Salted Caramel Chocolate Truffles

Salted Caramel Chocolates have been on my mind for the last three months, maybe because I had a tin of dulce de leche in the cupboard and wanted to make something suitable for the Christmas holiday.   These chocolates by the way are delicious and I’m speaking as a non-caramel eater, this was also the verdict from the people I’ve given them to try.  I’ve made them the easiest way… you only need a teaspoon and a freezer as your equipment.  I had a couple of failures along the way with my experimenting.  I had the brilliant idea of pouring the ganache into a fish shaped ice tray, thinking the ganache would set hard enough like it does with my Easy Chocolate Truffles but no it doesn’t.  The caramel keeps the ganache soft, even frozen they’re still soft enough to put a cocktail stick through.  My fish shaped chocolate idea stayed as an idea, I’ll have to buy proper chocolate moulds to shape these.

Well...no matter…because what made these chocolates a bit temperamental to experiment with is what turned out to be their virtue on eating.  Unlike the Easy Chocolate Truffles these have to be coated in melted chocolate.  The outer layer of chocolate sets and not only protects the soft caramel inside but it’s what gives you the pleasure when eating.  As you bite the thin shell of chocolate cracks to reveal the very soft chocolate caramel which then melts away in your mouth, the two textures work in harmony.  And it’s this surprising softness that has made people turn round to me and say, “How did you do that?” this is a great thing to hear when you’re a cook! People are surprise just how soft the chocolate caramel is inside making them wonder how you were able to solidify them enough to make chocolates…I’ll let you into my secret; the freezer.

Keep Tasting

This is the sort of recipe you’ll have to keep on tasting as you’re making it…I know…terrible isn’t it?…the things you have to endure as a cook! You won’t use all of the caramel and you’ll have to decide how dark you want your chocolate.  Mix the salt and taste, the salt even if you want to keep the amount low is important to balance the sickly sweetness of the caramel.  Please bear in mind when eating the finished product you’ll be eating these cold from the fridge and everything cold dampens down your taste buds, which means at room temperature when testing, it should be slightly over what you like, slightly saltier and just slightly sweeter which will then give you the taste you’re after.

NOTES

Chocolate: Look both in the baking section of the supermarket and the eating chocolate section for choices of 50% and 70% cocoa solid chocolate, on the back most packs will state the percentage of cocoa solids.

Salt: Use pure salt here something like Maldon sea salt is good but just crush the crystals slightly with a pestle (from your mortar & pestle, or anything heavy) to make the measurement more accurate.  I made a batch using 2 teaspoons and husband thought it was perfect for him but my daughter and I thought it was slightly too salty and we were happier with one and half teaspoons, make sure you taste it after one teaspoon and after it’s been melted in the caramel properly to decide if you want to add more.

Salted Caramel: How much of the caramel you’ll need is dependent on the chocolate you’ll use, sometimes even the same percentage cocoa solids will taste different as far as bitterness is concerned.  Be prepared to use anything between 5-8 tablespoons of the caramel, measured spoons.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Truffles

• 150 ml double cream (heavy cream)
• 120-130 grms of good plain chocolate broken into small bits.  I used 50% cocoa solids but if you’re making them for people who love dark chocolate then use 70% coco solids.
• 1 x 400g tin of dulce de leche, see note. I used Carnations caramel.
• 1  – 1  1/2 teaspoons of sea salt, see note. Taste after one it should be saltier than you like but only ever so slightly.

For the Shell of Chocolate

• 150 grms of good plain chocolate.  Either 50% cocoa solids or if want a darker contrast use 70% cocoa solids.
• 2 teaspoons of butter

Melt the chocolate and butter together over a bain marie or in a microwave until melted but then keep the chocolate over a bowl of hot water to keep it runny otherwise it starts to thicken making it difficult to coat the ganache.

Bring the cream to the boil and turn off the heat.  Add the pieces of chocolate and stir until the chocolate is all melted.  Pour into a bowl.

Pour the dulce de leche into a bowl.

Add the salt and stir and put it in the microwave for a minute so the salt dissolves. Taste a bit to make certain salt has dissolved completely.

Once the salt is dissolved stir the dulce de leche into the chocolate ganache.  Taste after 5-6 measure tablespoons and taste if you’re happy.  In one of the batches I added as much as 8 tablespoons.  You want it just ever so slightly sweeter than you like to allow for when the chocolate is cold.

Once the ganache is ready put it in the fridge overnight, or at least 5-6 hours.

Piping
Spoon the set but it will still be slightly soft ganache into a piping bag with a wide funnel and pipe the chocolate on to foil.  (I piped mine straight on to baking sheet which is a mistake). Once piped put the chocolates in the freezer until firmer again, and then you can press the peak down with your finger.

No Piping

You’ll get a rougher looking texture…but who cares? You can just scoop some of the ganache with a teaspoon or a melon scooper as I have here and tip it onto foil.  Put them in the freezer.

Before taking the chocolate out of the freezer make sure the dipping chocolate is melted already.

After a few hours or overnight they’ll be hard but not rock hard and will warm up rather quickly if left at room temperature.  My advice is to take a 5-6 out at a time keep the rest in the freezer while you’re dipping into the melted chocolate.  Put a chocolate stick into each one.

Dip the chocolates into the melted chocolate and put them on foil.  If you don’t want a little flat base as I have in some of mine then let the chocolate drip the excess over the bowl before you placed then on the foil.

Refrigerated them and leave to set for 1-2 hours.  Serve them straight from the fridge.

This was my failed attempt at using my ice-cube tray for moulding the ganache but unfortunately the caramel ganache stayed too soft to work.

Throughout the whole process you want to use foil as it helps to keep the chocolate cold and helps set the chocolate too, don’t do what I did here and piped the ganache straight on to a baking sheet.  Foil is your best friend when it comes to chocolate!

You can see below some haven’t got a flat base because I let them drip the excess chocolate before placing them on to the foil others I was in a hurry…I don’t think anyone will notice…

Once you have dipped into the melted chocolate you can remove the cocktail sticks and cover the hole with more melted chocolate but I don’t mind my Japanese cocktail sticks and it means your hands stay clean when eating them.

You can see how soft the caramel ganache stays inside.

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