Easy Coffee Truffles
Smooth, rich and dreamy, these coffee truffles will please all but the confirmed coffee hater. Chocolate, cream, coffee and a hint of alcohol, if desired, come together to make a glorious ganache. This square truffle recipe is easy-to-make as there’s no messy rolling or sticky fingers involved. Perfect for both dinner parties and gifting.
Every year I try and make a new chocolate recipe for the festive season. I don’t want you to get bored after all. And it’s also a nod to Tin and Thyme’s chocolate roots. Last year I made swirled chocolate bark which is really easy and great fun to do. But homemade chocolate truffles are hard to beat, so that’s what I’ve gone for this time around.
Dive Right In
- Why Make Coffee Truffles?
- Homemade Coffee Truffles
- Ingredients
- How To Make Coffee Truffles
- Coffee Truffles: Top Tips
- Other Chocolate Truffle Recipes You Might Like
- Keep In Touch
- Pin It
- The Recipe
Why Make Coffee Truffles?
Everyone loves chocolate truffles and homemade ones are the best of all. Here are a few reasons, should you need them, as to why you need to make these coffee truffles.
Budget Friendly – Shop-bought chocolates are pricey and often not that good. Making truffles at home allows you to enjoy top notch quality at a reasonable cost.
Coffee Lover’s Dream – If you enjoy the taste of coffee, or know those who do, these truffles provide a unique, dreamy way to indulge in this popular flavour.
Decadent Indulgence – These truffles have a luxurious, rich flavour and creamy texture. Yet they’re not overly sweet. They combine the depth of coffee with the smoothness of chocolate and the richness of cream. Perfect for entertaining, special treats or gifting.
Easy Method – Unlike traditional truffles that require rolling by hand, this recipe involves pouring the ganache into a tin and cutting it into squares. This makes the process both easier and cleaner.
Holiday Gift – With the winter holidays just around the corner, it’s a great time to have a decadent chocolate recipe up your sleeve. Why not delight friends, family and colleagues with a box of homemade coffee truffles this year?
Homemade Coffee Truffles
These easy coffee truffles are really just ganache dusted with cocoa powder. Admittedly the ganache is a particularly good one and I reckon they’ll delight just about anyone. However, if you want to make them extra special, you can dip them in melted chocolate.
Choose a good quality chef’s chocolate. Dark, milk or a mix of both all work. It just depends on your preference. Chop the chocolate into small pieces then place in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Leave to melt, stir until smooth, then dip the truffles into the chocolate. Place them on a sheet of greaseproof paper to set.
If you go down that route though, they’re no longer what I call easy-to-make.
The beauty of my recipe is that you pour the ganache into a container and let it set. Then instead of gathering up spoonfuls and rolling it into balls with your hands, all you need to do is turn the set slab of ganache out and slice it into squares or rectangles.
This method is so much simpler. It’s not nearly as messy and you don’t waste loads of ganache that inevitably melts as you roll it.
Ingredients, Additions And Substitutions
You can make coffee truffles with just three ingredients, chocolate, cream and coffee. However, I’ve added a few extras that make these homemade chocolates even more sumptuous.
Chocolate
Use a good quality cook’s chocolate or couverture chocolate for this recipe. If buying from your local supermarket, look for it in the baking aisle rather than the confectionary section. It generally has a higher cocoa butter content than ordinary chocolate so that it melts better.
You don’t have to use bars, you can use buttons. But again, make sure they’re chef’s chocolate.
I often find truffles made with just dark chocolate a bit too intense. So when making my own, I prefer to have a mix of both dark and milk chocolate. However, if you’re making them for someone with a sweet tooth, you may want to use a hundred percent milk chocolate instead.
If using only milk chocolate, omit the sugar in the recipe or the truffles will indeed be too sweet.
Cocoa
You need cocoa powder to coat the truffles in. This not only makes them look nice, but it adds flavour too. It also prevents the truffles from becoming sticky.
Make sure you use pure cocoa powder rather than drinking chocolate. It’s just too sweet. It’s fine to use cacao powder, which is raw cocoa powder instead though.
For a slightly more interesting coating, mix a pinch or two of either ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg or ground cardamom into the cocoa powder before dusting.
