Dark Chocolate Truffles| Easy Chocolate Truffle Recipe

Do you like chocolate truffles? I absolutely adore them! (I’m actually a chocolate-crazy person and love anything with chocolate in it. 🙂 ) Today, I’m about to share with you all an easy-peasy recipe for Dark Chocolate Truffles, a huge favourite at my place.

What are chocolate truffles?

Chocolate truffles are a delectable sweet treat, decadent and soft on the inside, the outside usually coated with cocoa powder. Bite into one, and you are in chocolate heaven!

As fancy as they sound, chocolate truffles are actually very easy to make at home. They just need about three or four basic ingredients – mostly heavy cream or milk, butter or ghee, sugar and cocoa powder.

There are several variations to chocolate truffles, limited only by one’s imagination. Mint, peanuts, almonds, raisins, walnuts, pecans, cranberries, coffee, vanilla, rose – any number of permutations and combinations are possible.

What goes into my Dark Chocolate Truffles?

These Dark Chocolate Truffles are one of the simplest versions of the dessert, which can be put together in minutes. Instead of heavy cream or milk, I have used milk powder to speed up the cooking process.

I have used dark, unsweetened cocoa powder here and sugar, of course. Then, there’s butter to bind it all together. I have used salted butter to give a faint salty tinge to the truffles, and I think they were all the more lovely for that.

Introducing Indian Natives’ Absolute Dark Cocoa Powder

The unsweetened dark cocoa powder I have used in these truffles is called Absolute Dark, from a brand called Indian Natives, based in Pollachi, Tamilnadu. This is single-origin, organic cocoa powder without any additives or preservatives. It’s completely vegan and cruelty-free too.

I have been using this cocoa powder for some time now, and love it to bits. It’s absolutely brilliant! The pure, unadulterated smell of this cocoa powder is amazing and it tastes equally lovely. It is rich and beautiful, and great for baking and for use in other desserts. The bub loves it too, and has it with her milk almost every day.

I have been interacting with the brand for some time now, and totally love their philosophy. Most commercial brands of cocoa powder available today are laden with preservatives and additives, and Indian Natives started out to counter that, and have grown from strength to strength. The founder Akila and her family run a farm in Pollachi, to ensure the production of great-quality, unadulterated cocoa powder. There are several variants of the same available, in differing strengths like mild and medium. Apart from this, they also offer spices like nutmeg and pepper, by-products like cocoa butter, and coconut palm sugar. Their cocoa powder has been receiving rave reviews, I see, and now I know exactly why!

Easy Chocolate Truffle Recipe

I made these Dark Chocolate Truffles recently, and they were met with much love by the family. Here’s how I went about making them.

Ingredients (makes about 20):

1. 3/4 cup sugar
2. 1 cup water
3. 1 cup milk powder
4. 1/3 cup unsweetened dark cocoa powder
5. 2-3 tablespoons butter

For garnishing:

1. Unsweetened dark cocoa powder, as needed
2. Milk powder, as needed

Method:

1. Take the sugar and water in a heavy-bottomed pan. Place on high heat. Allow the sugar to melt completely in the water.

2. When the mixture comes to a boil, reduce flame to medium. Continue cooking on medium flame till the mixture becomes sticky or attains a half-thread consistency. (See notes). This should take 3-4 minutes.

3. At this stage, reduce flame to the lowest. Immediately add in the milk powder and cocoa powder, with one hand, stirring constantly with the other hand to prevent the formation of lumps.

4. Now, increase flame to low-medium. Continue cooking on low-medium flame till the mixture thickens and reaches a malleable consistency, but is not too thick. When almost done, add the butter to the pan and mix well. Stop cooking when the mixture has thickened considerably and is just slightly runny. This can take 8-10 minutes. You will need to stir constantly.

5. Allow the mixture to cool down enough to handle, then shape small balls out of it.

6. Place the balls in a clean, dry, air-tight box and keep it in the refrigerator. Chill for 2-3 hours at least.

7. Get the chilled balls out of the fridge about half an hour before you want to serve them. Just before serving, mix milk powder and unsweetened dark cocoa powder as per your taste preferences, in a tray. Roll each of the chilled balls in this powder, so that they are evenly coated with it. Your Dark Chocolate Truffles are now ready to serve – serve them immediately.

Tips & Tricks

1. I have used 1/3 cup of the dark cocoa powder here, due to which my truffles had a delectable, chocolate-ey taste. You can tone down the amount of cocoa powder you use, if you don’t want the truffles to be so chocolate-ey. Alternatively, you could use a milder version of cocoa powder, like Indian Natives’ Mild or Medium Dark.

2. I have used milk powder from Nestle here. Please note that this is sweetened milk powder.

3. I was sent a sample of Indian Natives’ Dark Cocoa Powder to try out and share my feedback. My opinion of the product is honest and completely unbiased, formed after using and loving it for some time.

4. The above quantity of sugar was just perfect, for the amount of sweetened milk powder and unsweetened, dark cocoa powder I used. You may adjust the quantity of sugar you use, as per personal taste preferences.

5. Make sure you cook the sugar syrup till sticky or half-string consistency only, and no further. Overcooking the syrup might lead to hard truffles. Check this post of mine for a video on what sticky or half-string consistency of sugar syrup looks like.

6. Do not overcook the truffle mixture, else they might become too hard. It needs to be cooked just till thickened, but is still a bit runny. It hardens further when chilled in the refrigerator.

7. These Dark Chocolate Truffles are best served chilled, rolled in a cocoa powder + milk powder mixture just before serving. Bring them out of the fridge a little while before serving.

8. You can use a mix of cocoa powder + powdered sugar to roll the truffles in, too.

9. I have used salted butter here. You can use unsalted butter or ghee in its place too.

10. Please remember that the butter needs to be at room temperature and softened, for best results.

12. I have kept these chocolate truffles simple and basic, but, like I was saying earlier, the flavour possibilities are endless. Go ahead and flavour these any way you want!

13. While the cocoa powder I have used is vegan in itself, these truffles are NOT, because of the addition of milk powder and butter.

Did you like this recipe? Do tell me, in your comments!