Champagne Truffles

These luxurious champagne truffles made with the best quality chocolate would make a lovely gift for your loved one on Valentine's Day.

Dark, rich, and decadent – these champagne truffles are the perfect gift for any chocolate lover. And they are so easy to make, you might not make them just for Valentine. Easy chocolate ganache balls rolled into colorful granulated sugar.

You will also learn how to reduce champagne and how to color sugar in any color you like. And how about trying these Homemade Raffaello Coconut Balls, Cake Balls, or Homemade Baileys, they all make delicious gifts from the kitchen.

And should you like to have some real black truffles, have a look at the Truffle Pasta.

What do you need?

Chocolate:

• It is the most important ingredient and it will make or break your truffles, this dessert will only taste good if the chocolate is good.
• Use the absolute best quality you can afford, something that you enjoy eating as it is as well.
• I had dark chocolate with 70% cocoa and the balls were heavy on the chocolate taste and slightly bitter. The higher the cocoa percentage, the more pronounced the bitterness. Go as high as you like it.
• You can also go a bit lower and use chocolate with 60% cocoa. The bitter notes will be milder. However, I would not go much lower than that, less than 50% cocoa is milk chocolate.
• Chocolate chips are not suitable for this recipe.

Champagne or sparkling wine:

• I had a mid-range bottle of dry sparkling wine, nothing too expensive, but not the cheapest one either. You will only need a rather small amount of it, so you will have to drink the rest. 🙂
• Or you can buy a mini-bottle, I've seen those in the stores sometimes, but as I already had about three regular bottles in the cellar, I opened one of those.

Other ingredients:

• Heavy cream and a little unsalted butter.
• Granulated sugar and pink/red food coloring for the coating.

How to make champagne truffles?

How to reduce champagne?

The first time I've made these champagne truffles I used the wine directly from the bottle. The balls were lovely, but I could not taste much of the alcohol. So I thought that reducing the sparkling wine might increase the flavor. It worked.

• Pour the sparkling wine into a small saucepan.
• Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium and let simmer for about 8-10 minutes until the liquid is reduced to about ¼ cup and has a darker color. Let cool completely.
• Add 4-5 tablespoons of it and the soft butter to the warm truffle mixture.

What is ganache?

An emulsion of chocolate and cream. When warm it is rather liquid, but it will firm up when chilled so you will be able to form the balls.

Ganache can have a different consistency, depending on what you need it for. To make truffles the perfect ratio between the chocolate and the cream is 2:1 so in this case 250 g/ 8.8 oz to 125 g/ 4.4 oz cream.

I definitely recommend using a digital kitchen scale for measuring the ingredients, measuring chopped chocolate in a cup will probably be way off and the ratio is important for this recipe. (Amazon affiliate link)

How to make ganache?

• Chop the chocolate very very finely and evenly, I often use the food processor to make sure that it is as fine as possible. I find that the finer the chocolate the smoother the ganache, often the heat of the cream is not enough to thoroughly melt all the chocolate.
• Transfer to a bowl. (1)
• In a small saucepan, heat the heavy cream until steaming, but not simmering or boiling.
• Immediately pour it over the chocolate and let stand for 2 minutes. This will allow the pieces to start to melt before stirring, thus preventing tiny specks from appearing in the ganache. (2)
• Stir with a rubber spatula until smooth. (3)
• Once smooth add 4-5 tablespoons of the reduced champagne and the butter. Stir very well to combine. (4)
• Leave to cool completely at room temperature. Once cool, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the ganache is firm. It will take at least 3-4 hours, but I always leave it overnight.
• Stored in an airtight container in the fridge, it will keep for about 2 weeks.

Form the balls

• Once the ganache is firm start making the balls. My ganache was super firm, so firm I thought I would have trouble rolling it. But I didn't. I just scooped small amounts with a teaspoon and rolled them, the heat of my hands was enough to soften the mixture enough to roll it properly.
• Tip: wash your hands with water after every 4-5 balls, if they are too dirty the balls will stick more to your hands and their surface will not be so smooth anymore.

Make the colored sugar

• Place the granulated sugar in a zip-lock freezer bag. Add a few drops of pink or red food coloring (or any other color you want). (1)
• Close the bag properly and start kneading the color into the sugar.
• Add more color drops if you feel it is necessary. I had a very concentrated color used for fondant coloring, so just 3-4 drops were enough.
• Transfer the sugar to a large plate and roll the champagne truffles into it. (3)
• Keep any leftovers in a jar. (2)

Alternative coating

• For an even more intense chocolate taste, you can roll the balls in pure cocoa powder.
• You can crush some dried berries (for instance, strawberries or raspberries) in the food processor and roll the balls in that powder.
• Or coat them with ground nuts, desiccated coconut, or sprinkles of any color. If using sprinkles I would go for the shiny, brightly colored edible sprinkles, that look a bit like crushed glass.

How to store the truffles?

They keep very well in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks. You could also freeze them for up to 2 months.

More Valentine's Day recipes?

• Beetroot Pasta
• Heart-Shaped Cheesecake
• Valentine Sugar Cookies
• Beetroot Crepes