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3
Nov
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Pumpkin Truffles |
Sometimes, my love of cooking gets in the way of life. I get an idea in my head, that simply must happen, and if it doesn’t work out the first time, I go to great lengths. This might involve my husband going to the grocery store at 6:30am before work, to re-buy the ingredients (I swear, this was his idea, not mine) so that I could get right to work later in the evening, after work and after my run. And then I re-make, and adjust, and re-adjust. And then I decide, it’s still not going to work, and make a trip somewhere out-of-the-way during my lunch break to get back-up supplies. Finally, it seems to be working. Only, I run out of those back-up supplies. And at 9:00pm, after dinner is done and I’m back at work, he runs out, again, to get more. Yes, my darling husband goes into AC Moore all by himself to buy candy molds and chocolate melts. All by his own idea – he must either really love me, or really really love the idea of eating dark-chocolate-candies-with-creamy-white-chocolate-pumpkin-filling. I hope it’s a little bit of both.
I found this recipe for pumpkin truffles, and of course, I had to make them. This would be my first time making real truffles, whoo hoo! Well, I’ve done things like Oreo truffles and cookie dough truffles and cake balls, but never real truffles involving a true ganache center. I was excited for the challenge, and thought it would be simple enough considering there are about a zillion recipes out there. The only change I decided to make to this recipe – which I thought was a small change, but may have had quite a large effect – was to substitute white chocolate for the dark chocolate in the ganache.
So, I went ahead and made the ganache. For good measure, I let it chill longer than indicated – overnight, in fact. To my dismay, I found not a firm, scoopable ganache, but more of a pudding. Sure, it would be tasty to eat by the spoonful, but it was not going to work at all. Sadly, I dumped it and that’s when my husband went out for the second round of ingredients.
I did a little reading online and discovered something. There is no way the recipe, as written, was correct. This recipe called for 2 cups of cream to 1lb of chocolate; most recipes call for something closer to a 1 cup of cream to 1 lb of chocolate ratio. That could certainly be why these didn’t work! So with the second round, I used just 1 cup of cream. I put it together before work and let it set all day.
When I got home, I still had truffle pudding. I was getting pretty frustrated at this point. Since I had purchased two 12-oz packages of white chocolate chips and had only used 16oz, I still had an additional 8 oz. I gently reheated my ganache on the stove, heated my chocolate in a double boiler, and stirred the additional chocolate into the ganache, and let it set again – overnight.
The next morning, I was doing a bit better – we had something around the consistency of peanut butter. Still not something I could scoop and shape into a ball. But I really didn’t want to waste it. So my solution? I needed to invest in some molds, and I’d use my pumpkin mixture as the filling for chocolate candies.
I still don’t know where I went wrong with these – I’m thinking it’s got to have something to do with the white chocolate. Either white chocolate simply doesn’t work for truffle ganache, or, white chocolate chips are simply not a good enough quality for this application. However, in the end, my candies were totally awesome. And plentiful! I made at least 200, and that doesn’t include the filling that made it onto a spoon and into my mouth, instead of inside chocolate shells. My husband and I both took these to work and got rave reviews. Making the candies was not difficult at all, just tedious, but I would look forward to it again – it’s a fun and rewarding project.
Here’s the recipe for the filling I ended up with, after modifying the amounts of chocolate and cream.
1 cup pumpkin puree
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground gloves
1 cup cream
24 oz white chocolate morsels
1 ounce butter, room temperature
In a medium saucepan over low heat, combine pumpkin, brown sugar and spices. Cook for 5 to 6 minutes, or until mixture reduces by half and pumpkin looks dry. Set aside. In a medium saucepan over high heat, add cream. When cream boils, take off heat. In a heatproof medium bowl, add chocolate and hot cream. Let the mixture sit for a minute, then slowly begin to stir, starting in the center of the bowl and working outwards. Once the chocolate and cream are evenly mixed, add pumpkin mixture and whisk to combine. Add the butter. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled.
To make the candies, you’ll need chocolate wafers for candy-making, molds of your choice, a paint brush and a squeeze bottle. A piping bag and tip are useful too, for the filling. You’ll melt the chocolate, and transfer it to the squeeze bottle. Then, squeeze a small amount into each well in the candy mold. Use your paint brush to move the chocolate up the sides of the mold, creating a shell. Chill for a few minutes. Pipe a bit of filling into each mold, and then squeeze more chocolate on top. Tap the mold on the counter to let the chocolate settle in, remove air bumps, and create a smooth bottom. Chill for about 10 minutes, the pop the candies out of the molds.
I'm Cara, lover of creative, clean food and healthy living. Pumpkin, goat cheese, and eggplant make me swoon. I have an insatiable sweet tooth and desire to lift heavy things. 
Linda — November 4, 2008 @ 4:19 am
Those look great!
Jen — November 4, 2008 @ 1:17 pm
These look great. I think I’m going to have to try them…
Kayla — November 4, 2008 @ 1:39 pm
Those look incredible! Yum!
lauren — November 4, 2008 @ 2:11 pm
yum! You are a PRO.
