Homemade chocolate raspberry truffles coated in dark chocolate shavings and bits of freeze-dried raspberries are easy to make using raspberry puree and semi-sweet chocolate. Each bite-size chocolate candy is bursting with raspberry flavor.
In my last blog post, I talked all about making delicious chocolate ganache using a combination of chocolate and heavy whipping cream.
I also mentioned that you can swap out many different liquids for the heavy whipping cream to make smooth and creamy chocolate ganache which can be used to frost cakes, fill molded chocolates, glaze cookies, or scoop and roll into chocolate truffles.
Heavy whipping cream adds a wonderful creamy texture to chocolate ganache but it doesn't add a lot of flavor. If you want to add another layer of flavor you can swap out the cream for a fruit purée.
To make these chocolate raspberry truffles, you will blend raspberry purée with semi-sweet chocolate.
You can also use milk chocolate or white chocolate, just be sure to adjust the ratio of chocolate to purée as milk and white chocolate are softer and you need more of each of those chocolates to make raspberry chocolate truffles.
Not only does the raspberry purée add an intense raspberry flavor to the chocolate truffles it also makes your chocolate truffles lower in fat and calories.
What's not to love about that?
Raspberry Purée
First, you need to make ¾ cup of raspberry purée, unless you are able to buy raspberry purée, which I am not. I have found that I can easily get ¾ of a cup of purée from a 12-ounce bag of frozen raspberries.
- Place a 12-ounce bag of frozen raspberries in a medium saucepan.
- Set the pan over medium heat.
- Cook, stirring often until the raspberries soften.
- Use a silicone spatula to smash the raspberries until they are completely crushed.
- Pour the raspberries into a fine-mesh sieve (strainer) set over a measuring cup, and press down on the raspberries to expel the juice, leaving the seeds behind.
- Make sure you have ¾ of a cup of puree. If not, keep pressing until you do.
- Discard the seeds and clean your strainer.
- Pour the juice through the strainer again to ensure you have removed all of the seeds.
- NOTE: If you do not get ¾ cup, you can add water (or heavy whipping cream) to make up the difference.
Choosing your chocolate.
When you are making truffles it is vitally important that you use chocolate that you really love to eat straight out of the package but there are other things to consider too.
- Dark chocolate contains chocolate liquor (a mixture of cocoa solids and cocoa butter) and sugar.
- The higher the percentage of chocolate liquor the more intense the chocolate ganache will be.
- However, chocolate with more than 75% chocolate liquor can be prone to breaking and becoming greasy.
- Choose chocolate that is between 50-60% cocoa if you prefer a mellow chocolate ganache.
- Burgundy Chocolate made by Peter's (my favorite!)
- Callebaut semi-sweet chocolate
- Choose chocolate that is between 60-72% cocoa if you enjoy a more robust chocolate ganache.
- The higher the percentage of chocolate liquor the more intense the chocolate ganache will be.
- Milk Chocolate contains chocolate liquor, sugar, and milk.
- The milk in the milk chocolate makes it softer than dark chocolate so you will need to adjust the ratio of chocolate to cream in the ganache recipe.
- To make rolled truffles you'll need 2.5:1 ratio of milk chocolate to purée.
- White Chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk.
- Because white chocolate does not contain any cocoa solids it is the softest of all the chocolates needing a 3:1 ratio of white chocolate to purée when making rolled chocolate truffles.
- It is also the most prone to breaking when made into ganache. It can easily become greasy so you will need to be very careful when heating your purée that it does not get too hot.
- Compound Chocolate (also known as confectionery coating, Candy Melts, Almond Bark, and Melting Wafers) contain vegetable oil, typically palm kernel oil, and is not recommended for making chocolate truffles as the flavor is subpar to pure chocolate, but if it is all you can afford or what you have on hand, you can certainly use it.
Chocolate Blocks, Bars, Wafers, Pistoles, Callets
- Pure chocolate is available in thick 5-10 pound blocks, thin 4-8 ounce bars, round wafers, oval pistoles, and small round callets.
- You can use any of these to make these raspberry-flavored chocolate truffles.
- If using bars, blocks or large wafers be sure to finely chop them before making the recipe.
- Callets, look like chocolate chips but they are not! They are meant to melt at low temperatures, unlike chocolate chips.
Can I use chocolate chips?
- I don't suggest using chocolate chips when making truffles because chips have emulsifiers in them, which keep them from melting at low temperatures. In order to get them to melt you will need to heat them up to a temperature that will may break the ganache.
