Orange Chocolate Truffles

I did it finally! I'd never made any sort of "candy" or "chocolate" before...only cakes and pies and tarts. Things I consider to be rather easy and intuitive, frankly. However, I decided I wanted to try my hand at chocolatier-ing. I found a pretty descriptive recipe of an orange chocolate truffle, and after having read it over I decided that I wanted to do some of my own changes to it. Because I'd never done it before, I thought it would be prudent to do something small at first...and then start making up my own ideas! To this recipe I simply added cloves.

I worried that I would somehow mess them up, but I was assured that I really, really did not. They're absolutely delicious! I can't wait to try my hand at making more, and more interesting ones at that. I've already got some great ideas...

Also, please excuse the pictures...my very nice camera's battery died partway through this and I had to use a camera phone.

So what is a truffle? My boyfriend thought they were those super-expensive fungi and asked if there was any in what I'd made. He's right, although still an idiot. :) Truffles are indeed the mushroomy things pigs look for in French fairy tales, and are ridiculously expensive. However, the chocolate-y treat that we know as a truffle simply means a creamy center with a harder exterior. They can be flavored with anything: fruit, champagne, peanut butter, caramel....options are endless!

Now that we know what a truffle is, let's get to work on the creamy inner filling. First off, know you'll be grating tons of orange. Here is a bowl of the thickly grated orange peel that I'll infuse my creamy center with:

Essentially you're going to make a cream base with orange in it, then cover and let it infuse for about 30 minutes! Here is the picture of me straining out the chunks of orange from the cream. If you don't have a fine strainer, a colander and spoon will work well; simply press the cream into a bowl:

In my case, this creamy center also was chocolate-y, so I had to melt some chocolate. To do this, you can either use a double boiler, melt them in the microwave, or put a bowl on top of a saucepan of water. As long as it's medium-ish heat and you're stirring and watching the chocolate, you'll be ok. Just don't let it burn! You mix the orange-cream with the chocolate, and in this case also some cloves:

Finally you're done! Chill until malleable, then form into little balls and either chill or freeze until hard. While this is going on, you'll be preparing the outer chocolate-y shell. Below is a picture of the centers:

This chocolate is supposed to be tempered, which means you actually are changing the structure to form precise crystals. This makes a glossy, snappy, stable chocolate that's easy for dipping. To do this it is a painstaking process of getting it to a certain temperature, then adding more chocolate until it cools to another temperature, then briefly reheating....ugg. If you do this all the time, you have a tempering machine. If you love this kind of thing, you do it by hand. If you're me, you artificially temper the chocolate by adding a couple tablespoons of oil. You should notice the texture is very different, very smooth and soft:

Finally, you dip your centers into this tempered chocolate (I used two spoons) and put back in the fridge/freezer until hard. To eat you remove them as needed, wait a minute or two for them to warm up, and then eat! Om nom nom: