- If you are making your own flavor, start by steeping the flavor ingredients in water and tasting it with a piece of chocolate to see if the flavors work well together. Salts and sweeteners can be mixed in after the herbs and spices have steeped.
- When adding a liquid, preserve the total amount of liquid. E.g., when adding 2 tbsp of syrup, remove 2 tbsp of cream. Thick liquids like honey and molasses should be treated as part way between a liquid and solid for preserving volume.
- Add salts and sweeteners that don’t need to be steeped after the cream has been strained.
- It’s generally not worth adding flavored liqueurs. A better flavor will generally be achieved by just adding the base flavor. If you want an alcohol flavor in the truffle, you’ll want to use something stronger, like rum.