Easy chocolate desserts

Prepare these easy chocolate desserts so you will prove to yourself and your guests that homemade chocolates are the best and save extra money in the process.

This chocolate truffles recipe is brought to you by Ashley. This culinary diva shares one of her favorite recipe ideas: "faking it in the kitchen". Her chocolates prove that modest people make the best chocolates…

Chocolate truffles are a simply delectable treat that are usually purchased at high end chocolate boutiques for an arm and a leg but are very classy. When your guests hear that you’ve made chocolate truffles yourself following Ashley’s chocolate truffles recipe, Ashley promises that your guests will be in total awe of your kitchen god(dess) status 🙂

How did Ashley come up with this easy chocolate recipe? You can find a truffle recipe in almost every gourmet cookbook, but Ashley combined several chocolate truffle recipes, added her own advice and tips from trial and error to give you the world’s best (and easiest) chocolate truffle recipe.

Homemade chocolate recipe

• 8 ounce (about 230gr) semi-sweet baker’s chocolate
• 16oz. (1 bag) (about 460gr) chocolate or white chocolate chips
• 3 tablespoons very heavy whipping cream
• 1tablespoon of your favorite liqueur. (Ashley’s favorite is Kahlua. Yet Mint or almond extract works well too.)

How to make a lot of easy chocolate desserts

1. In a large pan half filled with water, place a smaller, heat-safe bowl. (au bain-Marie). The stove should be at about medium. Add the baker’s chocolate to the smaller bowl and stir occasionally until it’s completely melted. Add the whipping cream and stir completely, then add the liqueur or extract and mix well. Take it away from heat immediately.
2. Place the bowl with the chocolate in the freezer for 40 minutes or an hour, until the chocolate is firmed up enough to be malleable and keep it’s shape. Roll the chocolate into 1 tablespoon balls, put them on wax paper.
3. What you’ve just created is "ganache" or "chocolate truffle filling". Some people just leave it at that: ganache is delicious! You can roll it in powdered sugar or chopped nuts and still make a big hit. However, for a true chocolate truffle, the next step is so easy and fun I’ve never successfully avoided it. (ganache can also be made far in advance and kept in an air tight container in the freezer until you’re ready to use it.)
4. Put the ganache in the freezer and let it firm up for 20 minutes. Take about 3/4 cup of the chocolate or white chocolate and microwave it in a small bowl in 30 second intervals. Between intervals, stir vigorously. Chocolate is only tricky to work with if you forget that it can burn and will keep it’s chocolate chip shape as its melting. Stirring chocolate vigorously between micro-waving will help it break up and not burn. Using smaller quantities at a time will help, too. It usually takes three 30 second intervals to get the chocolate smooth.
5. Take the ganache out of the freezer and one by one, drop it in the melted chocolate. To make sure it’s coated completely, use 2 forks to ‘juggle’ it. That’s it! Place your truffles on wax paper and wait until they firm up- usually 4 or 5 hours. You’ll want to leave them at room temperature: if you stick them in the fridge they’ll get that gross white stuff on the surface.
6. I like to dip my truffles in milk chocolate and then melt and color white chocolate and splash it over for my truffles as an added accent. The easy chocolate desserts from the photo above show green chocolate truffles made for St. Patrick’s Day!