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Ah, Valentine’s Day — the magical time of year when love is measured in overpriced roses, awkward dinner reservations, and, of course, chocolates that cost more per ounce than gold. Nothing says “I love you” like a tiny, overpriced sphere of cocoa and cream, am I right?
Forget grand gestures or heartfelt words — just toss a box of these little confections at your significant other and consider your romantic duties fulfilled. Seriously though, I’m one of the lucky ones who is always spoiled with thoughtful gifts and beautiful evenings. I’m just peeved because I often can’t come up with an amazing Valentine’s gift for my partner aside from additional affection.
If I’m going to play along with this sugar-coated tradition, I insist that my partner indulges in the best truffles that I can make. He’s a big fan of homemade gifts.
So I took a trip in the way back machine in search of old-school chocolate truffle recipes that won’t break the bank.
Prior to 1989, I couldn’t find a single chocolate truffle recipe that wasn’t swimming in alcohol — not on Newspapers.com nor in any of my throwback cookbooks. My partner and I are not big boozers, indulging only in the occasional glass of wine. Evidentially, our parents and grandparents’ generation really liked to get sauced! Maybe that’s why my grandparents had ten kids…
So I landed on this simple, alcohol-free recipe from 1989. It’s a Pittsburgh food editor’s knockoff of a French chocolatier’s truffle:
- 4 ½ cups milk chocolate, melted
- 1 cup whipping cream
- 1 ½ tsp. vanilla
- Unsweetened cocoa powder
Place melted chocolate in a medium-sized bowl. In a 1-quart sauce pan scald cream. Remove from heat and let cool for five minutes. Stir in vanilla. Beat chocolate with an electric mixer. Stop the mixer and pour all the cream at once over the chocolate. Continue beating and clean the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula until well blended. This should take 1-2 minutes.
To form truffles into balls, chill the mixture in a bowl until firm. Shape into balls with a spoon or mini ice cream scoop and your hands. If the mixture is too soft to form, wash and dry your hands and dust with cornstarch. Arrange your turtles on a wax paper-lined baking sheet. Makes 24 to 36 truffles depending on size.
This recipe sounded, to me, like it made a hell of a lot more than 36 truffles based on the 4.5 cups or 1.5 bags of chocolate, so I used my judgment and halved the recipe. I also used dark chocolate since that’s what my partner prefers.
First, I melted the chocolate over a double boiler while scalding my cream in a small saucepan. Once the chocolate was melted, I turned off the heat under the cream. I waited 5 minutes then added the vanilla. Then, I blended the chocolate and cream together with a wooden spoon (I’ve made truffles before, and the electric mixer felt very unnecessary to me) until the mixture was smooth. I placed the bowl in the refrigerator for four hours before scooping.
I scooped the chocolate mixture with a 1 tsp. cookie scoop and formed each scoop into a little ball. Then, I dusted them with Hershey’s unsweetened cocoa powder. My cut-in-half recipe produced 48 truffles.
There are now about 40 truffles for my partner (one is a taste test; eight is an indulgence!). These truffles are so rich, creamy and delicious. The two bags of chocolate cost about $3 each, add the cost of the cream and vanilla, and it’s still an inexpensive way to give a lovely homemade gift.
Feel free to decorate your truffles according to your tastes. You can’t simply sprinkle them with cocoa powder like I did or get creative and drizzle them with pink or red melted chocolate or even indent them with letters saying “I love you.”
You can print my version of this recipe here:
This article appears in Feb 5-11, 2025.
