Easy Lemon Truffle Recipe (2024)

FAQs

How to prepare a truffle? ›

Typically, truffles are thinly shaved on top of a cooked meal but if you grate them on a Microplane instead, the fine shavings incorporate better with the dish. Truffles are commonly used in pasta dishes, risotto, sauces, or grated over seafood or meat.

What do I do if the truffle mixture is too sticky? If your chocolate truffles are sticky when you're rolling them into balls, it's probably because they aren't fully set yet. Place them back in the fridge until the chocolate is very firm, but still soft enough to form into shape.

If the mixture is getting too soft, put it in the fridge or freezer and let it firm up before continuing.

Shaving and Slicing: A truffle slicer/shaver helps you slice your truffle into paper-thin slices. This gives the most truffle flavour and gets the most servings out of your truffle. In some recipes, a grater or microplane is used.

When restaurants or home cooks use truffles as a garnish, it's done usually by grating raw truffles with a microplane grater on top of a dish. You can often find these truffle-topped dishes when dining out at luxury restaurants.

Pop the scoops of truffle filling onto a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet and refrigerate until slightly hardened, about 15 minutes. This makes them MUCH easier to roll into smooth balls. Roll the balls between your palms to smooth them into even spheres.

The animals dig up the truffle, and the truffle spores become dispersed. The truffles we prefer to eat have evolved to attract swine (hence the tradition of putting pigs to work hunting them). The truth is, the truffle itself doesn't taste like much. It is the gas that gives truffles their flavor.

Truffles are extremely pungent, and for this reason should never be cooked as your main ingredient, but rather as a powerful accent. A modest handful of grated or shaved truffle can pack a surprisingly strong punch.

Whilst total anosmia is extremely rare, partial anosmia, the inability to taste a small number of specific flavours, is actually quite common. Amazingly, up to 30% of the population cannot detect androstenone, which is one of the chemicals used in scent-based truffle hunting.

Later in the season summer truffles start to develop a pleasant – but still fairly mild – earthy and mushroomy flavour. In the earlier part of their season they are almost completely without taste or aroma – you might as well grate cardboard onto your food – they're used for appearance only.

What is the best chocolate to use for truffles? ›

The Best Chocolate for Truffles

Look in the baking aisle for chocolate with 60% or higher cacao content. Guittard makes chocolate baking bars with 64% and 70% cacao content. Ghirardelli's also makes baking bars with 60% and 70% cacao content. We also like Scharffen Berger.

Scoop the truffle mixture into mounds on a lined baking sheet. (Pictured above.) Refrigerate for 20-30 minutes so the mounds “dry out.” After that, they are a little less sticky to roll.

Pound for pound, truffle is one of the most expensive foods you can buy. The reason behind such high costs is the scarcity of the produce, truffles are seasonal, extremely difficult to grow, and take many years to cultivate. They also have a short shelf life.

Black truffles are peeled and can be used raw or lightly cooked, while white truffles are just carefully wiped and cleaned and should never be cooked. They have a unique, delicate taste and are usually sliced raw directly onto the dish.

While it is technically possible to eat truffles by themselves, most people do not choose to do so. Truffles are highly flavorful and aromatic, but their taste can be overpowering and intense when eaten alone.

Remove any soil from your truffles just before eating them by washing them with water and gently brushing them. They must be spotless, as they will be eaten unpeeled.

Truffles are known for their earthy, umami-rich flavor and heady, musky aroma. Their flavor is sometimes compared to mushrooms, although truffles are more intense and complex in taste and far more fragrant. The exact profile varies by variety, season and quality, incorporating nutty, garlicky or floral notes.