Coffee
Instant coffee is the best type to use for truffles. Unless you want to make a water ganache rather than a dairy one that is. Granules or powder are both fine, as long as they dissolve easily in liquid.
Use caffeinated or decaf, depending on your preference or who the truffles are destined for.
Dairy
Double cream (heavy cream) is the way to go for coffee truffles. It gives richness as well as a creamy dreamy mouthfeel. Don’t be tempted to use single cream or even whipping cream, you won’t get the desired consistency or flavour.
As well as cream a little unsalted butter helps to give a gorgeous creamy mouthfeel and makes these truffles truly irresistible.
Sugar
Sugar is not something I’d normally add to chocolate truffles. However, in this instance, coffee is quite bitter and I’ve used some very dark chocolate. I find adding just a tiny amount of dark muscovado sugar not only tempers the bitterness, but it adds to the overall flavour.
Omit the sugar if you use only milk chocolate though, or the truffles will be too sweet.
Alcohol (Optional)
A small drop of alcohol enhances the truffles and makes them a little more sophisticated. There’s not so much there though that the truffles taste boozy.
If you want to go down this route, coffee liqueur is the obvious choice. However, if you don’t have any rum works very nicely too. I use rum in mine.
How To Make Coffee Truffles
It doesn’t take much hands-on-time to make these coffee truffles, but you do need to allow time for them to set.
Please refer to the recipe card at the bottom of this post for full instructions, timings and quantities of ingredients used.
Step 1. Prepare Tin
Line a tin with baking paper. Alternatively, do as I do and use a silicone mould instead. There’s no need to waste paper this way. However, do lightly butter the mould first. I use the papers my butter is wrapped in for this.
Step 2. Chop Chocolate
Using a sharp knife and chopping board, cut the chocolate into small pieces. The smaller you can make them, the easier it is for the chocolate to melt.
Scrape the chopped chocolate into a medium sized heatproof bowl.
Cut the butter into small cubes. I omitted to do this in the images you can see above and it took ages for my butter to melt.
Step 3. Heat Cream
Pour the cream into a small saucepan and add the sugar and coffee. Place over a medium heat until the cream is well and truly steaming and bubbles appear around the edge of the pan. Don’t let it boil though.
Whilst it’s heating up, give a quick whisk or stir to dissolve and mix in the sugar and coffee.
Step 4. Make Ganache
Pour the cream over the chocolate whilst it’s good and hot. Place the butter pieces on top. Leave well alone for five minutes so that the chocolate and butter have time to melt.
Stir carefully from the inside out until everything is melted, smooth and incorporated. Then stop stirring. This is because too much mixing can cause the ganache to split.
Add the liqueur, if using and stir again.
Pour the ganache into the lined tin whilst it’s still warm and liquid. Tap the bottom of the tin on the counter top a couple of times to level the ganache.
Then place in the fridge or a cold room to set. It will need around two hours to solidify. If you handle it before it’s properly set, the truffles will lose their shape.
Top Tip
For convenience, you can leave the ganache to set overnight.
Step 5. Cut And Coat
Once the ganache is set, liberally dust a large flat plate with some of the cocoa powder. Then turn the ganache out onto it. If you used paper to line the tin, peel it off.
Using a sharp knife slice the truffles into 48 rectangles (6 x 8 slices), 49 squares (7 x 7 slices) or 64 squares (8 x 8 slices), depending on what size you’d like them.
If you require an exact size, use a ruler, otherwise cut by eye. You can probably tell which route I wend down.
Once cut, dust with more cocoa powder. Using tongs or a pair of forks, carefully turn the pieces on their sides and dust with more cocoa. Keep going until they’re covered all over.
Store in a covered container in the fridge or a cool place and they will last for two weeks. Bring to room temperature before serving.
Coffee Truffles: Top Tips
Melting Chocolate
Use cook’s or couverture chocolate rather than the bars you’d normally buy for eating. This tends to have a higher cocoa butter content which makes it ideal for melting.
Chop the chocolate as finely as you can. This way it’s more likely to melt first time around. You can also use chef’s chocolate drops instead of bars, if you prefer.
