A chocolate truffle is a type of chocolate

Chocolate

Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...

 confectionery

Confectionery

Confectionery is the set of food items that are rich in sugar, any one or type of which is called a confection. Modern usage may include substances rich in artificial sweeteners as well...

, traditionally made with a chocolate ganache

Ganache

Ganache is a glaze, icing, or filling for pastries made from chocolate and cream.Ganache is normally made by heating cream, then pouring it over chopped dark semi-sweet chocolate...

 center coated in chocolate or cocoa

Cocoa solids

Cocoa solids are the low-fat component of chocolate. When sold as an end product, it may also be called cocoa powder, cocoa, and cacao....

 powder, usually in a spherical, conical, or curved shape. Other fillings may replace the ganache: cream

Cream

Cream is a dairy product that is composed of the higher-butterfat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, over time, the lighter fat rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream this process is accelerated by using centrifuges called "separators"...

, melted chocolate, caramel

Caramel

Caramel is a beige to dark-brown confection made by heating any of a variety of sugars. It is used as a flavoring in puddings and desserts, as a filling in bonbons, and as a topping for ice cream, custard and coffee....

, nut

Nut (fruit)

A nut is a hard-shelled fruit of some plants having an indehiscent seed. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts in English, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts...

s, almond

Almond

The almond , is a species of tree native to the Middle East and South Asia. Almond is also the name of the edible and widely cultivated seed of this tree...

s, berries

Berry

The botanical definition of a berry is a fleshy fruit produced from a single ovary. Grapes are an example. The berry is the most common type of fleshy fruit in which the entire ovary wall ripens into an edible pericarp. They may have one or more carpels with a thin covering and fleshy interiors....

, or other assorted sweet fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

s, nougat

Nougat

Nougat is a variety of similar traditional confectioneries made with sugar and/or honey, roasted nuts , and sometimes chopped candied fruit. The consistency of nougat can range from soft and chewy to hard and crunchy depending on its composition, and it is used in a variety of candy bars and...

, fudge

Fudge

Fudge is a type of Western confectionery which is usually very sweet, and extremely rich. It is made by mixing sugar, butter, and milk and heating it to the soft-ball stage at , and then beating the mixture while it cools so that it acquires a smooth, creamy consistency...

, or toffee

Toffee

Toffee is a confection made by caramelizing sugar or molasses along with butter, and occasionally flour. The mixture is heated until its temperature reaches the hard crack stage of 300 to 310 °F...

, mint

Mentha

Mentha is a genus of flowering plants in the family Lamiaceae . The species are not clearly distinct and estimates of the number of species varies from 13 to 18. Hybridization between some of the species occurs naturally...

, chocolate chip

Chocolate chip

Chocolate chips are small chunks of chocolate. They are often sold in a round, flat-bottomed teardrop shape. They are available in numerous sizes, from large to miniature, but are usually around 1 cm in diameter.-Origin:...

s, marshmallow

Marshmallow

The marshmallow is a confection that, in its modern form, typically consists of sugar, corn syrup, water, gelatin that has been softened in hot water, dextrose, vanilla flavourings, and sometimes colouring, whipped to a spongy consistency. Some marshmallow recipes call for egg whites...

, and, popularly, liqueur

Liqueur

A liqueur is an alcoholic beverage that has been flavored with fruit, herbs, nuts, spices, flowers, or cream and bottled with added sugar. Liqueurs are typically quite sweet; they are usually not aged for long but may have resting periods during their production to allow flavors to marry.The...

.

They are named for their resemblance to the truffle fungus.

Varieties

The chocolate truffle was first created by N. Petruccelli in Chambéry, France in December 1895. They reached a wider public with the establishment of the Prestat

Prestat

Prestat Ltd is one of London's oldest chocolate shops. It has been awarded two Royal Warrants: from Her Majesty The Queen and Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother.-History:Prestat Ltd was established in 1902 by French émigré Antoine Dufour...

 chocolate shop in London by Antoine Dufour in 1902, which still sells 'Napoleon III' truffles to the original recipe. There are now three main types of chocolate truffles: American, European, and Swiss:

• The "American truffle" is a half-egg shaped chocolate-coated truffle, a mixture of dark or milk chocolates with butterfat and, in some cases, hardened coconut oil. Joseph Schmidt, a San Francisco chocolatier, and founder of Joseph Schmidt Confections
  Joseph Schmidt Confections
  Joseph Schmidt Confections was a San Francisco-based chocolatier, which produced gourmet confections using imported Belgian chocolate. The line of confections includes large, mini and petit truffles, slicks, and mosaics. Joseph Schmidt confections ceased operations 2009.-Early:Joseph Schmidt...
  
  , is credited with its creation in the mid-1980s.
  • A Canadian variation of the American truffle, known as the Harvey truffle, includes the addition of graham cracker
    Graham cracker
    The graham cracker was developed in 1829 in Bound Brook, New Jersey, by Presbyterian minister Rev. Sylvester Graham. The true graham cracker is made with graham flour, a combination of fine-ground white flour and coarse-ground wheat bran and germ. Graham crackers are often used for making s'mores...
    
     crumbs and peanut butter. Other American companies may shape their truffles similar to that of peanut butter cup
    Peanut butter cup
    A peanut butter cup is a molded chocolate candy with a peanut butter filling inside. Peanut butter cups are one of the most popular kinds of candy bar in America. They can be made at home, but like most candies, they are commonly mass-produced...
    
    s.
• The "European truffle" is made with syrup and a base made up of cocoa powder, milk powder, fats, and other such ingredients to create an oil-in-water type emulsion.
• The "Swiss truffle" is made by combining melted chocolate into a boiling mixture of dairy cream and butter, which is poured into molds to set before sprinkling with cocoa powder. Unlike the previous two kinds of truffles, these have a very short shelf-life and must be consumed within a few days of making.
• The "raw" truffle is made by combining coconut oil
  Coconut oil
  Coconut oil is an edible oil extracted from the kernel or meat of matured coconuts harvested from the coconut palm . Throughout the tropical world, it has provided the primary source of fat in the diets of millions of people for generations. It has various applications in food, medicine, and industry...
  
  , raw cacao and raw yacon
  Yacón
  The Yacón is a perennial plant traditionally grown in the Northern and Central Andes from Ecuador to Argentina for its crisp, sweet-tasting tuberous roots. The texture and flavour are very similar to jicama mainly differing in that yacon has some slightly sweet resinous and floral undertones to...
  
   syrup or raw agave
  Agave
  Agave is a genus of monocots. The plants are perennial, but each rosette flowers once and then dies ; they are commonly known as the century plant....
  
  , then rolling them in either raw, shredded coconut
  Coconut
  The coconut palm, Cocos nucifera, is a member of the family Arecaceae . It is the only accepted species in the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the entire coconut palm, the seed, or the fruit, which is not a botanical nut. The spelling cocoanut is an old-fashioned form of the word...
  
  , raw cacao and/or chopped almonds.

External links

• Chocolate Truffles Chocolate Truffles Recipes
• La Madeline au Truffe most expensive chocolate truffle - rated by Forbes