These homemade chocolate truffles are extra creamy with the addition of butter. After mixing the 4 ingredients together, let the mixture set in the refrigerator, then roll into balls. Follow this homemade truffles recipe and the helpful video tutorial below!

Homemade chocolate truffles with various coatings

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Making homemade chocolate truffles couldn’t be easier and after watching the video tutorial below, you’ll agree with excitement! They come together faster then even homemade peanut butter eggs. Homemade truffles are the perfect quick & easy treat for holidays and I’m right here to guide you along. Ditch the boxed chocolates!

Chocolate lovers, rejoice. 🙂

Homemade chocolate truffles on Valentine's Day heart plate

Chocolate truffles are a deeply indulgent chocolate treat made from chocolate and cream. They’re essentially balls of chocolate ganache. And great news: they sound so much fancier than they are to make!

If you’re making these around Valentine’s Day, I love coating them in pink and red sprinkles. Pair with Valentine’s Day cookies and Valentine’s Day cupcakes for a trio of epic February 14 treats!

Only 2 Ingredients in Chocolate Truffles

Chocolate and heavy cream are the only ingredients in homemade chocolate truffles. However, I add 2 extra ingredients for texture and flavor. These extras will turn your regular truffles into the BEST CHOCOLATE TRUFFLES. And after writing an entire cookbook on truffles and candy recipes, I know that’s a fact!

Chocolate: 8 ounces of quality chocolate is the base of chocolate truffles. Do not use chocolate chips because they will not melt into truffle consistency. Chocolate chips are great for recipes like chocolate chip cookies where we want the chips to stay mostly intact, but here want to reach for quality chocolate bars which are sold as 4 ounce bars in the baking aisle. Use milk chocolate for sweeter truffles or semi-sweet/dark chocolate for extra rich truffles. If using milk chocolate, reduce the cream to 1/2 cup as milk chocolate is much softer than dark chocolate.
Heavy Cream: Heavy cream or heavy whipping cream is also a base ingredient. Do not use half-and-half or any other liquid because the truffles won’t set up properly. See recipe note for a non-dairy alternative.
Butter: 1 scant Tablespoon of softened butter transform these into the creamiest truffles you will ever taste. You will never go back!
Vanilla Extract: Pure vanilla extract adds exceptional flavor to your chocolate truffles.

With so few ingredients, it’s imperative to follow the recipe. After years of candy making, I find the ratio of 8 ounces of chocolate to 2/3 cup heavy cream is the most favorable. Truffles are too firm with less liquid. Stick to this recipe for truffle success!

Chopped chocolate on a wood cutting board for truffles

2 images of warm chocolate ganache chilled chocolate ganache in glass bowls

chocolate truffles before shaping on a parchment lined baking sheet

How to Make Chocolate Truffles in 5 Steps

Warm Cream: Pour warm cream over chopped chocolate.
Do Nothing: Before stirring, let the warm cream and chocolate sit in the bowl for a few minutes. Don’t touch it!
Stir: Stir until the chocolate is melted.
Refrigerate: Refrigerate until the mixture is set, about 1-2 hours.
Roll: Roll into balls and coat in toppings like sprinkles, cocoa powder, or crushed nuts. You can also dip the truffles in melted or tempered chocolate. See my dark chocolate coconut rum truffles post for a video on how to do so. And I have an in-depth explanation for tempered chocolate in Sally’s Candy Addiction if you have a copy.

Sticky Situation: These are extra creamy truffles, which are the most delicious variety. The downside to creamy truffles is that they’re sticky to roll. You can wear rubber gloves or coat your hands in cocoa powder, but here is my #1 trick and it makes rolling SO MUCH EASIER. 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. You can watch me do this in the video tutorial.

2 images of chocolate truffle balls in various coatings and rolling a truffle in a white bowl of chocolate sprinkles

Troubleshooting Truffles

Even though there are so few ingredients and steps, a couple mishaps can happen. Let me help you troubleshoot through the chocolate truffle recipe.

The chocolate won’t melt: One trick for successful truffles is to chop the chocolate into very small pieces. The finer the chocolate chunks, the quicker they’ll melt. Additionally, the chocolate might not melt because the cream is not hot enough. Make sure it is simmering warm before pouring over the chocolate. If the chocolate still isn’t melting, place the heat-proof bowl over a pot of 1 inch of simmering water and stir until melted. I usually do this.
The ganache won’t thicken: Make sure you are using quality chocolate, not chocolate chips, and heavy cream. You can also pour the mixture into a shallow dish so it thickens quicker. And finally, keep it in the refrigerator until thickened.
The chocolate is greasy and separating: If the truffle mixture is greasy or separating, the heavy cream was too hot.
The truffle mixture is too sticky: See “Sticky Situation” above.
Rolled truffles are too dry for toppings: Mash the truffle between your palms and re-roll so it’s sticky enough for the toppings.