If you find the chocolate doesn’t melt completely in the cream, place the bowl over a pan of hot, but not boiling water and leave it for five minutes. Give another stir but leave for longer if needed.
Handling Ganache
When slicing the ganache, dip the knife into a mug of hot water between each cut and wipe with a piece of kitchen towel. The warmth from the knife will create a clean cut.
A chocolate fork, usually used for dipping, really helps with turning the truffle squares and moving them around. It minimises damage.
Making square or rectangular chocolates is an easy way to make truffles. However, if you prefer a more traditional round shape, take teaspoons of the ganache and roll them between the palms of your (cold) hands to create balls. Then roll them around in a bowl of cocoa powder to cover.
Storing Coffee Truffles
Chocolate truffles will keep in a cool place for two weeks. However, serve them at room temperature rather than straight out of the fridge.
If you really want to get ahead, you can make the ganache, pour it into a suitable sized container and freeze it for up to three months. Defrost, then slice and dust with cocoa as per instructions.
Other Chocolate Truffle Recipes You Might Like
- Amaretto truffles
- Gingerbread chocolate truffles (vegan)
- Goat’s cheese chocolate truffles
- Lemon balm chocolate truffles
- Rosemary chocolate truffles
- Whisky truffles with dark chocolate
Keep in Touch
Thank you for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you make these easy coffee truffles, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below. Do you have any recommendations or tips for making chocolate ganache?
Please rate the recipe. If you post pictures of your creations on social media, tag me @choclette8 so I can see them.
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If you’d like more homemade chocolate recipes, follow the link and you’ll find I have quite a lot of them. All delicious and nutritious, of course.
Choclette x
Easy Homemade Coffee Truffles. PIN IT.
Easy Coffee Truffles
Equipment
- 20 cm (8 inch) square silicone cake mould (affiliate link) or same size lined tin
Ingredients
- 150 ml double cream (heavy cream)
- 1 tbsp instant coffee powder
- 1 tsp dark muscovado sugar
- 120 g dark chocolate (I used 80% cocoa solids) – finely chopped
- 180 g milk chocolate (I used 35% cocoa solids) – finely chopped
- 25 g unsalted butter cubed
- 1 tbsp coffee liqueur optional (I used rum)
- 2-3 tbsp cocoa powder
Instructions
- Line a 20 x 20 cm (8 x 8 inch) square tin with baking paper. Alternatively, do as I do and lightly butter the same sized silicone mould instead.
- Pour the cream into a small saucepan and add the sugar and coffee. Place over a medium heat until the cream is steaming and bubbles appear around the edge of the pan. Whilst it’s heating up, give a quick whisk or stir to dissolve and mix in the sugar and coffee.150 ml double cream (heavy cream), 1 tbsp instant coffee powder, 1 tsp dark muscovado sugar
- Place the chopped chocolate in a medium sized heatproof bowl and pour the cream over the top whilst it's good and hot. Place the butter pieces on top. Leave well alone for five minutes so that the chocolate and butter have time to melt.120 g dark chocolate, 180 g milk chocolate, 25 g unsalted butter
- Stir carefully from the inside out until everything is melted, smooth and incorporated. Stirring too much can cause the ganache to separate.
- Add the liqueur, if using and stir again.1 tbsp coffee liqueur
- Pour the ganache into the lined tin. Tap the bottom on the counter top to level it. Then place in the fridge or a cold room to set. It will need around two hours, but you can leave it overnight if that’s more convenient. If you handle it too early, the truffles will lose their shape.
- Once properly set, dust a large flat plate with some of the cocoa powder and turn the ganache out onto it. Peel off the paper.
- Using a sharp knife slice the truffles into 48 large rectangles (6 x 8 slices), 49 large squares (7 x 7 slices) or 64 small squares (8 x 8 slices), depending on how big you'd like them. If you want them to have an exact size, use a ruler, otherwise cut by eye.
- Once cut, dust with more cocoa powder. Using tongs or a pair of forks, carefully turn the pieces on their sides and dust with more cocoa. Keep going until they're covered all over.
coffee and chocolate go so well together! this sounds lovely.
cheers
sherry
They absolutely do. Either one seems to enhance the flavour of the other.