This week's SMS was chosen by Mara of Love Your Mother Earth: peanut butter truffles. While I like chocolate, I often find truffles way too rich so I rarely, if ever, eat them. They're super easy to make though and are easily transportable (and thus easy to give away) so I had no problem baking along with Mara this week.
Truffles are often just made from two ingredients - chocolate and heavy cream! You heat the cream to scalding and pour it over finely chopped chocolate, then stir until smooth. The mixture is chilled until it is firm enough to scoop, then formed into little balls and sometimes garnished - cocoa powder and melted chocolate are popular coatings. The main difference in this recipe was that peanut butter was heated along with the cream and the combination was poured over the chopped chocolate. Also, softened butter was whisked into the chocolate/cream/peanut butter mixture before it was chilled. In other words, this recipe is VERY decadent!
I made half of the recipe and wound up with 27 truffles. Ideally I would have coated them all with chocolate to give them a smooth, satiny finish, but I was short on time. The author recommends rolling the truffles in chopped roasted salted peanuts so I gave that a shot. Unfortunately, I had a hard time getting the peanuts to stick to the truffles so I probably wouldn't go that route again, unless I first dipped the truffles in melted chocolate. I simply rolled the remainder of the truffles in confectioners' sugar; I passed on the cocoa powder coating as Shane said it tasted like chalk the last time I tried.
Shane brought half of the truffles to work and came home with an empty container so I guess they were a hit, though I didn't receive any specific feedback. The other half of the truffles went home with my mom and I haven't heard whether she liked them either so big fail on outside opinions this week :) I tried one and I was disappointed that the peanut butter flavor wasn't more prominent. In fact, if I hadn't known there was peanut butter in the truffles, I probably never would have guessed. Were I to make them again, I think I'd double the amount of peanut butter - if they're going to be called peanut butter truffles I think they need a lot more peanut butter flavor!
Busy day today - Shane is running his very first marathon! The weather is supposed to be gorgeous, if not a bit on the warm side, but I'll take it over rain. I'm quite excited to go and cheer him on and hopefully I'll have photos to share tomorrow :) Big thanks to Mara for hosting this week's SMS! You can find the recipe on her blog or on page 215 of The Sweet Melissa Baking Book.
30 comments:
They look cute in all their little wrappers! Okay, as cute as chocolate can look. You are doing amazing things over here, learning all sorts of stuff with this group.
What a nice twist on a classic. Thanks for the link. Great photos, btw!
:)
ButterYum
Wow, those look super rich, but delicious!
Good luck to Shane..the first marathon is always the hardest. Ice will be his friend for a few days!
Your truffles are wonderful! I love the little white cups you placed them in. Mine were tasty but to messy. Im glad all the co workers enjoyed them.
They look great! I haven't attempted coating yet - mine are still chilling. Based in ur difficulties with the pwnuts, looks like I'll have a dish of cocoa powder standing by!
Looks great! I like the idea of rolling them in confectioner's sugar. These were definately rich and needed more peanut butter.
Those look delicious. I wouldn't have thought to roll them in powdered sugar--I've only done melted chocolate and cocoa powder. I try not to make truffles too often because I'd be tempted to eat them all. =)
From what I hear, lack of peanut butter taste is the main drawback of these. So you're not the only one who felt that way! They do look so pretty though!
I just realized how you set this up so differently than I did. As I made a ball, I coated it. I am not sure why, I did not think of making all the balls first.
In the end, I know, it makes no difference.
I agree about the peanut butter taste missing.
I made 1/2 of mine with milk chocolate and really could taste the peanut butter in that batch. The bittersweet version just overpowered the peanut butter.
I've received a lot of positive feedback on the ones I gave away so I'm sure yours were a hit as well. They look good anyway!
I love the little white cups. I always share with mine or Tim's work!
Hope the marathon went well.
Truffles are meant to be decadent, so the addition of peanut butter...so much the better. I will give this recipe a shot and follow your recommendations of double the peanut butter. Yum! I'm thinking of adding some butterscotch too.
jessyburke88@gmail.com
Stunning truffles.
And again, I love that cake stand :)
Katie xox
Wonderful truffles!!! I love the powdered sugar ones, they look so yummy. I agree, it needed more peanut butter flavor for sure. Thanks for baking this week!
The truffles look terrific, I love the ones rolled in sugar. I feel the same way about truffles, though I thought I'd like these more since I love peanut butter and chocolate.
I hope Shane's marathon went great! I'll look forward to your photos.
the use of peanut butter sound great in the truffle, or perhaps a peanut butter center...ooohhhhh......I love chocolate and peanut butter....what a perfect combo...I agree you should be able to taste the peanut butter, but even if you really couldn't, I bet they were really really good!!
Dennis
I think for these to taste like peanut butter, we would have to reverse the proportions for the chocolate and peanut butter. Your look great (and so perfectly sized). The ones I rolled out right before bed last night (after leaving the bowl on the counter for an hour by accident) were the easiest to get the peanuts to stick to.
Your pictures look fantastic and the truffles look delicious. I'm slightly regretting not making them now.
YUM, the truffles look so delcious and professional!
hope the marathon went well! The PB flavor was definitely lacking, although that didn't stop me from eating too many!
thanks for the tip - i am late making these but the bowl is in the fridge now, with 2x PB so hopefully they will come out well :) yours look very professionally made!
These look delicious! Heating the nut butter with the cream is an interesting idea. I'll have to try it sometime.
Hi Tracey!
How are you? I'm SO sorry I haven't been by in a while- unfortunately I've been really struggling with my health- but I'm trying to get back into the swing of things with SMS and I'm looking forward to keeping in touch with you again each week as we bake together! Yours is truly one of my FAVORITE blogs to visit, as each of your delectable creations is even more beautiful and mouthwatering than the next. Every time I read a "Tracey post," I am simply inspired and want to run to the kitchen to try any recipe you "approved!" :)
Your truffles came out lovely, and I'm glad they were a hit with Shane's coworkers... how'd his marathon go by the way? I was rooting for him! It seems like a common theme that the truffles weren't peanut-buttery enough, huh? But I'm sure they were still delicious!
Have a great start to your week and I hope to hear from you soon!
<3,
Joy
Looks great! Congrats to Shane for completing marathon. I could never run...that much.
my peanuts probably stuck b/c my balls were so gooey. even after chilling for a while they were still soft.
I was disappointed in the lack of peanut butter flavor as well. I think the bittersweet flavor is too bold for the peanut butter to stand out. However, beautiful truffles & nice pictures though. :)
These look tasty! I love all things peanut butter and chocolate.
I, too, felt the peanut butter flavor was lacking. Most of mine seemed to come from the chopped peanuts. Great pics of the truffles though! Empty containers are always good :-)
These look sinfully delicious - wish I had some right now with some milk! Beautiful images.
Cute truffles...I never thought of using the little paper cups...
Now that I think of it...I was late in posting...so I had to hurry and take photos...
Carmen
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