what's the best chocolate to use when making truffles?I have been playing around with some different things and thought I could just use the Toll House Semi sweet chocolate but after I made the truffles and itsat out for a day it becomes very gritty to the bite. My logic was if I could make something taste good with the "bottom of the barrel" chocolate I could make a masterpiece with a higher grade of chocolate. can anyone help me out.
chef Harold
Harold,
High Quality chocolate will really help with High Quality results.
Take a look at Callebeaut TV. It's free and they have a lot of good content.
To answer this specific questions, go to http://www.callebaut.com/uken/callebaut-tv/tutorials/the-basics-of-working-with-chocolate/choosing-the-liquidity-of-your-chocolate
this video discusses viscosity of chocolate and how it will affect your results.
Some of the differences between the chocolate chips you used and a good couveture chocolate will be the particle size, cocoa butter content, and I'm not sure what else. Essentially chocolate chips are designed to retain thier form at high heat. They can have a larger particle size because the other ingredients associated with chocolate chips i.e. flour has a much larger particle size and you wouldn't taste the texture difference.
Anyway, I'm not sure which chocolate is best. I'd play with some callebeaut or valhrona to start with.
You may also enjoy the Chocolate Apprentice blog. It is written by a lady who took the Ecole Chocolot course. It is fun to read about her expiriments, successes, and opportunties for imporovement.
Did you order the wybauw book yet? 
Have a great day!
Larry
Harold;
Asking that question is kind of like asking the general public what the best wine to drink is.
Taste your ingredients, and then pair them accordingly. Just because you buy "good quality" chocolate doesn't mean it's going to pair well with the other ingredients you use.
You want a fruity truffle, use a fruity chocolate. You want a deep rich truffle, us a deep, rich, less fruity chocolate.
sample, sample sample.
Brad
so true and that is what I have been doing all day today. I'm new to this but it is the same as my catering, the only way to find a good product is to try it out.
thanks man for all your insight you have been giving me sir. I haven't gotten the book yet but I have been looking at the callebaut tv site on key tips on different brands of choc. I'm in the process of ordering callebaut choc so I will let you know what happens.
