Sunday, January 16, 2011

Shakolad: Orange and Champagne Truffles - That's a Wrap!

After going through the caramels and mint truffles, my box from Shakolad left me with two final varieties to examine: a white-chocolate based orange truffle, and a dark-chocolate based champagne truffle. To ensure that I got in my fruit for the day, I started with the orange truffle.

Though the white chocolate exterior is very sweet, as it was with the white chocolate mint truffle, the interior offers a strong, tart citrus flavor to cut through that sweetness.

Interestingly, the citrus flavor wasn’t exclusively orange, and I sensed a bit of lemon in the truffle as well. There was a bit of an artificial bite to the flavor, but it wasn’t excessive. Given the great blend of tart interior and sweet white chocolate exterior, I would probably put one or two of these in a box if I were constructing it for myself.

Now, since there is no rest for the chocolate bloggers of the world, onto the champagne truffle, which immediately offers and intense earthy aroma.

This cocoa-covered truffle is quite “ugly” looking, and a thin, soft shell of dark chocolate sits under the cocoa powder. Looks aside, the cocoa on the outside is exquisitely bitter and is the perfect complement to the soft, buttery ganache on the inside.

The ganache has a bit of a taste of powdered sugar along with a sweet champagne undertone, but the sugar addition isn’t excessive and allows the earthy flavor of the dark chocolate to shine through. I thoroughly enjoyed the complement of the super-bitter cocoa powder and the sweetened dark chocolate ganache, and was even more impressed by the thin shell that melded with both and made slow enjoyment of this truffle over several bites a mess-free process. This was by far my favorite variety in the box.

Luckily, Santa brought me four.

They’re all gone.

Oh well. DC has a Shakolad shop just blocks from my office. I can remedy this situation.

Do you like truffles coated in cocoa powder?

8 comments:

  1. Ok, these both sound good. Lucky that you saved the best for last! I made chipotle truffles (surprise :P) last summer and coated them in a cocoa/chili powder mix. I enjoyed it!

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  2. Oh, you saved the best for last :D I don't think I'd try the other ones in the box, but these two sound just like my thing.

    I like the taste of truffles in cocoa butter. What I don't like is that I manage to make such a mess...

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  3. Okay, in my mind, the orange one doesn't exist... but I"d be willign to try the champange one! I don't really eat truffles enough to have firm opinions on cocoa dusting, but I do like the bitterness it lends :)

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  4. @Jessica @ bake me away! Woah, coated in cocoa AND chili powder. Cool stuff. That would be really awesome with a sweet butter milk chocolate ganache.

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  5. @Ana Believe me, a mess was made when I ate that truffle.

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  6. @Hannah Alrighty, I'll hide the orange from you, but if you are going to try a champagne truffle, your first ought to be Teuscher. Yum.

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