The Trick To Preventing Cracks In Chocolate Truffle Coating
Truffles are the perfect sweet and decadent treat to please any chocolate lover's taste buds. They're also very simple to put together, with only a couple of ingredients making up the base, standard recipe. All you need is chocolate and cream to make this indulgent dessert, but there are an endless number of variations that prove the versatility of the recipe. From an Oreo truffle recipe to a two-ingredient, no-bake variety, the door is left wide open for home cooks to customize their truffles to best fit their preferences.
Chocolate truffles taste amazing, and they're also distinctly elegant. They're made with high-quality chocolate, can be served on special occasions, and generally have a sophisticated look to them. Truffles are often rolled in cocoa powder or chopped nuts to finish them, but another classic finishing method involves dipping them in tempered or melted chocolate to create a smooth coating on the outside.
Anyone with a handful of culinary adventures under their belt knows that things don't always go as planned in the kitchen, especially when it comes to working with melted chocolate. If you're not careful, you could end up with a batch of truffles with cracked chocolate coatings. No need to be overly concerned, though. This aesthetic mishap can be easily avoided with one simple step.
Room temperature ingredients for best results
If you want picture-perfect truffles every time, the most important factor has nothing to do with the ingredients or the recipe. Instead, truffles that don't crack are often determined by the temperature of the chocolate.
According to The Spruce Eats, the most common reason the chocolate coating cracks is because cold truffles, which have been firmed up in the fridge or freezer, are being dipped in warm chocolate that's been tempered or melted. As the cold truffles warm up after dipping, their size expands, and the shells often crack.
So, how do you prevent the chocolate from cracking? The Spruce Eats says you should let the truffles cool for 12 to 24 hours at room temperature instead of firming them up in the fridge. They'll develop a film around them, making them stable enough to dip and less likely to crack.
But don't stress too much about your truffle aesthetics, advises The Chocolate Doctor. After all, truffles aren't meant to be perfect. Because chocolate truffles get their name from their resemblance to fungi truffles, the site suggests they're naturally designed to have a more rustic presentation — and there's nothing an extra drizzle of chocolate can't fix.