Earl Grey Truffles

Truffle the candy was named after truffle the fungus. A little gross when you first hear about it, but makes sense when you have a bit more historical context. Truffle the fungus dates back to the fourth century BC and has become a  delicacy ever since. In modern times, many chefs refer to truffle the fungus as "the diamond of the kitchen." I think the same could be said for a perfect chocolate truffle in a pastry shop.  The chocolate truffle was created in France in the late 1800's. Candy truffles are traditionally made with a ganache center and coated in chocolate or cocoa powder.

In class we made earl grey infused truffles. I was really excited about actually learning about infusions because they sound to be complicated... but they are really just as easy as making tea! Regarding the choice of tea, I was glad it was early grey and not green tea. I am a big fan of green tea, but I think it's a saturated area and earl gray is a bit more outside the box.

Production:
Earl Grey Ganache
Ingredients: 9 1/4 oz of cream; 1 1/2 oz Earl Grey Tea; 3/8 oz of inverted sugar; 3/8 oz honey; 14 1/4 oz milk chocolate; 3 1/8 oz dark chocolate; 2 oz butter

Process: Slowly melt the chocolate (Do not burn the chocolate, e.g. heat it in a double boiler and walk away... it is the most expensive ingredient in the kitchen!) Boil the cream and add the tea then cover with plastic and let infuse for 10 min. Strain the tea and rescale the milk to the original amount using whole milk. Add the inverted sugar and honey to the mixture and bring back to a boil. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate to create and emulsion. Fold continually, tempering down to 95F, then fold the in the butter.

Cover the ganache and let cool. Once the ganache starts to thicken, take a melon baller and scoop out truffles. Place on a sheet pan and take to the freezer. Meanwhile, temper dark chocolate for the coating, and prep a bowl mixed with sifted coca powder and powdered sugar. When doing a cocoa powder coating to any candy or dessert it's best to mix it with powdered sugar to sweeten the flavor.

Constructing the truffles
When the ganache has hardened, coat in chocolate and roll in powdered sugar. Truffles are best to eat when they are at room temperature.  The tea infusion coupled with the chocolate makes them an excellent afternoon tea or after dinner indulgence.

Overall I loved making these truffles and have done so again since making them in class. I have become slightly obsessive with testing infusion flavors as infusions are super easy to execute and provide intense and exotic flavors that would be hard to get elsewhere.