Chocolate Truffles by the Expert
People think that writing the Chocolate Covered Mystery series means that I know how to make truffles. I certainly didn’t know how at the beginning, but I (kind of) do now.
Luckily for me (and the readers), the recipes are provided by a real chocolatier -- Isabella Knack, owner of Dallmann’s Fine Chocolates in San Diego, California. She creates gorgeous works of art that taste amazing.
Unfortunately, I just have to test all of the recipes in the books. I have no choice – it’s in my contract! Even after all of my testing, my truffles end up being little ugly lumps, but they are still delicious.
This recipe – Irish Cream Ganache - is in Behind Chocolate Bars, the third book in the Chocolate Covered Mystery series. I took photos as Isabella made them in her work kitchen. The recipe is a little different at the end – she put the ganache in beautifully air-brushed chocolate instead of premade chocolate molds. But the end result of both is sheer delight.
Irish Cream Ganache (yields 100 pieces)
Ingredients:
3/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup glucose syrup
1-3/4 cups dark chocolate
4 tsp. butter (softened)
2 TB Irish Cream
Premade chocolate molds – available at candy shop and online
Preparation:
A. Combine the heavy cream and glucose syrup in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
B. Pour the hot cream mixture over the chocolate and let sit for 2 minutes.
C. Using a spatula, stir the mixture in small circles of the bowl until it emulsifies.
D. Stir the soft butter into the ganache until it’s incorporated.
E. Add the liqueur, stirring until the mixture is homogeneous.
F. Pipe into premade chocolate molds.
G. Chill
H. Serve
And if that's not enough sweet goodness, Kathy is offering a giveaway! Leave a comment here (with your email) and you can choose from any of the books in the series: Death is Like a Box of Chocolates, Truffled to Death, or Behind Chocolate Bars. (If you live in the continental United States, you can choose either print or ebook format; if you're outside, only the ebook format)
BEHIND CHOCOLATE BARS
DOUBLE, DOUBLE-BOIL, AND TROUBLE…
Best friends and business partners Michelle and Erica have a monstrous to-do list as they prepare for the annual West Riverdale Halloween Festival. Their shop, Chocolates and Chapters, will have a booth at the event, where Michelle will serve spooky delights while Erica displays an assortment of spine-chilling books. Thank goodness the teenagers from Erica’s comic-book club are chipping in to help. But one of their volunteers winds up in trouble after a woman’s body is found in an abandoned house—with the teen’s superhero key ring close by.
The teen swears he didn’t do it, but he’s obviously hiding something—leaving Michelle and Erica with a witch’s cauldron of questions. Soon they discover that the dead woman was tricking a whole bunch of people out of more than just treats. Now these two friends must go door-to-door if they hope to unmask a killer…
DOUBLE, DOUBLE-BOIL, AND TROUBLE…
Best friends and business partners Michelle and Erica have a monstrous to-do list as they prepare for the annual West Riverdale Halloween Festival. Their shop, Chocolates and Chapters, will have a booth at the event, where Michelle will serve spooky delights while Erica displays an assortment of spine-chilling books. Thank goodness the teenagers from Erica’s comic-book club are chipping in to help. But one of their volunteers winds up in trouble after a woman’s body is found in an abandoned house—with the teen’s superhero key ring close by.
The teen swears he didn’t do it, but he’s obviously hiding something—leaving Michelle and Erica with a witch’s cauldron of questions. Soon they discover that the dead woman was tricking a whole bunch of people out of more than just treats. Now these two friends must go door-to-door if they hope to unmask a killer…
Kathy Aarons is the author of the nationally bestselling CHOCOLATE COVERED MYSTERY series by Berkley Prime Crime. Research for the series was such a hardship: sampling chocolate, making chocolate, sampling more chocolate, and hanging out in bookstores.
She began writing when her youngest daughter attended school five days a week and pursued publishing more seriously when her oldest daughter went off to college. Now an empty-nester, she continues to advocate for arts education for youth, serving as president of the board of directors for Playwrights Project (http://playwrightsproject.org/), advising and teaching for the Middle School Writing Series, and volunteering for the CCA Writers’ Conference (http://ccawritersconference2016.weebly.com/), the only free writing conference for high school students in the country.
She’s also president of Partners in Crime – the San Diego chapter of Sisters in Crime, a national mystery writers’ organization (http://www.sistersincrimesd.org/ ).
You can follow Kathy on Facebook or Twitter or visit her at: www.kathyaarons.com.
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