Dark Chocolate Raspberry Truffles

These are one of Christmas chocolates I made this year (technically last year, but you know what I mean). On a related note, while these were Christmas chocolates, they could very easily be Valentine's Day chocolates; between the flavor and the red sugar on top they'd be perfect. The dark chocolate raspberry ganache recipe is from one of the Baked cookbooks. It's raspberry purée (made from frozen raspberries), honey, heavy cream, and good quality dark chocolate.

Various stages of truffle production:
Top; the rolled, uncoated centers
Bottom left; the heavy cream and raspberry mixture before heating
Bottom right; the heated cream mixture poured over the chocolate

I rolled the ganache into balls and coated these truffle centers with not one but two layers of dark chocolate. While the second coat of chocolate was still tacky, I topped them with red sanding sugar. Such a simple decoration, the red sanding sugar adds color (which is always nice in a box of chocolates) and gives a hint as to the flavor. I got the idea from Godiva, who roll their raspberry truffles in red and white sugar.

I don't mean to be cocky, but while we are on the subject of Godiva's raspberry truffles, mine are better. I think the reason is primarily because the individual hand coated truffles are more delicate with a thinner shell and a less distracting amount of sugar. Also the ganache was so fresh and the ingredients were such high quality that the flavor was actually better. Regardless of how these compare to mass manufactured truffles, they are just delicious. There is nothing I didn't like about them...except that I had to give them away!