Demystifying truffles

I can never pass up a good truffle - they're sophisticated, decadent, gourmet bite-sized celebrations of deliciousness. And because they're so good, during a recent trip, I happily walked into the store of an acclaimed trendy chocolatier, where each piece of chocolate was displayed like a jewel in a glass case, and paid $2 a piece for tiny truffles barely larger than a postage stamp. If they're handled with such care, if they have the word "artisanal", and if there are folks raving about them on the online foodie haunts, then they must be worth it, right? And sure, they were pretty good, but after I ate the truffles (which went by quickly cause I could only afford so many at $2 a piece), I couldn't help but feel that I had succumbed to the truffle mystique.

The truth is, truffles are super easy to make; they just take a little patience.

People in the U.S. are most familiar with Lindt's spherical truffles or other truffles that have been encased in a molded chocolate shell. We'll get to those later on. Today, we're going to discuss the more traditional French style of hand-made truffles which are created by rolling balls of ganache (a mixture of chocolate and cream) in cocoa powder. It's this type of truffle that resembles the super expensive and equally yummy fungus of the same name.