Easier than they seem: chocolate truffles

One of the big mysteries in the cooking world is candy making. And with good reason, for the most part. Candy making involves the chemistry of sugar, one of the most notoriously difficult materials around to work with (I was a biochemist before I changed career focus, as they say). Whenever you read a chapter on candy making in , say "The Joy of Cooking," you're confronted with this list of temperatures and "hard ball stage" and "soft ball stage," "hard crack stage," etc, etc, etc, all calibrated to very precise temperatures. You're advised to get a candy thermometer, plus all this equipment that you can't really go to the corner store and get. Oh, and let's not forget the warnings about the severe burns that you can get from working with hot sugar (they're right. Trust me). And, what always amuses me is that, after you read these warnings, one of the first recipes you get is inevitably something like an "italian meringue," which calls for running the blender, with whipped meringues in it, and slowly adding very hot sugar syrup while whipping at an obscenely high speed. Uh, doesn't that invite spraying around? So, no, for the most part, I'll stay away from candy making. My one big foray into it every year is candying grapefruit peel. This is relatively easy, but a very good exercise in the Zen of patience. After four boils of the peel at ten minutes a boil, you put it into a sugar syrup, which you then have to bring to 230 degrees.

Coming to 212 is very easy and very fast. You can tell when the boiling starts. And you would assume, since you've gone from, oh about 70 degrees to 212 in five minutes, how long can it be until you get to 230?

Get a good book. Maybe not War and Peace, but if there's a twenty page article you've been dying to read in the New Yorker, or you have something like that to do, go and do it. At low heat (so you don't burn the peel), it takes me anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes to get to that temperature. And then you have to let it cool (remember the burn warning?), separate it, cool it, and coat it with more sugar.

Someone was charging 64.00 a pound for the stuff a few years ago. The woman was undercharging. I hope all of you who get my candied peel in your cookie tins love me even more for it.

So given the relationship between something as exotic and expensive as chocolate truffles, and, say marshmallows or lollipops, there is a natural assumption that these truffles are hard work, not approachable by the home cook.

NONSENSE.

Last week, Mark Bittman published a piece on making truffles at home. Now, while I have issues with some of what Mr. Bittman has written, and his television persona completely turns me off, on this one, he is spot on. Making truffles at home could not be easier. And what a reversal from the torture I've put you through for quiche. I'm repeating his recipe, with a few comments.

Here's what you need. A bar of the best quality chocolate you can afford, about 8 ounces. And you also need 7/8 cup of heavy cream. Again, get the best you can.

For me, the operative words are Scharffenberger (for the chocolate), and Ronnybrook, for the cream. I know there are more expensive chocolates than Scharffenberger out there, but I really like this stuff. And Ronnybrook cream is celestial.

Here's where I begin to have problems with Mr. Bittman: "7/8 of a cup of heavy cream? " GIVE ME A BREAK. Could you measure that out exactly? I'll tell you how. Measure a cup of heavy cream, and then remove two tablespoons of the stuff, and you have 7/8 of a cup (two tablespoons is a liquid ounce). But Scharffenberger comes in a 9.7 ounce bar (don't ask). And if you don't have a scale, how do you know how much you have if you have a big chunk? Buy a bar of Scharffenberger and use a cup of heavy cream. Chop up the bar of chocolate, using a serrated knife. I admit I was skeptical when I first read that, but after I tried it, it does work the best. Just watch your hands. It's very easy to slip and do some damage, so work carefully and slowly. And make sure your surfaces are dry. Water is the deadly enemy of chocolate. If you get water in your mix, the chocolate will "seize" ( a good word for it, as you watch it clump and look like, well, turds), and make you feel like a moron. Put the dry chocolate into a big, shallow bowl. Scharffenberger makes a bittersweet and a semisweet chocolate. I really like the bittersweet one, but most people prefer semisweet. I compromise and use half of each.

Now, heat the cup of cream slowly, until you get the little bubbles around the edge, which is called "scalding." Pour the cream over your chocolate and stir, slowly and evenly, until it melts completely.

Now refrigerate it for two hours. And if you have a melon baller, put this in the freezer while the chocolate is solidifying . You'll be glad you did.

After two hours, take out the chocolate, put on a glove to protect your hand from the cold, and take out the melon baller. Start scooping out rough portions of the chocolate, and put them out on a baking sheet with parchment paper, just like you were making cookies. MAKE SURE YOUR HANDS ARE DRY, and then roll the clumps of chocolate into nice, round but not perfect balls.

You can stop here if you like, but what most people will do now is roll those chocolates in cinnamon (YES!), coconut (ok), cocoa (yes), powdered sugar (I'll pass), or colored sugar for holidays (Get thee behind me, red sugar).

And you're done. Stack em in a container, separating layers with pieces of parchment, and refrigerate them.

This is a basic recipe. You can make flavored truffles... by adding flavor to the mix. Here, though, you have to be careful. Many flavorings are water based. Do you remember what I wrote about up on top? Hmmmmm? Well, do you? So here's what you need to do. If it's an extract you want, use an oil, like orange oil, or a liqueur, like amaretto, and add it to the hot cream. Go easy. If it's a flavor like coffee, or cinnamon, what I woudl suggest is that you take the flavoring, like coffee beans, or a cinnamon stick, or something like that (or even an orange peel), and put it in the hot cream and let it steep for about fifteen minutes or longer, until you get a flavor you like.

I can't really tell you how many truffles you'll get from this, because it all depends on how big your scoop is, but I like to make lots of smaller ones. If you're serving these at the end of a meal, people will want to have several, especially if you have different coatings, and if they're too big, they'll bite into them, and not finish. So here "smaller is better," in my view.

These are really rich, but in the spirit of this season of excess , make them.

And, ultimately, think about how little work you have to do here. So let's say "He's" coming over for dinner, or you just want to impress your friends. "would you like a chocolate truffle? I made them myself."

BOY will you feel proud, and will you IMPRESS people. Even me, and I'll know where you learned it. :)