Truffle disaster - calling all chocolatiers

Cafe Society
1

ARRRGH! I thought I’d gotten the hang of this truffle thing. I made a few different ganaches. Fixed a broken one. Rolled them into truffles. Went to coat them.

GODDAMN IT. The chocolate is too thick! It’s tempered right, I did everything I was supposed to do, but it’s super thick! I can’t coat them in my hand or by dipping. It just won’t happen! If I try to coat them by dropping them in there, they just break apart when I try to get them out because the stupid chocolate is so thick!

It’s Ghiradelli chips - that’s the best I could do in the grocery store, although now I know where to get a greater variety of baking chocolates. Is it the fault of the chocolate? Did I do something wrong? Can I just leave these ganache balls out until I can do something about it?

I’m so disappointed. I may cry.

2

Please? Anybody? I have four kinds of ganache waiting to be enrobed.

3

I dunno how to fix what’s wrong, but I think a ganache ball melting into some home-made proper cocoa, or coffee would be lovely. :smiley: I hope someone does come along to help you with your predicament, meanwhile I’ll sit here and dream of lovely ganache. Mmmmm! drool

4

Maybe I should just get better chocolate tonight and try with that. :frowning:

5

[QUOTE=Zsofia]
ARRRGH! I thought I’d gotten the hang of this truffle thing. I made a few different ganaches. Fixed a broken one. Rolled them into truffles. Went to coat them.

GODDAMN IT. The chocolate is too thick! It’s tempered right, I did everything I was supposed to do, but it’s super thick! I can’t coat them in my hand or by dipping. It just won’t happen! If I try to coat them by dropping them in there, they just break apart when I try to get them out because the stupid chocolate is so thick!

It’s Ghiradelli chips - that’s the best I could do in the grocery store, although now I know where to get a greater variety of baking chocolates. Is it the fault of the chocolate? Did I do something wrong? Can I just leave these ganache balls out until I can do something about it?

I’m so disappointed. I may cry.
[/QUOTE]

Basic questions:

How did you heat the chocolate, direct heat, double boiler, in the microwave?
(Over heating the chocolate will cause it to thicken up. Don’t use direct heat, you should not have boiling water in the double boiler.)

Did you get any liquid in the melted chocolate?
(Even a small amount of water will cause melted chocolate to seize up. If you are sloppy with the double boiler you can get water into the chocolate.)

Was the chocolate liquid after you melted but before you tempered it?
(Maybe the chocolate is bad.)

How and where did you temper the chocolate, did you marble it or seed it?
(if you tempered using a marble table, maybe you over cooled the chocolate too much (you would probably see a lot of lumps) if you seeded the chocolate, did you use the right amount, were your containers free of liquid.)

After tempering the chocolate where do you keep the container?
(Don’t put the container directly on top of a cold surface, keep a towel underneath. If you are using a metal bowl, a cold surface will cool the chocolate down way too quickly.)

How cold are your truffles?
(I know some people actually refridgerate their truffles instead of tabling them to firm them up, are you trying to cover cold truffles? If you can adequately dip one or two then not the remaining this might be your problem.)

What’s the temperature in the room?
(Are you at or near room temperature? Your chocolate could be cooling down too fast.)

Did you flavor the chocolate with something?
(Try plain tempered chocolate.)

ETA: If all else fails, simply rolling them in good sifted cocoa powder will give them the traditional “Truffle” look.

6

Sounds like your chocolate seized up, which it will do if it gets exposed to moisture.

Works best with a double boiler and a bowl – but be careful that the bottom of the bowl is not sitting in the water – and the water should be simmering, not boiling.

(And all that Montgomery said up above there, that’s a comprehensive list to check through.)

Oh, and what’s the weather where you are? The humidity of the air and the temperature of your house could be factors in how this goes.

Nothing wrong with Ghiradelli chips – used them for years, prefer them to a lot of other chocolates I could mention – might be in how you’re handling them.

Sorry for all the questions but there’s so many ways this can go off.

7

What kind of Chocolate did you use? As you get darker they get a lot thicker. I have a callebaut 73% that is absolutely useless for dipping. Most decent milks and light darks can get thin enough to give you the super thin crack shell.

How much chocolate did you use? The more you use the less you have to worry about keeping it in temper. If you use a small batch keeping in temper is a huge pain in the butt. Always plan for about 50 to 75 percent more chocolate than you expect to use. You can always re cast it as a block or make bark after.

Truffles can also be saved by rolling in crushed nuts, turbinado sugar, and some grated hard cheeses, if you are adventurous. (not all at once. That would be gross. I think.)

If the chips are in temper you can make a block, the shave choclate off with a knife or the cheese scraper sampler thing, then roll them in that.

