Homemade candymaker has many tips for making the best truffles

By Jane Snow
Knight Ridder Newspapers

If you offered Brenda White a piece of chocolate, she’d probably whack you with a box of truffles — handmade, double-dipped, with brittle shells and creamy, chocolate-peanut butter centers. But still.

White is up to her eyeballs in white and dark chocolate. Tubs of melted chocolate and stacks of chocolate chunks perfume the neat Cape Cod house in Northfield Village, Ohio, where she lives. She chops, melts, slathers and dips 800 pounds of the stuff during the holiday season.

When you use her recipes, think of White and her helper, husband Bob Gizma, who spend every evening turning chocolate into truffles, marshmallow-filled s’mores, chocolate-caramel apples, chocolate-covered toffee and a dozen other sweet, dark confections.

“We’re usually up until about 11:30, 12 o’clock working,” White said.

Both have day jobs. She’s a baker and cook at a Cleveland food service company, and he works in information technology. White started Incredible Edibles of Ohio in 2002 after years of casually selling cookies and chocolate truffles to friends.

“I told him (Gizma) if I didn’t start my own business, I’d always wonder,” White said.

She turned the temperature in her home down to 65 degrees to keep the chocolate cool and installed a 6-foot stainless-steel table down the center of her kitchen. She stocked the freezer in the garage with nuts and cookie dough, and bought a fancy machine that holds chocolate at the perfect temperature for dipping.

White remembers what it was like to melt chocolate in batches in the microwave, though, and has lots of empathy for the amateur candy maker. She also has lots of advice.

Many amateurs use chocolate candy disks that contain wax, because the disks are not as temperamental as real chocolate. But the candy doesn’t taste as good. Anyone can make chocolate candy that looks and tastes great if they start with high-quality pure chocolate, buy a digital thermometer and avoid overheating the chocolate, White said.

Digital thermometers are more accurate than instant-read thermometers. They are sold in kitchenware shops and discount stores. Candy thermometers can’t be used for chocolate-making because they don’t register low enough.

Buy chocolate in bars rather than chips if using a non-gourmet brand. Most manufacturers use higher-quality chocolate in their bars than in their chips.

Do not heat chocolate to more than 110 degrees or it will “seize” and become lumpy and grainy, White warns. Check the temperature of the chocolate often while melting it and while keeping it warm.

White has discovered many little tricks that make candy-making easier. She discovered that candy won’t stick to ungreased parchment paper, so she lines her pans with paper now instead of greasing them. Experts warn against putting chocolate in the freezer because it will develop bloom (white splotches), but White learned that popping a tray of chocolates in the freezer for 15 minutes will set them without harming them.

White keeps a fan in the kitchen to blow over her truffles and help them dry between coats of chocolate. The fan also helps keep the chocolate from getting sticky in the summer, when humidity can ruin a batch. The tiniest drop of water can make chocolate seize, so avoid candy-making on the most humid days, and make sure all utensils and containers are bone dry.

Truffles with soft centers and hard shells are luxurious but time-consuming to make. Those who want to speed up the process can buy the shells in two sizes at chocolate-supply shops.

Chocolate secrets

• Start with good-quality chocolate for the best-tasting candies.

• Don’t get even a drop of water in melted chocolate or it will “seize” (become lumpy and grainy). Make sure bowls and utensils are dry. Overheating also will make chocolate seize.

• Chocolate that has seized may be repaired by adding a small amount of solid vegetable shortening to the grainy chocolate and stirring well. Do not substitute butter or margarine.

• Use a gel, not a liquid food coloring, to color white chocolate. The liquid will make it seize.

• Use oils rather than extracts to flavor chocolate for a more intense flavor.

• Chocolate retains its shape when melted in a microwave, so stir it at 1-minute intervals to determine if it is melted or still solid.

• Chocolate melts best at low temperature. Use a medium-low or “3” setting on a microwave. It is done when a few small lumps of chocolate remain. The lumps will finish melting as you stir.

• Read the label when buying white chocolate and choose a brand that contains cocoa butter.

• Milk chocolate and dark chocolate sometimes develop white or cloudy-looking surfaces when stored improperly. This is called “bloom” and is harmless. The cocoa butter has separated from the solids. The bloom will disappear when the chocolate is melted.

• To keep chocolate at the perfect temperature for dipping, place it in a stainless steel bowl over a slow cooker set on low.

• Use an ice pick to chop chocolate easily.

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