Everybody loves chocolate. So it goes without saying that chocolate truffles would make an excellent gift. Homemade chocolate truffles is an extra special gift idea. I made these for holiday gifts last year and people loved them and were amazed when I told them I made them. Making the real chocolatier-grade truffles while not difficult is still a fairly delicate process, but they are worth it. The two biggest keys to making successful and memorable truffles is the timing, which is explained in the recipes linked in this article, and the chocolate used. Purchase high-quality bittersweet chocolate  that is around 70% cacao. My personal favorite Dagoba’s organic and award-winning New Moon which is 74%. Dagoba has a decent fair trade and ecological philosophy too. The other high quality bittersweet that I use is Valrhona’s Le Noir Amer which is 71% cacao.

One of the best places to find truffle gift recipes would be epicurious.com. The recipes that I have used as a base were Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles and Robert Linxe’s Chocolate Truffles. I then played off the bittersweet chocolate truffles to make Mango Curry Truffles, and Balsamic Truffles with Toasted Hazelnuts. You can also make this a fun, creative and memorable gift by adding traditional elements like toasted nuts, crushed candy canes, coconut, or be adventurous and try cayenne, lemon juice or orange juice. The Robert Linxe’s truffles I pretty much left as is, as they are delightful with no additions.

After your truffles have cooled place them in gift boxes. Sugarcraft.com has a good assortment of candy gift boxes. I chose one of the plain white ones and printed and cut my own personalized gift labels using Avery full sheet labels.

Have fun and be creative making truffles for gifts. If you have been successful with a particular truffle recipe or have homemade gift ideas of your own please include them in the comments.

Homemade Gift Idea #100: Homemade Truffles is a post from: 100 homemade gift ideas

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