The Tools of the Trade for making Chocolate Truffles

I’ve gotten a lot of questions about what it takes to make the good stuff. First, you need a really good chocolate truffle recipe. I’ve included several ideas in previous blogs. Once you’ve got that, here’s a comprehensive list of tools that you need:

Appliances

• A Chef’s Knife or implement to chop your chocolate and nuts.   I really prefer a my Cuisinart, It makes the job of chopping up larger amounts of chocolate for fondue and layers and layers of truffle “cake”  very quick and very easy.
• Food Processor: I recommend a good Cuisinart, but you can get a cheap food processor for $20-30 at Target, Wal-Mart, or even your local hardware store.  The nut paste marzipans and fruit purees  used to fill or even wrap a large “truffle cake” (see photo) are incredibly easy to make with a good processor.

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  Layers of chocolate wraped in Hazelnut marzipan

• Double Boiler for melting or tempering  the chocolate: A double boiler consists of a lower saucepan and an upper pan. You can buy a nice one, or just put a larger bowl inside another to melt your chocolate. When you’re making truffles, you can burn the chocolate if you heat it up too high (chocolate melts at around body temperature, so you should keep the temperature low).   See my post “Don’t Burn the Chocolate…“
• Pan Scrapper – Rubber or silicon, to make sure you get every last drop of chocolate. You can stir with the silicon type of scraper.  They’re heat safe.
• Measuring Spoons and Cups – regular teaspoon, 1/4 , 1/2, and 1 teaspoon, tablespoon and 1/4,  1/3, 1/2 and 1 cup measures.  You probably already have these in your kitchen.
• Accurate Candy Thermometer is helpful for truffle making and necessary for properly tempering the chocolate. I use three different thermometers. One with a low scale that can read temperatures from 70 degrees and up accurately (I also use this one to check temperatures for my wine yeasts).  One is a higher range thermometer for making the caramel.  This one needs to go at least as high as 250 degrees. For caramel, you need to clearly discern the temperature range  of 235 – 244 degrees.  My third thermometer is digital and has a range of 0 degrees to more than 400 degrees. I often use the two in two different parts of the pan for greater accuracy when making caramel and tempering chocolate.
• Candy Dipping Tools make  dipping the truffles a bit neater than using your fingers, and maybe not as much fun.  These are a bit more exotic than your local stores may have, although some of the craft stores may have them.  Anyway, I’ve provided a few links to make it easier to find.
• http://www.sugarcraft.com/catalog/candies/candypage.htm#dip
• http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=189125&CCAID=FROOGLE189125
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• Kitchen Collection Stores – http://www.kitchencollection.com
• Kitchen Scale is useful for weighing the chocolate  – but not mandatory.  Prices vary from $10 -$30 for an adequate scale.