Milk Chocolate and Passion Fruit Truffles

My friend Deena is having a baby! She is scheduled to go into the hospital tonight so if everything goes well, we should welcome baby S. into the world some time tomorrow. I want to have something to bring for her besides some beautiful flowers, so I decided to make some milk chocolate and passion fruit truffles from Pierre Herme’s Chocolate Desserts.

Deena is one of those friends who always has a special detail waiting every time she comes to see us or even when we go to see her, she always wants to send us home with food or flowers or some little token for our little boy. She has always been that way.

She has had some busy weeks during the last trimester so she deserves the best and some relaxation… although now that I think of it, there might not be much of that from now on and I speak from experience!

These truffles will be my entry for this month’s Sugar High Friday which is hosted by Habeas Brulee and the theme is sweet gifts. Perfect, isn’t it? Most of us bake and cook to give and to share with our loved ones so I thought this was a fantastic theme for a blogging event.

The truffles are really, really soft, just like a perfect ganache should be. However, the recipe suggests finishing them by rolling them in powdered sugar which didn’t work very well for me. I found that this ganache would be better if it were dipped in tempered chocolate or as a filling for a molded candy. This ganache needs to be refrigerated, which makes it “sweat” so when it’s rolled in the powdered sugar, the sugar starts to melt and in a few minutes, turns into a crust almost like a glazed doughnut. So I ended up rolling them in really good quality Valrhona cocoa powder.

Overall, it is a lovely ganache, very smooth and balanced. The sweetness of the milk chocolate goes great with the tartness of the passion fruit puree. The dried apricots are a great texture and sweetness too. Unexpected but excellent.

Next time, I will temper some chocolate and dip the truffles in it. Tempering is not complicated but it does require some practice and a cool room, which I don’t have as the temperatures in Florida are starting to reach the 80’s now.

Milk Chocolate and Passion Fruit Truffles

adapted from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme

210 grams milk chocolate
25 grams dried apricots, small dice
1 Tbs water
80 grams passion fruit puree
45 grams organic heavy cream
1/2 Tbs wild raw honey
30 grams organic unsalted butter, room temperature

Mix the chopped apricots with the water and let them plump up. When you are ready to add them to the ganache, drain them and pat them dry with a paper towel.

Place chopped milk chocolate in a bowl big enough to hold all ingredients. In a saucepan, bring cream, passion fruit puree and honey to a boil. Pour over the chopped chocolate. Whisk until chocolate melts. Let this mixture cool a little bit. Add the softened butter and mix until all incorporated. Add the chopped and plumped apricots.

Let the ganache set in the refrigerator and when hard, make small balls and roll them in good quality cocoa powder.