Hand made candy at Christmas is a long standing family tradition & I have shared some of the recipes her on Loree the Domestic Diva in the past. This past December, my husband & I celebrated 30 years of marriage with a vow renewal. I had my dream cake for our wedding, so I decided to make a table full of candy instead.
For that spread, I & my many helpers made three different types of truffles – chocolate mint, chocolate orange, & lemon.
Fast forward almost 7 months & I have completely reevaluated my “only at Christmas” policy. This year, I made lemon truffles for the 4th of July!
Truffles are really simple to make. All you need is candy melts made by Wilton, heavy whipping cream, & flavoring oil. I’m taking them to a gathering, so I made a triple recipe, which made 88 truffles.
Put the candy melts along with 1/4 cup of whipping cream for each bag into a microwave safe, preferably glass, bowl. I made a triple recipe, so I put 3 bags of candy melts & 3/4 cup of whipping cream into my batter bowl.
Microwave until melted, stirring every minute to start & every 30 seconds as it close to being melted.
Once the candy is melted, stir in candy oil of your choice. Today, I used lemon oil.
When working with chocolate, you must use candy oil, also called flavoring oil. Using a water based flavoring or coloring will cause the chocolate to seize & become completely unusable.
If you are planning to dip the truffles into chocolate, go a little heavier on the flavoring. Otherwise, the flavor can be hard to find. I dipped the truffles into white chocolate, so I used a heavy 1 teaspoon for a triple batch. If you plan to roll the truffles in powdered sugar, cocoa, chopped nuts, or coconut, you can use 1/4 teaspoon for each 12 oz bag of candy melts.
Once you have stirred in the candy oil, cover the bowl with plastic wrap & set it in the refrigerator until it is completely cooled & set. For a triple batch in the size bowl that I used, it took 2 1/2 hours.
Once the candy has cooled, roll it into balls. I use about 1/2 tablespoon per ball. Set them on parchment paper on a baking pan.
Place the pan in the refrigerator & start to melt your chocolate to dip them in. I use an electric melting pot for this, but a double boiler works just as well. If you have neither, you will need to melt in the microwave. I have never done that, so I can’t give instructions on how to do it so that the chocolate is tempered correctly.
If you don’t want to dip the truffles, you can roll them in powdered sugar, cocoa, chopped nuts, or coconut. Choose something that will compliment & pair well with the type of chocolate & flavoring that you have chosen. For white chocolate lemon, I use powdered sugar.
I have 3 different types of electric melting pots. The one below is my favorite because the rubber bowl makes it super easy to clean.
Today I used 2 12 oz bags plus 1/4 cups of EZ Melt by Wilton to dip the truffles. I typically don’t need to use the EZ Melt when dipping in light or dark chocolate. The white is usually too thick to give a good coating, so I add 2 tablespoon of EZ Melt per 12 oz bag of candy melts. If you can’t find EZ Melts, 2 tablespoons of shaved paraffin wax can be used instead.
If you don’t have candy dipping tools, you can use a fork. Simply place one truffle at a time into the melted chocolate. Roll it quickly to completely cover. Remove & place on a baking pan lined with parchment paper. Work quickly. The longer the truffle is in the chocolate, it will start to melt.
If you’d like to take the appearance of the truffles to the next level, decorate them. I usually drizzle them with a color that either compliments the flavor profile or that goes with the season or celebration. For the 4th of July, the obvious choice was red & blue.
I pulled out my double pot electric melting pot & place a small amount of blue candy melts in one pot & a small amount of red in the other.
Once the candy was melted, I put it into a decorating bag from Wilton. It’s a really simple process.
First trim off the point of the bag. For the size of the coupler from the Wilton candy decorating tips, cutting it right below the purple triangle on the bag is perfect. The set contains 3 different tips & 1 coupler. Using the coupler makes it simple to change tips without using a new bag for each.
Place the coupler in the bag so that the threaded end is coming out of the bag opening & twist on the tip. I used the one with 3 small holes for drizzling.
The easiest & least messy way to get the melted chocolate into the bag is to use a glass or cup. Simply set the bag into the glass tip down. Pull the bag down around the glass to create an opening. Pour the chocolate into the bag.
Gently push the chocolate down in the bag while pressing the air out.
Drizzle the melted chocolate over the truffles with quick back & forth motions. If you need to stop, restart the drizzle so that the chocolate falls onto the parchment paper rather than the truffles. Stopping causes a blob of chocolate to form when you restart.
If using more than one color, Finish drizzling the first color before you put the melted chocolate of the second color into its bag. If you put both colors into bags before you start the first one, the second can cool & be difficult to work with.
If you want to keep the colors warm when you are not working with them, you can use a heating pad. Turn the heating pad on low. Place bags not in use on one end & fold the other end over the top.
As you place truffles onto a plate for serving or an airtight container for storage, trim off excess chocolate.
When storing, place a piece of parchment paper or wax paper between layers to prevent sticking.
Truffle Recipe:
- 12 oz Wilton Candy Melts
- 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/4-3/8 teaspoon candy oil
If Rolling:
- powdered sugar, cocoa, chopped nuts, or coconut
If Dipping:
- 8 oz Wilton Candy Melts
- 2 tablespoon EZ Melt, if using white Candy Melts
Loree the Domestic Diva 
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