Home-made cranberry sauce usually tastes better than canned, but the texture might need adjusting when used in this recipe – make sure it's finely chopped or your ganache may be too chunky. Running the sauce through a mini-chopper for a few seconds should do the trick.
By Dede Wilson
Dede Wilson | Truffles: 50 Deliciously Decadent Homemade Chocolate Treats | Harvard Common Press, 2006
"The tart fruity flavor of cranberries – both from cranberry sauce and dried cranberries – balances out the sweetness of white chocolate in this truffle. The cranberries also lend a pinkish color to the ganache centre. Try this recipe with Valrhona ivoire white chocolate." – Dede Wilson
Yield: About 50
Ingredients
6 tbsps. heavy whipping cream
1 1/4lbs. white couverture chocolate, very finely chopped
1 1/2 tbsps. canned whole-berry cranberry sauce
3 tbsps. finely chopped sweetened dried cranberries (each piece should be approximately 1/8 to 1/4 inch)
Confectioner's sugar
50 small fluted paper cups (optional)
Method
Place cream in a 2-quart wide saucepan over medium heat until it just comes to a simmer. Remove from heat and immediately sprinkle 9 ½ oz. of the chocolate into cream. Cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes; the heat should melt the chocolate. Stir very gently until smooth.
Whisk in the cranberry sauce and 2 tbsps. chopped dried cranberries. Pour mixture into a shallow bowl, cool to room temperature, cover with plastic wrap, then refrigerate until firm enough to roll, preferably overnight.
Coat your hands with confectioner's sugar and roll ganache into ¾-inch balls. Place in a single layer on a jelly-roll pan and refrigerate until very firm.
Temper the remaining chocolate (see instructions). Line a jelly-roll pan with aluminum foil, shiny side up, smoothing out any wrinkles, or cover pan with a piece of acetate. Dip truffles in the melted chocolate, or roll in chocolate between your palms, making as thin and even a coating as possible. Place truffles on the prepared pan. Top each truffle with a piece of chopped cranberry while chocolate coating is still wet. Refrigerate until firm. Place in fluted paper cups, if desired, and serve at room temperature.
Truffles © 2006 Dede Wilson. Photo © Harvard Common Press. All rights reserved.