Here Ken is making heart-shaped truffle shells for our Spice Truffle Collection.

Molded truffles are a lot of fun to create, because once you get it, they can only turn out in perfect form. I wouldn’t say that made them easier for me to make, in fact, if you don’t get it right the first time, the entire batch can be shot. My first batch was shameful. The shells had holes, they weren’t drained well, and… well, I learned an awful lot from the experience. Every one of them had to be recycled.

The first part of creating molded truffles is polishing the molds. This is critical, because a fingerprint on the mold will be transferred onto the surface of every truffle made from it until it is polished out. Once the molds are meticulously polished, they are filled with wet, tempered chocolate, much of which will be returned back into the bowl it came from. At this point, it’s important to vigorously bang the mold as many times as necessary to force out the air bubbles that are taking refuge in the mold. If air bubbles remain, the shells being created in the mold will dry with small holes, which the ganache will peek through, ruining the surface of the truffle, and soiling the mold. This has been my biggest challenge so far, because those little air bubbles do a fine job of hiding out when you can plainly see you have the mold completely covered with chocolate.

After the chocolate is drained as completely as possible, the surface is scraped again, leaving behind a tray of shiny, thin shells, ready for the ganache filling, and ultimately a foot to complete the truffle.