By the way, if you love chocolate truffles, you will flip for these peanut butter balls, cookie dough truffles, rum balls, and Oreo balls.

stack of chocolate truffles rolled into cocoa powder and sprinkles on a red plate

See Your Recipe Success!

Many readers tried this recipe as part of a baking challenge!

Homemade Chocolate Truffles Recipe

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.7 from 125 reviews

Author: Sally
Prep Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Cook Time: 0 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Yield: 20-24 truffles
Category: Dessert
Method: Shaping
Cuisine: American

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Description

These homemade chocolate truffles are extra creamy with the addition of butter. After mixing the ingredients together, let the mixture set in the refrigerator, then roll into balls. You can coat in your favorite toppings and add lots of fun flavors, too! The mixture gets a little sticky, so refer back to my tips in the blog post above.

Ingredients

two 4-ounce quality semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate bars (226g), very finely chopped*
2/3 cup (160ml) heavy cream*
optional: 1 Tablespoon (14g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
optional: 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
toppings: unsweetened cocoa powder, sprinkles, crushed nuts, melted or tempered chocolate

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Instructions

Place the chocolate in a heat-proof bowl. Set aside.
Heat the heavy cream until it is simmering. You can heat it on the stove or in the microwave.
Add the butter, if using, to the chocolate and pour the heavy cream evenly on top. Let the warm cream and chocolate sit for 5 minutes minutes. Add the vanilla extract then stir until the chocolate has completely melted. Place a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface (to avoid condensation) and refrigerate for 1-2 hours. Tip: Pour into a flat shallow dish, such as a 8-inch square baking pan, so the mixture evenly and quickly sets.
Scoop the set truffle mixture into 2 teaspoon-sized mounds. This small cookie scoop is the perfect size. For larger truffles, 1 Tablespoon size mounds. Roll each into balls. This gets a little sticky, so see my tips above.
Roll each into toppings, if desired. Truffles taste best at room temperature!
Cover tightly and store truffles at room temperature for 3-4 days or in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Notes

Freezing Instructions: For longer storage, freeze up to 3 months with or without toppings. Thaw in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature, if desired, before enjoying.
Make Ahead Instructions: Prepare the truffle mixture through step 3. The mixture must chill in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours or up to 3 days. If chilling for longer than 4ish hours, let the mixture sit on the counter for several minutes to soften into scoop-able consistency.
Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Small Cookie Scoop | 8-inch Square Pan (optional but helpful when chilling the chocolate mixture)
Chocolate: Use quality chocolate, the kind sold in 4 ounce bars in the baking aisle. Do not use chocolate chips. The higher quality chocolate you purchase, the better your truffles will taste. I love Baker’s or Ghirardelli brands. If you want to splurge, Scharffen Berger is exceptional! Semi-sweet or dark chocolate make a very intense chocolate truffle and milk chocolate yields a sweeter truffle. If using milk chocolate, reduce the cream to 1/2 cup as milk chocolate is much softer than dark chocolate. Do not use white chocolate in this recipe because it’s too thin. Here is a white chocolate truffles recipe to use instead. You can leave out the lime flavoring.
Heavy Cream: Heavy cream or heavy whipping cream is the only liquid that will melt the chocolate into the proper truffle consistency. Do not use half-and-half or milk. The only non-dairy substitute is canned full-fat coconut milk (not the refrigerated kind). Shake it up and use in the recipe as you would heavy cream.
Butter and Vanilla Extract: Both are optional, but butter makes truffles extra creamy and vanilla extract adds wonderful flavor.
Flavors: Instead of vanilla extract, use 1/2 teaspoon or 1 teaspoon (depending how strong of a flavor you want) raspberry, coconut, orange, peppermint, or strawberry extract. Or leave out the extract and add 1-2 Tablespoons of your favorite liqueur. I also have hazelnut truffles and key lime truffles recipes too!
Halved/Doubled: Recipe can easily be halved, but I do not recommend doubling. Instead, make 2 separate batches.

Sally McKenney

Sally McKenney is a baker, food photographer, and New York Times best-selling author. Her kitchen-tested recipes and step-by-step tutorials have given millions of readers the knowledge and confidence to bake from scratch. Sally’s work has been featured on TODAY, Good Morning America, Taste of Home, People, and more.