Chocolate truffle facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Chocolate truffle

Type	Confection
Place of origin	Chambéry, France
Region or state	Savoie
Main ingredients	Chocolate ganache, chocolate or cocoa powder

A chocolate truffle is a type of chocolate confectionery, traditionally made with a chocolate ganache centre coated in chocolate, cocoa powder, coconut, or chopped toasted nuts (typically hazelnuts or almonds), usually in a spherical, conical, or curved shape.

Their name derives from their resemblance to truffles, edible fungi of the genus Tuber.

Varieties

Chocolate truffles with peanut butter filling

Major types of chocolate truffle include:

• The Swiss truffle, 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. Like the French truffles, these have a very short shelf life and must be consumed within a few days of making.
• The French truffle, made with fresh cream and chocolate, and then rolled in cocoa or nut powder.
• The Spanish truffle, prepared with dark chocolate, condensed milk, rum (or any preferred liqueur), and chocolate sprinkles.
• The typical European truffle, made with syrup and a base of cocoa powder, milk powder, fats, and other such ingredients to create an oil-in-water type of emulsion.
• The American truffle, a half-oval-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, is credited with its creation in the mid-1980s.

Other styles include:

• The Belgian truffle or praline, made with dark or milk chocolate filled with ganache, buttercream, or nut pastes.
• The Californian truffle, a larger, lumpier version of the French truffle, first made by Alice Medrich in 1973 after she tasted truffles in France. She sold these larger truffles in a charcuterie in the Gourmet Ghetto neighborhood of Berkeley; then, in 1977, she began selling them in her own store, Cocolat, which soon expanded into a chain. The American craze for truffles started with Medrich.

See also

In Spanish: Trufa de chocolate para niños