With Valentine’s Day approaching I knew that I wanted to make something themed from an anime. In Japanese culture and anime, handmade chocolates are one way to confess to someone you like or to give to people that you care about. Episode 20 of Amagami SS shows Miya Tachibana and her friends making chocolates for each other. I loved the design of the chocolates and wanted to make one of the plates.
For the flavors I decided on an almond truffle, an orange truffle, a German chocolate truffle, and a peanut butter truffle. I made small changes to each truffle filling so that they could be easily made from the same base recipe while still capturing the intended flavor. If you want to raise the difficulty of the truffles you could temper the chocolate to make a shiny, hard shell to coat the filling but melting and dipping the chocolate into untempered chocolate works as well.
Chocolate Truffles
Ingredients
For the truffle recipe
- 4 oz semi-sweet chocolate bar
- ⅓ c heavy cream
- 12 oz semi-sweet chocolate bar for dipping
German Chocolate Truffle Filling Addition
- ¼ c shredded coconut unsweetened
German Chocolate Truffle Topping
- 3 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp granulated sugar
- 3 tbsp butter
- ¼ c evaporated milk
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ⅓ c shredded coconut unsweetened
- ¼ c pecans chopped
Almond Truffle Filling Addition
- 2 tbsp almond butter
Almond Topping
- 2 oz white chocolate bar
- 10 whole almonds
Orange Filling Additions
- 1 tbsp orange zest
- 2 tsp orange juice
Orange Topping
- 20 candied orange peel
Peanut Butter Truffle Filling
- 2 tbsp peanut butter
- 2 tbsp peanuts chopped
Peanut Butter Topping
- ¼ c peanut butter chips
- 1 tbsp white chocolate
Instructions
To make the truffle
- To make one set of 10 truffles, finely chop the 4 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate and place in a heat proof bowl.
- In a small pot heat over medium heat, bring the heavy cream to a simmer. For only the orange truffle add orange zest to the cream before heating and allow to infuse while heating.
- Pour heated heavy cream through a sieve onto the chopped chocolate and let sit for one minute.
- Stir the chocolate and cream until mixture becomes homogeneous. Add ingredient from the filling addition list for desired truffle and mix into the ganache (except the orange zest).
- Cover ganache with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about one hour.
- Repeat steps 1-5 for each desired truffle type.
- Once cooled, roll a scant tablespoon of ganache into a ball to form the truffle filling.
- Melt the chocolate for dipping over a double boiler and, with the ball of ganache laying on top of a fork, dip the truffle filling into the chocolate. Tap excess chocolate off before place on a baking sheet and allowing chocolate to set before topping with the associated truffle topping (except orange truffle, see following step).
For the German Chocolate Truffle
- In a pot over medium heat combine the brown sugar, granulated sugar, butter, evaporated milk, egg yolk, and vanilla extract.
- Cook until slightly thickened then add the shredded coconut and chopped pecans. Continue cooking until mixture sticks to the shredded coconut.
- Remove from heat and allow to cool completely.
- To garnish truffle, place a small amount of topping onto the top of the truffles. Add a small chocolate square if desired.
For the Almond Truffle
- Melt the white chocolate and place a small amount on top of the truffles.
- Before white chocolate hardens press a whole almond into the white chocolate and allow to set.
For the Orange Truffle
- Before the chocolate shell of the truffle hardens, place 2 small slivers of candied orange peel on top of truffle.
For the Peanut Butter Truffle
- In a small bowl melt the peanut butter and white chocolate in a microwave and stir to combine.
- Place melted mixture into a piping bag and pipe parallel lines going across the top of the truffle and then pipe another set of parallel lines perpendicular to the first set to create a cross-hatch pattern.