Guerrilla Cooking(c)Guerrilla Cooking(c)These should only be made in cool weather. Or in a well air-conditioned home that doesn't have too much moisture in the air. Otherwise, well, they'll look and behave a lot less pleasantly than a truly delectable truffle should. By the way...do NOT share this recipe with any friends who may be famous confectioners (makers of fine candy), French chefs, or otherwise savvy in the making of what they will disdainfully tell you are "real" truffles. No, they're not talking about the grubby little mushrooms pigs are sent to dig for...they mean truffles made with a pound of butter and five cups of cream and eggs and....feh. This recipe has stood the test against many such recipes and won hands down. If you like, do a taste test against some of the greats -- Godiva, Fanny Farmer, Fred the Chocolate Guy -- but be sure to test the same flavor as you're making.
Melt the chocolate over a double boiler (this means a pan of water underneath and the chocolate in its own container up above) over a low heat. This means no Bunsen burner flames and no glowing orange coils if you're working electric. If you don't know what kind of stove you have, well, get help. Fast. And stop breathing in those fumes that come out of the stove.
Here's a neat trick. Don't EVER get water in chocolate. "Like Water for Chocolate" means one goopy, coagulated mess. How, you may ask, are we supposed to put liqueur (so named because it, too, is based in part on a LIQUid?) into our chocolate? Well...carefully.
As soon as the chocolate has melted, and you've stirred it nice and smooth, add BOTH the condensed milk and the Gran Marnier at the same time. MIX IMMEDIATELY. Do not stop to answer the phone, see who's on Oprah, or fill out that winning Publisher's Clearinghouse Sweepstakes entry.
As you mix it, the mixture will coagulate. Well, perhaps coagulate is an unpleasant word for something so delicate and delicious as a truffle...it will, hmm, what's the thesaurus say? Thicken (too bland), clot, congeal, curdle....bleagh. What awful words. All poor choices for cooking. What it'll do is either blend into the most rich-looking, glossy, melt-in-your-mouth-AND-in-your-hands chocolate mass you've ever seen, so that you'll want to sink your face into the bowl and never come out, OR, it will mostly look like that, only there will be little bits of harder looking stuff in it. This would be the chocolate that hardened because of the liquid being added. Generally, it means you DID stop to see who was on Oprah, even if it WAS just a peek.
Anyhow, once it looks either way (they both taste equally good, but only the unlumpy one will have people telling you that the chocolates are truly orgasmic), put the chocolate into the fridge (that big boxy thing that is cool inside) until the mixture acquires a somewhat dulled gloss over the top of it, and is firm to the touch. Use a melon-baller (the thing that looks like a baby ice cream scoop) and carve out as close to perfectly round balls as you can (don't worry, they look MORE homemade if they aren't perfect). If you don't own a melon-baller, settle for a good, strong metal spoon.
Once the balls are made, feel free to either dip them in more melted chocolate and let them cool on a piece of wax paper, or roll them around in cocoa or cocoa and sugar mixture, or in nuts, or bits of candied orange peel - be creative.
Do NOT keep these in the fridge once they are done. Chocolate gets a funny, milky color to it when it has been kept too cold. Unless you put fresh fruit on as a decorative touch, these truffles will last for up to three months in a cool, dry place. Actually, they never get to be that old. People who taste 'em don't need pigs to sniff them out again. Enjoy!