red wine truffles;
I’ve been so excited about this recipe for so long now! I actually had plans originally to make these after our honeymoon with our New Zealand wine, but last year we got back so close to Christmas and the wines shipped later and we were so busy as usual around the holidays that it didn’t work out timing-wise. But I was determined this year to do it!
And it was a little bit of a rollercoaster, I have to say! The recipe I made actually made a RIDICULOUS amount of filling. I honestly don’t know what I’m going to do with it all, since 2/3 of it is still in my fridge and not in the molds. You know other than stick my spoon in it and take a little nibble every time I open the fridge. The ganache for me was really too soft to use as cocoa-coated bonbons unless you serve them straight from the fridge. I actually love the texture in the molded truffles because it’s a bit softer and luscious than some other fillings.
When you’re looking for a red wine, my suggestion is to go bold. We went with a New Zealand Pinot Noir that we had shipped to us from our honeymoon so don’t necessarily think you’ll be able to go out and find the exact same one. But I would definitely choose a wine you like, one with a bold body and strong tannins. It’s got to stand up to the richness of the chocolate, but not add overly much sweetness.
I have to say as a disclaimer, that molding chocolate can be quite painstaking and take a long time. They look so amazing and professional when you’re done, and I’m actually pretty happy with my photos. But I have a lot of hours bent over molds, getting chocolate everywhere—molds, counters, aprons, face, mouth—and also an inordinate amount of time cleaning. Chocolate is so temperamental (get it? temper–hah) so you really need to clean your molds thoroughly before each use. The best luck I’ve had with cleaning the molds is to boil the molds in a mixture of water and vinegar, and/or wipe out each individual cavity with rubbing alcohol. Make sure to let the alcohol dry but it seemed to do the trick this year. So it’s not a quick or easy process.
But if you only have one or two molds of the shape you want to use (like I do), the process goes something like:
- Coat 3-5 cavities with coating chocolate and swirl it around to thoroughly coat the cavity.
- Wait 15-25 seconds until that chocolate is set but not hard. Add the filling using fingers or two spoons if too sticky, using one to push off the filling from the other onto the cavity. Make sure not to overfill—you need less than you think.
- Fill the working cavities with coating chocolate and tap vigorously on the counter to remove air bubbles and connect all the seams.
- Repeat for remaining cavities and let rest until solidified.
- Pop out truffles and store. Clean all molds by either boiling in a water-vinegar solution, or my preferred method—wipe each individual cavity with a paper towel soaked in rubbing alcohol to remove the cocoa butter residue.
- Repeat all steps until desired number of truffles have been made.
As you can see this is a very long and drawn out process and one of the reasons I tend only to do truffles at the holidays! Wishing you all a chocolate filled winter, although now that we’re over half way through winter, these would be a great Valentine’s addition as well!
red wine truffles;
Ingredients
Ganache Filling:
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 10 oz dark chocolate
- ½ tsp vanilla
- 3 Tbsp unsalted butter
- ¼ cup full-bodied red wine
Coating:
- 2 cups coating chocolate OR cocoa powder for rolling
Instructions
Ganache Filling:
- In a small saucepan over low heat, warm the cream until it just begins to boil. Remove from heat and add dark chocolate. Allow the mixture to sit, untouched for 2 minutes.
- Stir in vanilla and butter and whisk together until smooth and shiny.
- Whisk in wine until completely combined.
- Pour mixture into a medium bowl and cool to room temperature before covering with a lid or plastic wrap and refrigerating until firm enough to scoop, approximately 4 hours.
Coating
- If using coating chocolate, melt it using 20 second increments in the microwave, or using a double boiler.
- Scoop ~1 Tbsp or 1” diameter balls and coat in cocoa powder or chocolate coating. Adjust filling amount as appropriate if using molds.