8

[QUOTE=HeadNinja]

Truffles can also be saved by rolling in crushed nuts, turbinado sugar, and some grated hard cheeses, if you are adventurous. (not all at once. That would be gross. I think.)
[/QUOTE]
Nuts and large grained SALT…Chocolate and salt…

9

Jesus Christ, it’s happening again. Last night I heated with the microwave, this time I did it with the double boiler. Maybe I overheated it. It didn’t get any water in it, it just NEVER GOT THIN. Son of a fucking bitch. Here we go again, another waste of chocolate.

ETA - the bastard never even melted all the damned wafers! What the hell is wrong?

10

[QUOTE=Zsofia]
Jesus Christ, it’s happening again. Last night I heated with the microwave, this time I did it with the double boiler. Maybe I overheated it. It didn’t get any water in it, it just NEVER GOT THIN. Son of a fucking bitch. Here we go again, another waste of chocolate.

ETA - the bastard never even melted all the damned wafers! What the hell is wrong?
[/QUOTE]

Trying to research your problem a little more, I stumbled upon this site. *****Warning, sound and video ****** Maybe this will help a little?

ETA: The video is from Ghirardelli, it shows how to temper using a marble slab or seeding. If your chocolate does not melt like in the video, perhaps you are using the wrong type of chocolate or there is something wrong with it. Could you tell us exactly which type of Ghirardelli bars you are using?

11

If you are having problems with melting, here is another video from the same place.

ETA: White, milk and dark chocolates require different amounts of heating, so be aware that you may not have to heat your chocolate as much or as little as in the video (depending on the type you are using.)

12

This time I got it thin just fine, took it down, seeded it, checked for temper - no problem! I was SURE it was tempered. I did my truffles, but they’re… suspiciously wet. Still.

I need a glass of wine. And I need to throw an ass ton of chocolate out and maybe make a damned bonfire. This was so easy in class!

ETA - those videos are great, but that little man refuses to show up in my kitchen and fix everything. Seriously, my boyfriend came in and said, “Are you going to cry? What happened, did you burn dinner?” “No, the fucking chocolate won’t fucking fuck.” “You’re upset about dessert? That’s dumb. Where’s your wine? You always drink wine when you cook. There’s your problem.”

So I guess I’ll try it again, with wine.

13

Don’t throw out the chocolate! You aren’t really going to do that are you?!! Find a chocolate lover, give it to them.
[sub]Send it to me?[/sub] :frowning:

14

Dude, it was overheated. Scalded. Smelled, once I got a really good look at it. You wouldn’t want it.

Let’s try to have some high hopes for the dark batch.

15

You know, when I make truffles, I don’t bother tempering the chocolate for coating. Oh, I know how. And I did it. Once. But

I just don’t care. Yeah, my truffles look dull and not glossy, maybe a little chalky or oogy. But they taste the same. And people inhale them so fast I can’t believe they’re actually looking at the things.

And it’s soooo much easier to nuke the chocolate, dip in the ganache balls, roll 'em around, and sit 'em out. Or – as last time – just dollop the chocolate over 'em while they’re on a rack; then wait, flip, and repeat. No tempering, no seizing, no tears.

And if anyone ever dares to complain about my ugly, delicious truffles… well, they can make their own damn chocolate truffles, is what I think.

16

Folks, we have achieved truffle.

Yes, they only had one coat instead of two. Yes, that one coat was quite possibly the fastest coat ever applied by a human. Yes, some of them are touching (oooh ooh, truffle and truffle, sitting in a tree!) You know what? I don’t give even the tiniest littlest shit.

I won.

Unfortunately, I still have a bowl of white chocolate orange ganache. Which I will NOT be touching tonight.

17

Oooooo, ooo ooo! drool That sounds lovely! You’re gonna come back to post, and make me whimper later and tell how the white chocolate orange ganache truffles came out, aren’t you?

18

What, you don’t want a dark chocolate cinnamon cayenne one? (Unfortunately, you could taste the cayenne in the ganache but now you can’t really. They’re still quite good, though.)

ETA - originally they were mostly going to work. Now that I about burned the house down around them out of spite, they’re mostly going to dear Grandma. Fuck those people at work, they can have the ugliest ones.

19

Those sound lovely too, but you didn’t mention the flavor of them before! (And I can be picky about what I have with my dark chocolate, NO blueberry for me! ETA: At least not that Endangered Species chocolate bar with blueberries, don’t like it.) Is it (the cinnamon blending with chocolate) sort of like that one regional candy, chicken bones in flavor?

20

[QUOTE=Zsofia]
Folks, we have achieved truffle.

Yes, they only had one coat instead of two. Yes, that one coat was quite possibly the fastest coat ever applied by a human. Yes, some of them are touching (oooh ooh, truffle and truffle, sitting in a tree!) You know what? I don’t give even the tiniest littlest shit.

I won.

[/QUOTE]

You, my dear, are my fucking hero. Good for you for persisting. Now, please take pictures and show us!

(Big fat woot!)