These truffles were inspired by Goat Lady Dairy, a Greensboro, NC farmer who makes chevre truffles using a blended ganache of about 60% chocolate to 40% chevre, with a bit of vanilla and salt.
Here, you have simple salted chocolate-dipped chevre, which has a wonderful texture contrast as you bite through the chocolate shell and and the cold, creamy, tangy chevre bursts out into your mouth.
The recipe below includes a cheat to get you out of having to temper the chocolate. It turns out that if you melt a bit of neutral oil in with your chocolate, it will help stabilize the crystal structure and keep your chocolate from blooming or otherwise appearing to be out of temper. It's a great trick for dipping things in chocolate when you just don't have the time or inclination to go through the whole process of actually tempering the chocolate properly. Seems too easy to work, but it does!
Chevre Truffles
4 oz chevre
4 oz bittersweet chocolate
2 tsp safflower (or other neutral) oil
Maldon (or other crunchy) sea salt
Roll the chevre into small spheres and spread them out on a parchment paper covered baking sheet. Put them in the freezer and allow them to freeze.
The oil lets you cheat on tempering the chocolate. It helps stabilize the crystal structure, and keeps the chocolate from blooming even when it hasn't been tempered.
Gently melt the chocolate with the oil, stirring it until all lumps are gone. Let it cool a bit.
Dip the chevre spheres into the chocolate and put them back onto the parchment paper to set. Sprinkle a bit of crunchy salt on top of each one after it is dipped - act fast, though, because the chocolate will set very quickly!
Store in the fridge. Serve cold but not frozen.
