Chocolate Truffles with Original Ganache Filling

Size: 5 pieces in a 6.5x1.25x1" Truffle Box

Dark Chocolate (unsweetened chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin, natural vanilla flavor), evaporated milk (milk, dipotassium phosphate, carrageenan, vitamin D), butter fat, cocoa powder, potassium carbonate, vanilla extract, invertase, potassium sorbate, vanillin. Contains milk and soy. Crafted in a facility that also processes wheat, peanuts, tree nuts and sesame.

There are many stories about the origin of truffles. The prevailing one is that chocolate Truffles were invented by accident in the kitchen of illustrious French chef, Georges Auguste Escoffier, in the 1920s. It seemed that one of his apprentices was attempting to make pastry cream. He accidentally poured hot cream into a bowl of chopped chocolate instead of sugar and eggs.

As you can just imagine, Escoffier was outraged. You "ganache” he yelled, which apparently means “fool…”  although etymology dictionaries say it means “jaw.” Whatever. It seems the creamy mixture hardened and the ever-resourceful Escoffier rolled it into a walnut-sized ball which he then rolled in cocoa powder and voila' – it looked like a truffle. In this case, the truffle it resembled was the mushroom truffle. No one seemed to mind…or even question …the relationship between the chocolate and a fungus. The resulting candy was esteemed and expensive.

True? Probably not. In researching the story of truffles, I discovered an advertisement for chocolate truffles in The Times Record of Brunswick Maine dated, 1891, among other places. Granted they were advertised in the “Parisian Style” but still, this was Maine and Escoffier hadn’t invented them yet.