Thanks Linda -- my Peter Greweling book says never to refrigerate ganache in a standard fridge, but it is unclear if he means you shouldn't do that to force crystalization or if you should just never do it, ever. I was also worried about any weird sort of humidity things that may happen in the fridge. I guess I will play it better safe than sorry though and get the uncoated ganache and finished truffles in the regular fridge. What is your advice on storing the finished truffles? Something air tight? I find that is fine for my chocolate with transfers, but I have had issues with the ones I garnish in sea salt (the salt liquified!).
OK -- I have figured out that I can get all of the truffles made and dipped within 4 or 5 days. I think that should be fine in terms of shelf life (please shout if you disagree!). I still have the other question though: how long can I leave the ganache undipped without degrading the quality? Also, when I am storing it in its undipped form, should it be stored in the regular fridge or can I keep it in my wine fridge (62 degrees)?
I know that the truffles garnished with transfers will hold up fine if they are dipped several days in advance. My concern are the others -- one garnished with a nut, the other with sea salt. I don't know how those will behave if they are dipped ahead of time and sit in the fridge for more than a day or so. Please help 
Hello -- I am a hobbyist, but have been contracted to make 300 truffles for a corporate party. Because of time and equipment limitations, I will have to spread out the production. I am wondering:
1) how far in advance I can make a complete product (ganache dipped and garnished)?
2) how long the ganache will remain in optimum condition undipped?
A few details: all are sliced slabs and the majority will be garnished with transfers. Some dark chocolate, some milk chocolate.
Thanks in advance!
Kate
aha! That might be the ticket. I have noticed the nuts themselves really don't seem that"nutty" by themselves. Thanks again.
Hi Sebastian! Good point. I planned to try with milk chocolate to see if that helped. I was also interested in hearing what other people do -- how they roast the nuts, whether they include them whole or minced, if they use any added flavorings, etc.
Hello! I am searching for the best method of achieving pronounced hazelnut flavor in dark chocolate ganache. I have roasted them whole, roasted them crushed, varied the amounts, supplemented with Frangelico, but it's just not coming through strong enough. What's the secret? A paste? Thanks in advance!
Kate
Thanks Greg! That really helps. If I can cut the flavors back even to 6, that would make a huge difference in cost, labor, everything!
Hi - I am essentially a hobbyist that is just starting to do some small sales here and there for private parties. I just got a request for a corporate party: Truffles for 100 people, preferably about 12 flavors.
The first question is how many. I figured I would determine that once I had more specifics about the party, but my guess is between 200 and 300. I will take any feedback you have for me on whether or not my estimate is correct.
Secondly, how much should I charge? Generally I charge $1.50 a truffle. For larger orders it seems like the cost per piece should diminish, but I am not sure how far. Also to be honest, doing that many flavors will really stretch me considering that my smallest batch size is 36, and I don't really have an available audience to sell the extras too. With that in mind it makes sense for me to charge more, but I don't want to price myself out of the game. Should I request limiting the number of flavors to make it more economical for myself? Charge more for the variety? Give the customer what she wants despite the personal cost knowing I could see other benefits (future sales)?
Thoughts?
Hi -- just looking for some opinions. I have often rolled truffles in cocoa powder as tradition (I think!) dictates, but some people have told me it is too intense, especially with a dark chocolate truffle.
I am wondering if I should try cutting the cocoa powder with some powdered sugar, or if for those palates I should just skip the cocoa and roll in crushed pistachios etc.
What are your favorite things to roll in?
Andrea, that is an interesting aside!! I usually just use hot cream to melt my chocolate and use that -- untempered!-- and it has never broken... I decided to use tempered chocolate for the same reason you did (someone swore by it), and this is when I encountered problems. I would happily go back to using untempered chocolate in my ganache but I am wondering if this will effect the truffles' stability when they are not refrigerated. What is your experience with that? I am looking to make truffles that can be stored in a cool place, but don't have to be refrigerated.
Also, If i continue trying to use the tempered chocolate in the ganache, what order would you do things in? I'm particularly interested in when you would add the butter.
awesome, thanks Andrea! I will definitely whisk tonight.
As for the temperature issue, do you agree that the honey/cream mixture needed to be cooler? Also, my plan is to melt the butter right into the cream mixture. Do you think that is a smart plan?
Thank you all for the tips! Sorry for my late reply -- computer out of commission. I am going to use all of these tips slowly but surely and hopefully the will fix my issues.
I'm still freaked about the grainy ganache -- I'm hoping adding the butter at a different time, cooling the cream more and mixing with a little more vigor will do the trick! I will try this all tomorrow night.
Hi there -- This weekend I made slab/cut style truffles rather than the traditional round style I am used to and I ran into a few issues that I'm hoping you veterans might be able to help with.
1) I had varying thicknesses in different parts of the slab. I know they sell vibrating tables to ultimately fix this problem, but I'm wondering if there is a technique that I could try that might be a hair cheaper. My current "technique" (ha) is to just pour the ganache into my frame and spread it around the best I can with an offset spatula.
2) I had releasing issues. I made my frame out of some metal bars I found at Lowe's based on a post I saw at egullet, and as it noted in the post, I put them right on my Silpat. It molded beautifully, no leaks, but after taking the bars off, brushing on some tempered chocolate and flipping the whole thing to get it ganache side up for cutting, I went to pull the Silpat off and in a few spots it stuck and broke. I'm wondering if I needed to 1) let the ganache crystalize further (mine was about 18 hours old), 2) coat the Silpat with tempered chocolate first (I know this helps releasing from silicone molds), 3) put the whole slab in the fridge for a few minutes before flipping. 4) something else.
3) Some tiny cracks and pin holes formed on maybe 6 of the truffles and something oily oozed out. I'm guessing that is just liquified cocoa butter. It isn't a huge deal, but I'd like to avoid this. Any thoughts on what happened?
4) Slightly grainy ganache. I don't think this has anything to do with the shape of the truffles, but the recipe. I used a new recipe that called for tempered chocolate, cream, butter, and honey. Room temperature butter thoroughly worked into tempered chocolate. Butter and honey scalded together, cooled to 105, and then added all at once to the chocolate/butter mixture. My guess is that it was adding the butter to the tempered chocolate directly (generally I put it with the cream) or the fact that I did not incorporate everything fully enough. I just read something scary that said too much air whipping into ganache dramatically reduces shelf life, so I was probably a little stingy with the stirring.
I know this is a boatload of questions. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!
