Loafer's Magazine: Janice Rideout

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Friends of the Loaf

Making Truffles

Janice Rideout

Last year for Christmas I decided to make truffles for all of my family and friends. The decision to make my Christmas gifts has come out of a true love of cooking. At home, I have run out of meals to prepare. Three squares weren’t enough to satisfy my cooking ideas, so I branched into homemade Christmas gifts. In the past, I have made different quick breads: banana, pumpkin, and almond-poppy to give away as simple presents. One of the gifts that went over really well was my homemade vanilla. I got the idea off of the internet. It seems as though everyone needs vanilla. I had also taken a cooking class in which I learned how to make toffee. I paired the two together for a gift that year. One year I learned how to can my own jams. Having all of those jeweled jars in the basement made me want to share. My friend, Heidi, and I got together to make fruit syrup. We mixed up a huge batch of multi-grain waffle mix. To top off our breakfast themed gift, we tied up spices into mulling sachets. So as you can see, I have been steadily adding to my gift attempts.

This year I wanted to do something really special. Is there any thing more special than chocolate? I was introduced to candy making, specifically truffles, through my cooking adventures at the Kitchen Window Cooking School. I took a class from Robin Asbell, guest chef extraordinaire, in which we made peanut butter milk chocolate truffles. This was where my gift idea was born – eating that truffle. I also discovered that the Kitchen Window rents a chocolate tempering machine. Tempering chocolate requires heating the chocolate to eliminate all solid crystals and then slowly introducing correct chocolate crystals at the right temperature. So if I wanted glossy chocolates that would snap in your mouth, I would need the machine. However, this machine was one I have had to clean before. It was not easy to remove chocolate from the machine because chocolate coats everything like blood. So in February I put my name in for the Sinsation Chocolate Tempering machine. The stage was set.

Truffles are a velvety concoction of chocolate, cream, and butter surrounded by more chocolate. Or, any chocolate whimsy. It was important that I consider the taste, variety, and colors that would result in the truffle assortment. Recipe hunting started. I decided to make five or six different types. I have this tendency to plan on more than I can accomplish. There needed to be a nice variety, visually and esthetically, but not an impossible amount. The peanut butter-milk was already decided on. Since I love dark chocolate, a dark chocolate candy was an absolute must. In Robin’s class, we had a mint truffle: I thought the recipe could be adapted to coconut. Ideas were swirling. Peter decided to join me in my confectionery. From a number of recipes, he picked the dark chocolate with orange.

Over that fall, I spent time collecting high quality chocolate. Kitchen Window was the place for high quality white chocolate, only composed of cocoa butter, sugar and vanilla. Score at Whole Foods – I found "dark" milk chocolate on sale (the El Rey brand, which also makes a wonderful eating chocolate in big chunks harvested from the bar). I bought my favorite dark chocolate, Scharfen-Berger semi-sweet which has a wonderful cherry overtone. I stocked up on additional items to dip in any excess chocolate. Recently, I made Mexican brownie, and from this idea, I thought it would be nice to coat almonds in dark chocolate and then roll them in cocoa and cinnamon. Bill’s Greek Grocery had this sublime large flake coconut to top the coconut truffle. Winey dried cherries and plump dried apricots rounded out the dipping items. All of the ingredients were gathered, although it was difficult not to eat the tart cherries.

Next I thought the beautiful chocolates would require beautiful packaging. After some searching, Peter and I took a jaunt to a specialty store called "Sweet Celebrations". The store was located in an ugly strip mall off of the highway. It was filled with so many products I had never seen before; from multi-hued food colorings to strangely shaped baking tools. I was overwhelmed by the feminine overtone and the crafty products. But we were there only to pick out boxes. The sales lady was very helpful and we gathered different size boxes, box liners, and coconut flavor.

Since truffles are perishable delicacies the window for producing, packing, and giving would have to be small. The date was set to begin production. We chose the first weekend in December to do the chocolate work. As many of you know, my aunt Kay passed away and the funeral was that weekend. I called to postpone the reservation on the Sinsation until Tuesday. However, Peter came back from the funeral with the stomach flu. Postponed again (wouldn’t want my candies to be tiny flu vectors). Finally the next week we were set, time to get covered in chocolate. The machine was rented, recipes were gathered, fillings were mixed, and boxes were folded.

I spent a few hours scooping and shaping the fillings. It requires a special skill to roll the little centers without them melting everywhere. Coconut gave me some difficulty because the embedded flakes caused the filling to crack instead of scoop. It had to be remelted, and poured into a pan, then cut into squares. Once the many little creamy centers ready to go, it was time for pure chocolate. Turns out the Sinsation Chocolate Tempering machine is remarkable easy to use. It has big buttons on the front the colors of different chocolates. Tempered chocolate at the press of a button. Peter and I had true fun popping the centers into the chocolate, swirling them around to coat them, and fishing them out. The coated piece is then set on parchment paper to solidify. For the coconut truffle, once the filling was dipped a toasted flake was placed on top. The almonds were enrobed with the chocolate and then covered with a cocoa-cinnamon mixture. Peter had the great idea to drizzle the dark chocolate pieces with milk chocolate stripes. Our neighbors happened to stop by precisely when we were making the almonds. They surprised us with the news that they are adopting a little girl from Haiti. We talked at length about their plans while they helped us create our confections.

Slowly our candy amassed. To keep the cats off of the chocolates, we placed it all in the back room to solidify. That room smelled like a candy store. Not exactly what you want to smell at six in the morning. That week I packed each box with an assortment of the wonderful goodies. The dark glossy chocolates in different shapes made a pretty picture in their little boxes. A shiny ribbon secured each package. Most of the deliveries were made through the USPS. All of my anxiety and anticipation left with those little care packages. It was a relief to see them off. Some we hand delivered; it was nice to see each person enjoy one smooth complex bitter sweet rich wonderful truffle. It was worth every moment of my time to produce the momentary jewels. Every moment spent on the gift was a commitment to the best for my friends and family. Homemade gifts are not always appreciated by everyone, but for me the pleasure is creating something unique for Christmas.

Loafer's #2, no date or season

The "104th Congressional" Issue. Andrew Clason asks, "What is art?" in this Loafitorial; Eric Clason interviews God and begins a trend; tons o' poems: by Mely Sumono, Todd Clason, Andy's incredible "Howl, Part 2", handwritten piece by Peter, and fridge poems from New Year's Eve by Janice, Kurt, Andy, and Peter; our most offensive issue yet, with violent cartoons a-plenty by John Schilling; Richard Wilson's "Fistful of Endurance"; Fritz Liptauer translates Heinrich Boll and Thomas Dekker considers sleep (we stole it, but he's dead, so what does it matter?); Pastor Lund's got another "Fish Story"; Karin Fodness mourns the 1,000,000th victim; Frederica Claiborn on giving birth; Peter Schilling's long, long story on dying in Detroit; and Frederick Urshgur on "Culture Wars". Controversial cover to the Lutherans we know ("Dogs would never have guns") by John Schilling.