Red Wine Chocolate Truffles
These truffles are rich and decadent chocolate bonbons. Chocolate is as sensual as it is complex, so what better way to celebrate your love than with red wine and chocolate?
Good chocolate is the epitome of luxury and a culturally enduring symbol of love; Paris is known as the city of love, so it’s rather fitting that I dove deeper into the intricacies of working with it while living there. Sadly, I rarely had time to visit because I was spending all my time learning from Patrick Roger’s talented team in their famous Laboratoire. We spent most of our days working 13+ hours with great efficiency and precision to churn out a daily variety of tasty treats. The hours were long, but the bawdy french humour made the time fly by. At dawn, I would set off for work down la Rue Daguerre as the market was beginning to bustle with early morning deliveries. After sunset, I returned home to the sight of cafés and brasseries overflowing with patrons. I was always grateful to be greeted by one of Stu’s delicious dinners and a glass of wine: a much-welcomed relief after a hard day’s work. We spent our evenings chatting about our day while filling our bellies with red wine and delicious chocolate.
I conceptualized this decadent truffle recipe to capture the essence of our Parisian experience, defined by fine red wines and some of the best chocolate in the world.
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Ingredients
225g 35% cream
60g honey
375g dark chocolate pistoles
95g butter, room temperature
25g red wine
400g chocolat de couverture mi-amère to temper
100g cocoa powder
Yields approximately 75 truffles
Directions
Make red wine chocolate ganache:
Weigh chocolate and butter into a medium-size bowl.
Weigh honey and cream in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
Pour hot cream over the dark chocolate and let it sit for a couple of minutes to let the chocolate melt.
Using a spatula, stir in the centre in a tight circle until you have a shiny dark mass of chocolate ganache.
Then slowly widen your circle while stirring to include non-emulsified ganache until all of it looks uniform and glossy.
Stir in the red wine.
Emulsify with a handheld mixer to ensure a perfectly emulsified ganache, careful not to incorporate air bubbles.
Pour the red wine ganache onto a lined baking tray to cool it.
Dresser:
Once cool, place red wine ganache in a piping bag.
Pipe into little mounds, approximately 10g.
Bouler:
Roll the mounds in your palms so that they are roughly the shape of a sphere.
Put them on a tray and let dry at room temp (15-20°C) for 12-24h.
Temper the chocolate:
Melt 300g of dark chocolate over a bain-marie.
When the chocolate reaches 45-50°C, remove from the bain-marie and add 100g of chocolate pistole.
Slowly stir to melt the chocolate, if it cools below 30°C, return the bowl to the bain-marie to help the remaining chocolate melt.
You are aiming to have melted chocolate at 31°C.
Place bowl of tempered chocolate over a saucepan filled with lukewarm water to help maintain the chocolate’s temperature.
Enrober:
Put cocoa powder in a large bowl.
Place a bit of tempered chocolate in the palm of your hand and roll a red wine ganache sphere, so that it is completely covered in tempered chocolate.
Place in cocoa powder and repeat, shaking the bowl slightly every so often to coat the truffles.
When the bowl of cocoa powder is looking crowded, take the truffles out and place them into a fine-mesh strainer. Tap the strainer against your palm to shake off the excess cocoa powder.
Enjoy with your Valentine!
Pro Tips:
Check out my video on Instagram or TikTok to see how I make these red wine truffles!
The key to mastering the art of chocolate is time and temperature. You can’t rush chocolate and it waits for no one! Chocolate crystalizes at specific temperatures, so a digital thermometer is a must if you want to obtain the proper texture and mouthfeel. Another key appliance is a handheld mixer. Chocolate is composed of cocoa butter, so when adding any liquids, it’s important that you thoroughly emulsify it (like making a mayonnaise or salad dressing.)
It is important when attempting to temper chocolate to use high-quality chocolat de couverture
Will keep at room temperature for 3 weeks. Can be kept in a sealed container in the freezer for up to six months. Let them thaw in the fridge before enjoying them at room temperature.
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