Book reviews by Mobilism's Book Review team
May 18th, 2017, 5:18 pm
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TITLE: Truffles: 50 Deliciously Decadent Homemade Chocolate Treats
AUTHOR: Dede Wilson
GENRE: Non-Fiction, Cookbooks, Food & Drink > Desserts > Confectionery
PUBLISHED: Aug 26, 2006
RATING: ★★★★☆

PURCHASE LINKS: iBookstore Amazon
MOBILISM LINK: Read Here

Review: Someone, but an obviously intelligent person, once said, "There are four basic food groups: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and chocolate truffles.” As a hardcore chocoholic, I could not agree more, “I never met a chocolate I didn't like.”

If you too are a chocoholic and want to start making your own chocolate but don’t know where to begin, I say start here, chocolate truffles are not as complicated or hard as making chocolates. They are perfect items to start making your own; I like gifting them to people on festive occasions rather than buying them.

Dede Wilson was a contributing editor for Bon Appetit magazine for 15 years, and has hosted two tv shows, Seasonings and The Holiday Table. She has authored many cookbooks on patisserie items. (Cupcakes, doughnuts, wedding cakes, cake balls, cookies, holiday candies, and... chocolate truffles.)

I like that Dede starts with Truffle Basics, where she explains the kind of chocolate to use, various truffle techniques, such as Making Ganache, how to Form Truffles, how to store them, how long they'll last, the kind of tools that one would require to make them and instructions to temper chocolate. There is also an entire truffle troubleshooting section that explains what went wrong and how to rectify the same.
TRUFFLE TROUBLESHOOTING

    If fat from chocolate and cream separates as ganache cools: While the ganache is still liquid, blend it with an immersion blender.
    If ganache is too soft to roll into balls: Too much cream was used in the ganache. Refrigerate or freeze until stiff enough to roll.
    If ganache centers are too hard: Make sure to eat the truffles at room temperature. If they are still too hard, make the ganache with additional cream next time.
    If dipped or rolled outer coating of melted chocolate cracks: The centers were too cold when dipped.
    If dipped coating is streaked: The chocolate was not tempered properly.
    If rolled toppings won't stick: The centers are too cold. Warm them up with a quick roll between your palms before coating.
    If there is leftover tempered chocolate: Spread it on foil, allow it to harden, then reuse.
    If flavors of truffle are muted: Make sure to eat them at room temperature rather than cold.


Truffles is a cookbook, with a good amount of pictures and 50 recipes of various varieties (dark, milk, and white). Each recipe makes about 40-90 truffles for every taste and occasion, containing fruits, nuts, spices, spirits, or other exotic flavours but these can be easily doubled or halved per your needs. Recipes are simple and basic steps are repetitive with exceptions for the flavour pairings or coatings. Some of my favourite flavours are raspberry, cappuccino, espresso, cognac, passion fruit, hazelnut, pistachios, and dusted classic bittersweet chocolate truffles.

Cocoa-Dusted Classic Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles

Makes about 80

1 ⅔ cups heavy whipping cream
1 pound bittersweet couverture chocolate, very finely chopped
Dutch-processed cocoa powder
Natural cocoa powder
80 small fluted paper cups (optional)

Place cream in a 2-quart wide saucepan over medium heat until it just comes to a simmer. Remove from heat and immediately sprinkle chocolate into cream. Cover and allow to sit for 5 minutes; the heat should melt the chocolate. Stir very gently until smooth.
Pour mixture into a shallow bowl. Cool to room temperature, cover with plastic wrap, then allow to sit, preferably overnight, until firm enough to roll. (Or you may refrigerate ganache until firm, about 4 hours.)
Coat your hands with cocoa powder and roll ganache into ¾- to 1-inch balls.
Toss truffles in one of the cocoa powders. Place in fluted paper cups, if desired. Enjoy at room temperature.


Truffles by Dede is definitely a good instruction book with basic information that the baker would require to start his or her journey into the world of chocolate making. One major drawback or flaw with the book for me is all the measurements was not given for scales, it had tablespoons, teaspoons and cup measurement which in my opinion differs with varied texture. Also to make life simpler for people who do not want to temper the chocolate, I would recommend using "dipping chocolate” instead. This book is a good one to add to your cupboard and to build on your knowledge of chocolate flavouring and pairings for sure, and of course making truffles.
May 18th, 2017, 5:18 pm
May 19th, 2017, 7:01 am
Dear Diva,
I am a Chocoholic, I once made a chocolate cake then ate half instead off only a slice. I then had to eat the other half so no one would know. I am gonna give this book amiss as I have enough vices but thank you for your review. I recently discovered I am a popcornholic too.
From a concerned reader.
May 19th, 2017, 7:01 am
May 21st, 2017, 6:25 pm
Dede Wilson is one of my favorite cookbook authors whom I had the pleasure of working with several times when I was a pastry chef in NYC. So happy that WordDiva chose Truffles for a concise review.

Gifts made from this book will be greatly appreciated at any holiday !
May 21st, 2017, 6:25 pm
Nov 5th, 2017, 10:20 pm
Thanks effstop for your kind words...It was the first book I actually bought when I serendipitously had an opportunity to attend a truffles workshop and got interested in learning more, so when the eBook became available I thought I should definitely share the information :)

Bluey, don't i know... :lol: :lol: a fellow chocoholic x
Nov 5th, 2017, 10:20 pm