13 Mistakes Everyone Makes With Chocolate Truffles

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

It's no controversy if we claim that chocolate truffles are luxurious and decadent, making them the ultimate treat for chocolate lovers. These dessert darlings have been seducing sweet tooths the world over since their beginnings in 19th-century France. One story goes that Auguste Escoffier himself mixed up his ingredients and combined hot cream and chocolate by accident, creating the chocolate truffle (via Charbonnel).

Master chocolatier Richard Tango-Lowy of Dancing Lion Chocolate loves making truffles and tells Mashed that the definition of this treat gets pretty specific. "A traditional truffle is a ganache center enrobed in a thin layer of tempered chocolate and dusted with cocoa powder. It's called a truffle because of its resemblance to the mushroom of the same name. A perfect truffle should hit you with a bit of tartness on the tongue from the cocoa powder. The paper-thin shell then gives way to a silky center that melts immediately, exploding with chocolate flavor." 

If you're trying out truffle-making at home, you're going to want to get them just right, too. Here are some common mistakes everyone makes when it comes to crafting chocolate truffles and how to avoid or fix them. 

Truffle making is all about melting ingredients and then letting them set. You'll want your ganache to be solid enough for you to roll it into a ball, so many recipes will encourage you to chill it in the fridge for a couple of hours before shaping your truffles. You then typically leave the finished truffles to harden enough so you can pick one up and pop it in your mouth, and so feel all is right with the world. 

But what if your ganache is too firm? No, you don't have to start again or add in other ingredients. Instead, follow a simple tip from recipe creator Catherine Brookes. If the ganache has become too hard to scoop, let alone roll, then warm it up in the microwave. You need to be careful here, as you don't want to ruin all that gorgeous ganache, so work in small increments of time. Stick it in the microwave for 10-20 second bursts. With a little care, the ganache should soften enough to get you back to scooping and rolling with ease. 

When it comes to making delicious truffles, getting the cream hot enough to melt the chocolate is key. But when you pour the cream on top of the chocolate chips, you may find that not all of them melt. If this happens and you've already added the cream, then pop the mixture in the microwave. Give it a quick 20-30 second blast and this should see those lingering unmelted chips surrender to the heat. Make sure to stir the ganache afterward to ensure that everything has evenly melted. It's also important that you get your cream properly boiling before adding it to the chocolate, though you can take it off the heat when you're pouring it over the chips. 

Tasting Table suggests that getting the cream too hot will also burn the chocolate. The solution? Once you've brought it to a simmer on the stove, give it a minute to slightly cool down before melting the chocolate with it. Try microwaving cream in small quantities so that you have more control over the process. If the mik isn't hot enough and you don't want to microwave the ganache, then try stirring the mix as it melts in a bowl over another one filled with hot water. 

Chocolate isn't an easy ingredient to work with, says Tango-Lowy. "Chocolate is my passion. I will never master her – who can master one so willful and tempestuous? But I will continue to woo her and to craft a small bit of her soul into each truffle and bonbon I create." Since he used to be a physicist, he also knows that there's a fair bit of science that goes into the mix as well. This can help if your ganache is too crumbly or grainy.

Scientifically Sweet suggests that it's the cocoa butter in chocolate that's the culprit here, as it can crystallize in unique ways that affect its interaction with other ingredients. In fact, according to Imperial College London, chocolate can achieve six unique crystalline structures. To get that smooth texture, pay attention to the temperature and make sure that your chocolate pieces are a uniform size. If they're small, then you're more likely to melt them quickly and evenly. To get there, let the heated chocolate and cream sit together before stirring, allowing the two ingredients to work their magic. As the cream cools down, and the chocolate heats and melts, the temperatures of the two ingredients will meet in the middle. Then it's time to stir. And when you do, be more gentle with the mix rather than becoming a human concrete mixer. A vigorous mixing will add air and dull the shiny emulsion.

While there's something darn near perfect about a tempered chocolate shell on a truffle with a simple dusting of cocoa powder, there are more than a couple of ways to innovate the coating on this sweet treat. While it's not strictly a mistake to stick to a classic idea, it could be seen as an error not to experiment or at least try out different suggestions. This creativity can add a multitude of flavor combinations and textures to a truffle. 

Closing off from this means you may miss out on making a truffle with garam masala and a bit of chili, for instance. There are plenty of amateur chocolate truffle makers offering a bevy of coating ideas on Reddit to make your truffles stand out. 

Consider truffles coated with matcha or toasted coconut, for instance. Of course, you could leave the fancy coatings to the experts. Dancing Lion Chocolate makes an undoubtedly unique Turkish bay and Hungarian paprika truffle finished with coarse sugar, while the lavender hijiki caramel truffles are coated in dark chocolate and lavender sugar. Truffle Me! adds some spice, too, with cayenne pepper truffles that come with sprinkles or a red drizzle.  

Haase has plenty of years of experience and tips for making the perfect truffle, with wisdom she says is earned from making "a lot of mistakes working with chocolate!" One common issue she and others have encountered in truffle making is the seemingly inevitable mess when it comes time to roll and coat the sweets. But is it all that inevitable?

Perhaps, as Haase has found, it's a neater process when the texture of the truffle base is just right. "I have found that if my dough is very soft and hard to roll, I add half a cup of powdered sugar," she says. "I also make sure the dough is very cold when I roll it. I have a few recipes that I roll and dip frozen in order for them to keep their shape." 

Meanwhile, a Redditor suggests avoiding mess by making sure your hands are really dry before you start rolling. They also recommend adding some warmed cream to the mix if it doesn't seem hard enough. But perhaps the only way to not make a mess while rolling is to make a few mistakes, as we suspect that it's only by making a mess that you might learn how to avoid it in the first place.

There are plenty of truffle-style recipes that use cake, creating a result that is similar to cake pops but without the stick. Although they're not technically truffles in that these treats don't employ ganache, they remain delicious. If you're crafting cake truffles, one mistake that's easy to make is allowing the cake mixture to become overly soggy. The quick fix in such a situation is to add in more cake, assuming you have some at the ready, according to Oasis Bakery York on TikTok.

Of course, a bit of self-awareness is key here, too. If you're adding in liquid or less-than-solid additions, like cream, frosting, or rum (as Oasis Bakery has done), then add a little at a time. As even a moderately experienced home chef can tell you, it's often far easier to add more of an ingredient than it is to take some away from a mix.