Dolcetto Truffles

At times I'm asked to make custom truffles for special events. This year the Knight of Columbus, a Catholic Men's Organization, asked me to provide them with a specialty truffle for one of their fundraising events.

Whidbey Island Winery participated in the event and they chose their Dolcetto Wine to be infused into the chocolate. It's quite a challenge to get the true wine flavor to come through a dark chocolate ganache. However, this is how I used the wine and recreated the flavors to shine through the dark chocolate ganache.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients for the wine reduction:

1 bottle Whidbey Island Winery Dolcetto Wine
12 ounces IQF mixed berries
1 vanilla bean scraped

Place the entire bottle of Dolcetto Wine in a four quart sauce pan and reduce it down to about 1/2 of the contents. At that point add the mixed berries and the scrapings of the Vanilla bean and continue to reduce it down to a puree. Use cheesecloth or a fine sieve to separate the seeds from the puree. Place the puree aside until needed.

Ingredients for ganache:

16 ounces Tanzanie Dark Chocolate Pieces
11 ounces Heavy Whipping Cream
5 ounces Trimoline (inverted sugar)
6 ounces Dolcetta Paste

Place cream and trimoline in a sauce pan and heat to boiling. Pour the hot cream over the paste and the Tanzanie Dark Chocolate. Allow the mixture to sit for 30 seconds. After 30 seconds have past mix vigorously by hand or use a stick blender to emulsify. Once the mixture is mixed thoroughly, pour it between two metal bars also known as rulers. Allow the mixture to set overnight. Once the mixture has hardened, it can be cut into pieces as desired or a small cookie cutter can be used to make round shapes.

Each piece is then individually dipped in dark chocolate and decorated as desired. This is a yummy truffle and only for the true chocolate lover. Tanzanie chocolate is a 74% dark chocolate couverture and definitely is dark.