French cuisine is synonymous with culinary luxury, and chocolate is part of that. Rich chocolate mousse and chocolate éclairs are famous chocolate creations from in France. Interestingly enough, the chocolate truffle comes out of that same tradition of culinary greatness among patissiers.
In true competitive fashion, the are two stories circulating about the invention of chocolate truffles. Both involve famous French bakers, and regardless of which story you choose to believe, they have one thing in common. Both patissiers believed that their concoction looked like a wild mushroom, so they named their creation after it.
Louis Dufour
According to legend, French patissier Louis Dufour coined the idea for chocolate truffles on Christmas Day, 1895 in Chambray, France. When he ran out of ideas for Christmas treats he could make to sell to his customers, he chose to try something new. He made up a batch of ganache, shaped it into a round ball, and then dipped it into melted chocolate. He then rolled the chocolate-covered ganache balls in cocoa powder.
In 1902, Antoine Dufour immigrated to England and brought his family’s truffle recipe back to London to use in his newly opened Pestat Chocolate Shop. The Dufour family was a well-known family of patissiers. While it is certain that Antoine and Louis Dufour were related, what isn’t known is the degree to which the two men were connected.
Auguste Escoffier
We can attribute another version to an apprentice to the famous 1920s French cooking giant, Auguste Escoffier. The apprentice made a mistake by not pouring the hot cream he had just made into a bowl of beaten eggs and sugar. Instead, he poured the cream into a bowl that was filled with chunks of chocolate. His mistake resulted in ganache. When the paste hardened, he rolled it into a ball. He then rolled the ball into cocoa powder.
The Importance of Ganache in Chocolate Truffles
True chocolate truffles must contain a ganache filling. According to the Joy of Baking, ganache is a French concoction that is made of chocolate and cream. The error made by Escoffier’s apprentice resulted in ganache, although the origin of this creamy delight is uncertain. Historians think it invented around 1850. However, some claim that it originated in Switzerland, and others claim that it originated at Paris’ Patisserie Sarvadin.
Bakers use ganache as frosting for cakes or filling for other pastries. As chocolate became more and more popular, pastry chefs experimented with other flavors to add to ganache to create truffles that had different and distinct tastes. For example, adding peanut butter to a ganache mixture results in mouthwatering chocolate peanut butter truffles. Other possible additions include cognac, champagne, nuts, and more.
Earliest Known Authentic Recipe for Chocolate Truffles
When W.O. Rigby released the 19th edition of Rigby’s Reliable Candy Teacher in the 1920’s, he provided documentation of the earliest known authentic recipe for chocolate truffles. He wrote that chocolate truffles are made by dipping “a plain vanilla cream, one as small as possible in milk chocolate coating, then before the coating dries, roll each piece in macaroon cocoanut so that the cocoanut sticks to the chocolate.” Next, you can lay the coconut covered chocolate vanilla cream balls to set on a piece of wax paper.
Truffles aren’t truffles unless the hardened ball is filled with ganache. Chocolate covered balls that are filled with fruit cream or whipped cream aren’t true chocolate truffles as they were originally conceived of in France. Over the course of the 118 years, bakers and pastry chefs around the world have experimented with different ingredients to add to their ganache. Today, the ganache filling includes everything from fruit to nuts, champagne or even Cognac.
Did you know today was National Truffle Day? Celebrate with our Assorted Milk and Dark Chocolate Box of Truffles.