This week’s Sweet Melissa Sundays was chosen by Nina of Nina’s Cupcakes: rum truffles. If you’ve never made truffles, you’ll be surprised by just how easy they are to whip up. They tend to be pretty expensive to buy (at least the good ones anyway) so making them at home is not only cheaper, but you can customize them to suit your tastes. There’s nothing worse than the boxes that leave you guessing about the flavors so you wind up having to bite into 4 or 5 before you find one you like 🙂
Most of the truffle recipes I’ve made rely on a combination of chocolate and cream for the base of the truffle, but this one was a bit different. No heavy cream – instead we used butter and egg yolks along with the chocolate. I was skeptical about the egg yolks (presumably they add richness), but no harm in trying once I figured. The final ingredient in these truffles is dark rum. The full recipe made 4 dozen truffles, which is way too many for us, so I made 1/8 of the recipe and wound up with 6 truffles (I used my melon baller to scoop them so they were fairly small). A lot of people swear by rolling their truffles in cocoa powder, but I tried it once and to put it mildly, Shane wasn’t a fan. So, I didn’t make that mistake again; instead, I rolled my truffles in chocolate sprinkles and confectioners’ sugar.
Truffles are the ultimate in decadence, and these were no exception – very rich and chocolate-y, half a truffle was plenty for me! I liked that the rum wasn’t overpowering in this recipe. As for the egg yolk? Completely undetectable, thankfully 🙂 I may actually prefer this butter/egg yolk variation over the heavy cream version. Thanks to Nina for hosting this week. She’ll share the recipe on her site today, or you can find it on page 217 of The Sweet Melissa Baking Book.
While I made the truffles I was also working on lunch. It was a salmon recipe I was really excited about but sadly, it was a major fail. The salmon turned out dry, and the accompanying sauce was bitter. I hate wasting food so recipe failures always bum me out, but luckily that wasn’t a problem as Shane claimed to like the salmon and ate his plus a good portion of mine. I was talking to a few friends on Twitter about the fail, and it started a discussion about whether we blog recipes that don’t turn out well. Personally, I won’t blog a recipe that fails (recipes made for blog groups being an exception to this rule) unless I know exactly what went wrong and can offer suggestions for improving the recipe. Now, I’m curious – if you have a blog, what do you do about recipes that don’t turn out well? Do you only blog what you love?
Lemon Bars
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Orange Sherbet
Meyer Lemon Pound Cake
Your truffles look great – the sprinkles add a little whimsy (although I usually love the cocoa-covered ones).
As for blogging unsuccessful recipes, I’m not a very high-volume blogger to begin with, so I do stick with things that are successful – I don’t have time or interest in posting about anything else! Having said that, I like it when people post the lows as well as the highs – after, all who is perfect all the time?
I also hate to rip on people’s recipe choices – I’ve seen some people do this in TWD based on ingredient likes or dislikes, and it offends me a bit. You don’t have to like everything, but you can always find something constructive to say, or what you learned from the process.
Hi, Tracey: These look delicious. I am still trying to decide if I am making them or not. Sounds like they were a hit, so I should go for it! Glad the egg yolk wasn’t detectable, strange ingredient in truffles!
I post most of my fails, unless they are really, really bad. I always like to hear what other people think as to why it was a fail.
I like hearing about when people mess up (forget to put in an ingredient, wrong pan size, whatever) because it makes me feel better when those mess-ups happen to me.
Yum! Wonderful looking truffles.
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Your truffles look great! I agree the cocoa powder was not my favorite! I will use your idea next time.
No I do not blog recipes that don’t turn out good. I try a lot of new things and do try to post some of the new things that we like but I agree I don’t have time to waste on failures!
Glad you participated this week
These truffles look lovely!
And, sorry to hear about the salmon… I know how you feel. I always hate when things don’t turn out well. I typically don’t blog about the things that don’t turn out well… But, maybe I should!
Hi Tracey. I’m always impressed by your ability to cut a recipe down…to 1/8! Wow. Your 6 truffles turned out cute.
I generally don’t blog recipe fails…unless there is a lesson to be learned or shared. I do sometimes blog about ones that are in between and comment on what could have been better.
Love making truffles. Will definitely have to try these and add to the ones I mske at Christmas.
Look very elegant.
The truffles look wonderful. In answer to your question, I don’t bother. If I can’t make a recipe work myself, I don’t publish.
Well, first off – your truffles look super delish!
As for blogging about fails, I think if I learned a major lesson, I would blog about it. Otherwise, I like to keep it happy 🙂
Lovely 🙂 I like all kinds of sweet balls :))
Tracy, I’m with you. I usually only blog about recipes that went well unless it’s a post for a group. I’ve thrown a few oops’s in, but usually only if I know where I went wrong and only after I’ve made it successful a second time.
Like you, I don’t blog about flops…I’m afraid someone won’t read the post and try it (my sweet sister in law did make a peach cobbler that I mentioned wasn’t up to my standards). Your truffles look wonderful, Tracey!
@Lizzy – That’s such a good point! I hadn’t even thought about the people who might just try the recipe and not read the post to see that the recipe wasn’t a good one.
I like the idea of rolling the truffles in the chocolate jimmies!
Except for TWD, I don’t blog things that I didn’t like (for example, the blah cookies I made this weekend!). If something is so-so, I put it on hold and wait to make it again to see if I can improve it – then I’d be able to offer some good tips or adaptations.
Beautiful truffles! I kept waffling on whether to make these and eventually decided to sit out. The egg yolk/butter combo was just off but now that you have said you prefer it, I may reconsider since your taste is always spot on!
I usually am too frustrated to blog about recipes that don’t work but do think there is value in doing so since I almost always learn something that I can share.
These look great! Thank you for sharing 🙂
Mmmm….rum truffles….delicious.
I usually blog the fails if it’s a dessert. It might be a short post filled with grrrr’s….eheheh. Dinner items I have a hard time posting the wins….the fails forget about it. 😉
Tracey–these look fabulous. I’ve never tried making truffles (and have a special dislike for those rolled in cocoa powder like your hubs) but yours just might change that!
I was wondering: when you’re done with all of the SMS recipes, would you maybe consider posting a list of your favorites? And/or a consolidated list of the recipes and ones you’ve used again? I was just sifting through and saw how much you liked the white cake from the coconut cake recipe and was wondering if you ever adapted it to different flavor combos like you said you hoped to.
Just a thought. Love love love your blog.
@Caroline – That’s a great idea actually! After having tried so many recipes over the course of 2+ years it’s easy to forget about some of the older ones. I’ll make a note to start putting together a list soon – we’ll be done baking through SMS in a few months!
I haven’t had a chance to adapt that cake recipe yet. Somehow there’s just never enough time in the day…
Thanks for your kind words, they made my morning 🙂
Your truffles look great! I decided to skip this recipe because I don’t like the flavor of rum (although my husband loves it!), but I’ll have to try the base recipe sometime; I’ve never heard of truffles without cream!
I never, never, never post a recipe that I didn’t like. Sometimes I’ve already written a post and taken pictures, only to find out that the finished product isn’t that great. So I just delete it, painful as that is! After all, who is going to make a recipe that the person recommending it doesn’t actually like??? Big, hilarious mess-ups are a different story, but bothering to post a recipe and saying, “But you know what, it doesn’t taste good.” seems bizarre!
Wow it truely DELICIOUS….never tried truffles by this way…thanks for showing me NEW WAY.
Egg yolk in truffles.. Now there’s a first. The recipe isn’t posted on the host’s site.. 🙁 Off to google it and find it hopefully.