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!
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. 🙂
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!
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.
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, rum balls, and Oreo balls.
See Your Recipe Success!
Many readers tried this recipe as part of a baking challenge!
PrintHomemade Chocolate Truffles Recipe
- 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
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 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
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.
Hi, Sally! Absolutely love all your recipes. How would I go about adding extracts for different flavors? And any piquets? What amount of say fruit extracts and what amount of chambord or amaretto or Bailey’s. Thank you
Thanks Francie! See my recipe notes about adding flavors.
I’ve made these twice and will be making for a graduation party in a couple of weeks. Will be using Bailey’s in them, as most everyone will be “of drinking age”, all adults. I’ve read the tip about using cocoa powder on your hands to help will rolling, but I was wondering if confectioners/powdered sugar would work instead?
Thanks for another great and yummy recipe.
Hi Sheila, You can use powdered sugar on your hands, they will just have a different look on the outside 🙂 Enjoy!
Playing catch up on Sally’s baking challenge I was super excited to make my first ever successful batch of homemade chocolate truffles! I did a dark chocolate raspberry with a semi sweet shell and a milk chocolate orange with a semisweet shell. These truffles were perfectly smooth and melt in your mouth decadent! I couldn’t believe once again how easy they were. I may never buy truffles from the store again. I used Ghiradelli chocolate for everything and flavored with extracts. My milk chocolate truffle was less thick then the dark chocolate but still perfect. I #sallysbakingchallenge #sallybakingchallenge2019 #sallysbakingaddiction #februarychocolatetruffles @sallybakeblog
I made these for Valentine’s Day and they were so good. I accidentally misread the recipe and only used one chocolate bar but they still tasted amazing. I’ll use two bars next time though. My husband loved them!
Super easy to make. I used dairy-free chocolate (dark chocolate) and coconut milk to accommodate a food allergy. I made half coconut (with coconut extract, rolled in shredded coconut) and the other half with orange extract. You can’t even taste the coconut in the orange ones. The ones I rolled in shredded coconut were less sticky and easier to work with.
Thank you for the excellent recipe for the truffles. They were easy to make and equally tasty.
These were so easy and delicious!!
They were super creamy and luscious!
Time consuming, but very creamy and delicious. I used 1/2 dark chocolate and 1/2 semi-sweet and they turned out great.
Made the truffles a couple of weeks ago for guests as an after dinner treat and they were very impressed. I rolled them in a cocoa/icing sugar combo, desiccated coconut, granulated sugar and ground almonds. I divided it into 2 separate batches and added Arran Gold (a local delicacy like Baileys only much much better!). Overall really delicious! Slightly harder to roll into a round ball than I thought. I’ll definitely make them again!
Soooo good! Just made truffles for the first time ever and they are really good. The instructions and tips made it easy to follow. I did peppermint flavored and peanut butter flavored truffles. Thank you Sally for the amazing recipe!
This recipe was amazing! My son tried one and said: “these are so good! Have you tried them!?” Lol. Simple and easy to make with few ingredients. Fair warning…stopping at eating one is very difficult!
Made these today with dark chocolate and added some espresso powder. So good and easy! Your recipes never let me down!
These came out great! My only options were 56% “semi-sweet” or 100% “unsweetened” Baker’s bars. I used the 56% and lowered the cream down to 1/2 cup since I was figuring the 2/3 cup was more for around 70%.
Thanks Sally for all the tips. I was short on time so I put the mixture in the freezer for 40 minutes and it firmed up well. Used semisweet and dark chocolate and the cream ratio worked. Instead of rolling I took a mound and dropped it into the topping and gentle sprinkled the topping onto it and reshaped gently – they look pretty much spherical.
Made these a few times now. An absolute hit.
Both times I added the optional butter and vanilla. Wouldn’t change a thing.
Great recipe!!!thank you!!!
I made a half batch of these for me and my husband on Valentine’s Day. Super simple and delicious!
This was my first time making chocolate truffles! The recipe was so easy to follow and fun to make, I felt like a chocolatier. Not to mention they tasted so good. Thank you for making me a better baker!
Absolutely loved making these chocolate truffles this month! I made a mixture of dark and milk chocolate with a number of different toppings including honeycomb, white chocolate swirl and Cadbury’s cocoa.
Delicious – thank you Sally 🙂
So simple, so delicious!!!! Made that’s for a special Valentine’s Day dessert for my husband and our boys. They were a huge hit! I never would have thought truffles this yummy were also insanely easy to make. Sally, your recipes are always perfection.
So much fun to make! They were the perfect Valentine’s day treat
Made this recipe for Valentines Day. It was delicious! An easy recipe.
May I suggest mentioning the reduction of cream for milk chocolate both times you talk about types of chocolate? When reading the page I got to the second place in the page where it’s mentioned in the recipe notes and assumed it was just repeating what you had said earlier because it was the same wording and other things were being repeated, and didn’t see that there was more crucial information.
These were amazing! I’ll definitely be making these again.
I’d love to try these for tomorrow so hopefully someone can answer my question. If I want to try 1/2 semisweet and 1/2 milk should I still only ro 1/2 cup heavy cream or 2/3? Would it make a difference if I used 1/2 dark 1/2 milk or is that the same thing as semisweet? Thanks!
I recommend sticking with 2/3 cup of heavy cream. Or use 9 Tablespoons, which is halfway between 1/2 cup and 2/3 cup. 🙂
Love this recipe. It was super easy to make and everyone loved them. I brought them into work and everyone was impressed and asked for the recipe. I’m going to make them this weekend, when I go visit my parents.
I carefully weighed my ingredients, but I found the ratios of cream to chocolate to be off for both milk and dark chocolate. I used Schraffen Berger 77% for the dark chocolate and it was entirely too solid and the butter solids appeared to separate from the chocolate after refrigeration even though the mixture was smooth, and definitely not broken. I used Trader Joe’s milk chocolate and it came out as more of a thick frosting texture and was not nearly solid enough. I adjusted to 10oz if milk chocolate and 4oz of cream and it turned out better. I’m going to reattempt the dark chocolate too, but am more hesitant because it was pricey chocolate! It seems the correct ratios really depend on the brand of chocolate that is being used. These are nice starting guidelines, but it was frustrating not to get good results.
I made these for a party last week and they were a huge hit! They were harder to roll than I anticipated but they still turned out beautiful! They are very rich and so yummy. I rolled mine in coconut, sprinkles, toffee, and red velvet oreo cookie crumbs. Yum!
I didn’t see the comment about using less cream if using milk chocolate until AFTER I melted everything together. It has been in fridge for 1.5 hours and still very thin, so probably won’t come to truffle consistency, but the flavor is still great! Bummed but I will definitely try again. And in the meantime hope my chocolate mixture will thicken!
First time making truffles. They were so easy and delicious…..they melt in your mouth!
Brought some to a morning get together and they were a big hit!