Truffles

I made these truffles for my birthday. I adapted the recipe from America's Test Kitchen. They don't look like the traditional truffles that are rolled in cocoa powder. I wanted to make something 'fancier', but you can skip the tempered chocolate coating and just roll them in cocoa powder.

Ganache
4.5 ounces dark chocolate, chopped coarse
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/2 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoons Cognac , dark rum, Grand Marnier, Framboise, Kirsch, Frangelico, Amaretto, Kahlua, or port

Chocolate Coating
5 ounces dark chocolate

To make the ganache, melt the chocolate in a double boiler. While the chocolate is melting, microwave heavy cream, butter and honey until the butter melts. Let the cream mixture cool for a couple of minutes and then add it to the melted chocolate. Add the liquor and stir until smooth. Refrigerate the mixture for 30 minutes.

Using a hand held mixer, whip the mixture until it becomes slightly lighter in color (about 30 seconds). Refrigerate the mixture for 20 minutes.

Line a plate with plastic wrap and scoop out the ganache with a spoon (I like to use 2 teaspoon spring loaded cookie/ice cream spoon). Refrigerate for 15 minutes and roll the balls between palms to make them a little smoother. Refrigerate until hard.

Temper the chocolate. Here is how...

Grate 1 ounce of chocolate on small side of a grater and set aside.

Coarsely chop 4 ounces of chocolate and place into a steel proof bowl. Place over barely simmering water and stir until about 1/3 of chocolate melts.

Remove, stir and check the temperature. Place over the water for a couple of seconds and check the temperature again. Continue to do this until the chocolate reaches 110-115 F.

Move to another bowl and stir until the chocolate drops to 95-100 F. Add a tablespoon of the finely chopped chocolate and stir. When that chocolate gets melted, add another tablespoon and stir. Continue until the temperature drops to 89 F. You may not use all of the chocolate.
 
To make the truffles, remove the chilled truffles from the fridge. Drop a truffle into the chocolate, roll it around and take it out with a fork. Tap the fork a couple of times on the edge of the bowl and drop the truffle on parchment or wax paper. Repeat with the rest. Refrigerate until set up and then move to a sealed container. Store in the fridge for up to a week. Let the truffle 'warm up' for 20 minutes or so at room temperature before eating one out of the fridge.