Truffle molds: silicone or thick, clear plastic (his were a thick, commercial grade where tapping won't break them)
To achieve the colorful, drizzle effect on the outer shell of truffles, Erick melted white chocolate and added an oil based, orange food coloring (powdered works better than liquid form). Water based coloring like gels and food coloring will harden the chocolate. Chocolate is already oil based. Oil and water do not mix!
For this batch, he made orange flavored truffles, so he used an orange and white drizzle for the shell. He used a pastry bag and drizzled over the molds.
Type of chocolate to use:
He used Guittard wafers (this brand produces chocolate in a nut-free facility), which are preferred over chips. Chips and wafers have distinct tastes. Wafers win here.
Milk chocolate wafers for the outer shell, white chocolate wafers for drizzle and semi-sweet chocolate wafers for the truffle filling.
Dark chocolate is used traditionally.
Tips on melting the chocolate:
Incrementally melt in microwave.
Or use a double boiler.
Milk fat affects the melting of the chocolate (must be tempered) and sugar content affects taste. He prefers milk chocolate for the shell and semi-sweet for the truffle filling.
Tips on thinning out outer shell chocolate: use paramount crystals, which is a food-grade wax. 1-2 tbsp or eyeball until it is like cake batter thick.
Next, after drizzling over the molds, he used a bench scraper to scrape off excess drizzle between the wells of the mold. He then filled each well of the mold with the melted, tempered milk chocolate. Working quickly, he used a wooden spoon to fill the well with chocolate and turning the spoon to prevent/reduce spilling and overfilling wells.
After wells were filled, he tapped the entire mold on the counter to get out any air bubbles. This prevents any bubbles/small craters forming on the outside of the shell.
Then he inverted the molds over the bowl of melted milk chocolate to dump out the excess chocolate and letting the shells set in the fridge. Making the shells is the hardest part of truffle making.
For the truffles, he used a ratio of 1 pound of wafers to 1 cup of heavy cream. He prefers Costco heavy cream, but any cream will do. He used 2 lb chocolate to 2 cup cream for the truffles tonight.
Incrementally melt in microwave (about 45 sec at a time) or melt in double boiler. Another method suggested by Erin Lopez was to heat the cream to hot and then take off stove and dump the chocolate in, let it sit for 10 minutes, and then stir to combine the cream and the melted chocolate.
Once the chocolate is melted, you may add any flavoring to it. He used LorAnn Professional Kitchen Bakery Emulsion and LorAnn Gourmet products. For the orange flavor, it is LorAnn Gourmet and the product was a small, .125 oz vial. Dump the entire vial into the mixture (for the 2 lb chocolate : 2 C cream). Incorporate well. He then placed truffle chocolate into a pastry bag. You can also make free handed truffles by piping directly to a parchment lined baking sheet. He filled the wells of the mold, only to 3/4 full so that he can cap off the truffle with the shell chocolate.
After filling with truffle chocolate, he tapped the mold to let chocolate settle in the wells. Clean in-between wells of mold using bench scraper to make capping less messy and easier to release truffles.
Pour the shell chocolate on top of each well in the mold, tap mold, and scrape off excess with bench scraper, making sure wells are filled evenly.
Place in freezer to set faster until sides of chocolate seem to pull from the side. He left them for about 5-10 minutes.
Release by tapping mold upside down, whatever comes out is set. Place any unreleased truffles back in freezer for a few more minutes.
With the excess truffle chocolate, Erick mixed in rice krispies cereal. He suggests cinnamon toast flavored cereal and even potato chips! You can be creative with extra truffle chocolate.
Free handed truffles can also be rolled in cinnamon or cocoa powder. Lots of ways to dress them up if desired.
Extra tips:
Hand dipped chocolates (his specialty during Christmas time) and how to prevent a puddle at the bottom of your candies.
He uses a Wilton dipping spoon and fork. Another method is to place dipping chocolate on a slab of marble and temper the chocolate using three fingers, going in circles. Then add your center and coat the center with chocolate. Once coated, lift candy and shake twice, then place on parchment, lift off fingers gently and you can do a little design with excess chocolate dripping from fingers.
