Chocolate Raspberry Truffles

Homemade truffles always look like bakery work and rarely are. This version is foolproof: melt milk chocolate morsels with cream and butter, stir in raspberry jam, freeze the mixture until scoopable, roll into balls, and dip in melted white chocolate. Four dozen bite-size chocolates in under an hour of active time.

The jam is the flavor magic. Two tablespoons of raspberry melts into the ganache and adds a perfumy fruit note that expensive truffle shops charge fifty cents a piece for. Use good-quality seedless jam; seeds show up visually and texturally in finished truffles.

The freeze-then-roll technique is non-skippable. Warm ganache smears everywhere; frozen ganache scoops cleanly and holds its shape long enough to dip.

The white chocolate coating cracks beautifully against the dark ganache center. If you want to be fancy, drizzle dark chocolate over the cooled whites for a striped look.

Pro Tips

• Use real white chocolate (with cocoa butter) rather than white candy melts for better flavor.
• Add 1 teaspoon of shortening to the melted white chocolate for a thinner coating that dips easily.
• Work fast; ganache balls soften quickly out of the freezer.
• Store truffles refrigerated; they melt at room temperature.

Variations

• Swap apricot jam or orange marmalade for raspberry.
• Use dark chocolate morsels instead of milk for a more intense truffle.
• Roll in cocoa powder or chopped nuts instead of dipping in white chocolate.