Truffles Galore!

My birthday was last week and I had two evening meetings to attend, so I decided to treat both groups to homemade chocolate truffles. I have never tried to make these before because I assumed them to be tricky or difficult. How wrong I was. They are ridiculously EASY! 

Here's my favorite truffle recipe, created from basic ganache:

10oz. dark chocolate, chopped up

2 T butter

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 T Kahlua 

Place chocolate in heavy glass mixing bowl. In small saucepan, bring cream and butter to a boil over medium heat. Immediately pour cream over chocolate and whisk until smooth. I like to do this by hand. Add Kahlua and whisk until very smooth. Allow ganache to cool on the countertop and then chill briefly in refrigerator, just enough to make it easy to handle. 

Roll ganache into balls of approximately 1" diameter. Drop into cocoa powder and swirl till coated. Place truffles onto a sheet covered with parchment or wax paper and chill thoroughly. 

Store truffles in refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

For other flavors, try replacing the Kahlua in this recipe with:

• 2 T strawberry jam and 1 t vanilla
• 2 T instant coffee dissolved in 2 teaspoons of warm water
• 2 T Baileys Irish Cream
• 1 T vanilla

Also experiment with other coatings:

• Powdered sugar
• Chopped almonds or pecans
• Crushed cookies (peanut butter, Oreos, Nilla wafers)
• Melted chocolate, for dipping to coat