Lisa — November 5, 2008 @ 2:49 am
Nice blog you have! I love the combination of chocolate and pumpkin.
Mandy — November 5, 2008 @ 6:41 pm
Hello CaraI have accidently stumbled across your blog when looking for a recipe. I cannot cook but am eager to learn. I love your recipes! I have only looked at a few so far but i feel very inspired! In fact i do not know where to start! Anyway, I will keep reading. Thanks for the inspiration!
Elly — November 5, 2008 @ 11:47 pm
Bummer about some of the troubles with the filling, but the candy molds were such a great save. These look SO good.
The Logans — November 6, 2008 @ 12:57 am
These sound divine! I definitely want to incorporate them into the menu for a bridal shower I’m throwing, which is all themed with fall flavours. One quick question: Could the centers be rolled and dipped instead of using moulds?
Cara — November 6, 2008 @ 1:36 am
Logans, Rolling the centers and dipping them in chocolate was in fact my original intention, but since the that white chocolate-cream-and-pumpkin mixture never got any firm than peanut butter, I resorted to using the molds, and just piping in the filling.
Bird — November 6, 2008 @ 5:18 pm
Cara – I found your blog about a year ago and use it for inspiration all the time. These candies look amazing. I think I am going to make an assortment for thanksgiving dessert instead of a heavy dessert. Can you think of any other seasonal fillings that would work? Thanks!
Cara — November 7, 2008 @ 1:11 am
Thanks Bird! I was thinking about this too. Peppermint would be a good choice and for something else a little different, maybe gingerbread. You could try to flavor it yourself with molasses, ginger, cinnamon, etc. Or maybe try to get some of the flavored syrup. Something like what Starbucks uses for their latte, but I think there are other brands too. Or a cranberry white chocolate filling? That would be fun if you can figure out how to do it! Can’t wait to hear how it goes!
Bird — November 8, 2008 @ 5:14 am
Cara – its me again. Your ingredients call for dark chocolate – did you mean to write dark or white chocolate? I’m going to test our some versions this weekend – I’ll keep you posted.
Cara — November 8, 2008 @ 4:00 pm
Hi from Canadian Cara – These look wonderful. Since my husband benefits from my cooking, he is only too happy to go to the grocery store for me too :-)You blog is great. Thanks for sharing your creations.
Cara — November 8, 2008 @ 9:33 pm
Woops! Thanks for pointing that out, I edited it along with the exact amount I ended up using.
~Amber~ — November 13, 2008 @ 12:01 am
These look delicious Cara! Your persistance paid off and you made some amazing truffles.
darkesnow — December 12, 2008 @ 5:52 pm
If you bloomed some gelatin and mixed with the filling you might have better results. It seems like it might work.
Rissa — September 23, 2009 @ 4:56 pm
Hi Cara! These look great, exactly what I was looking for in a pumpkin chocolates recipe. All the other recipes i found contained vanilla wafers and almonds, way too much stuff. I was wondering, what kind of chocolate wafers did you use for the molds outer shell? Were they something like the Wilton candy melts? Do you think melting regular chocolate would work?Thanks!! Marissa
Rissa — September 23, 2009 @ 4:56 pm
Hi Cara! These look great, exactly what I was looking for in a pumpkin chocolates recipe. All the other recipes i found contained vanilla wafers and almonds, way too much stuff. I was wondering, what kind of chocolate wafers did you use for the molds outer shell? Were they something like the Wilton candy melts? Do you think melting regular chocolate would work?Thanks!! Marissa
~Amber~ — April 5, 2011 @ 1:19 am
These look delicious Cara! Your persistance paid off and you made some amazing truffles.
Cara — April 5, 2011 @ 1:19 am
Woops! Thanks for pointing that out, I edited it along with the exact amount I ended up using.
Elly — April 5, 2011 @ 1:19 am
Bummer about some of the troubles with the filling, but the candy molds were such a great save. These look SO good.
Guest — September 20, 2011 @ 12:20 am
glad you tried this out… i was skeptical of the FN recipe as well.. looking forward to making it this weekend..
Lisa — November 8, 2011 @ 1:51 am
Just wanted to drop a note and say i've made variations of these twice for a peanut-butter cup type truffle candy, and they were both delicious! First time I made as a pumpkin filling but mixed in a firm cream cheese icing… it was divine and almost like a cadbury creme egg filling! The second time I made it I subbed homemade apple butter for the pumpkin and filled the cups as is and that was great too! I just melted semi-sweet chocolate chips to make a shell in candy baking cups… I might have to make a cherry variety for Christmas gifts! Thanks for the inspiration.
Cara — November 8, 2011 @ 2:43 am
Thanks for the feedback – your truffles sound delish!
Elina (Healthy and Sane) — December 13, 2011 @ 3:59 pm
Ooh, an oldie. Looks awesome! And yes, you are lucky to have such a patient husband… I think I could only make Adam do it once but that's it 😉
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