- However, if chocolate chips are all you have on hand, you can use them.
- I would recommend using the food processor method. Pulse the chocolate chips in the food processor until you can fine crumbs. Then pour the hot purée over the chopped chocolate and pulse for 2 seconds. Scrape down the bowl, cover, and let rest for 3 minutes, before pulsing for 2-3 seconds until the chocolate ganache is blended and smooth.
Chocolate Raspberry Ganache
- Finely chop 12 ounces of semi-sweet chocolate and pour the pieces into a thin layer in a large shallow bowl.
- You want these pieces of chocolate to be thin and very small and evenly sized.
- Reheat the raspberry puree on the stove over medium heat just until it comes to a simmer.
- Pour it over the chocolate, making sure it completely covers the chocolate.
- Cover the bowl and let it rest for about 3 minutes.
- Uncover the bowl and begin to stir the chocolate in the center of the bowl until the chocolate and puree come together.
- Continue stirring, moving out to the edge of the bowl slowly bringing more of the chocolate and purée together.
- Once blended, if all the chocolate is not melted, heat it in the microwave for 5-10 seconds and stir until melted, or use an immersion blender to blend it until smooth.
- Cover the bowl of chocolate raspberry ganache with a lid or a piece of plastic wrap (it's best to press the plastic wrap right onto the surface of the ganache) and set it on your counter at room temperature for at least 4 hours until it thickens to a fudge-like consistency.
Make ganache in a food processor.
- You can also use a food processor to make the chocolate ganache. It's actually my preferred method.
- Pour the chocolate into the bowl of a food processor and pulse until you get fine crumbs.
- Pour the hot raspberry purée over top and close the lid.
- Pulse for 2 seconds, then scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Cover and let rest for 3 minutes.
- Pulse for 2-3 more seconds until the ganache is smooth.
- Pour into a bowl (do not scrape out any clumps in the bottom of the bowl, just enjoy that as a snack.)
- Cover and set aside to cool.
Grainy, gritty, or greasy ganache.
Do not overmix your chocolate ganache. Just mix until it comes together. If you overmix ganache you can whip too many air bubbles into it and it can also cause sugar crystals to form causing your ganache to become grainy or gritty.
If your ganache becomes grainy, gritty, or greasy, be sure to check out my Chocolate Truffles Post for detailed information on fixing those issues.
Chocolate Truffle Making Class
- If you'd like to learn more about making chocolate truffles including truffles made using polycarbonate chocolate molds, be sure to check out my chocolate making courses.
- In the online video class, you will learn everything you need to know to make delicious and beautiful chocolate truffles.
Make chocolate-raspberry topping.
- Smash ½ ounce of freeze-dried raspberries into tiny pieces. You can use a small food processor to do this job or you can pour the raspberries into a zip-top bag and smash them using a rolling pin or a meat mallet. The dried raspberries are small enough you could even just use the palm of your hand to smash them.
- Grate about 1 ½ ounces of semi-sweet chocolate using a cheese grater.
- Stir the grated chocolate and freeze-dried raspberry crumbs together into a shallow bowl.
Scoop and roll truffles.
- Once the ganache has thickened, scoop heaping teaspoons size mounds onto a parchment paper or wax paper-lined baking sheet.
- I use a ½ tablespoon mini ice cream scoop that makes 1 ½ teaspoon-sized (= ½ tablespoon) truffles.
- Roll a truffle into a ball then immediately roll it into the chocolate/raspberry mix.
- Repeat, coating all the chocolates.
NOTE: You cannot roll all of your truffles then try to coat them with the chocolate-raspberry topping. The truffles will begin to dry out and firm up pretty quickly after they are exposed to air, so be sure to roll one, then immediately coat it in the topping, then roll another, and repeat.
Packaging truffles.
- Place the raspberry chocolate truffles in a candy dish and cover it with plastic wrap or clear cellophane to give as a gift.
- Or, place each truffle into a paper candy cup then package the truffles in a candy box.
Printable Recipe
Silky smooth chocolate ganache is made using raspberry puree. The fudge-like ganache is then scooped and rolled in chocolate shavings and freeze-dried raspberry pieces.
- 12 ounces frozen raspberries (or ¾ cup raspberry puree)
- 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate, finely chopped
- ½ ounce freeze-dried raspberries
- 1 ½ ounces chocolate (bar or block)
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Pour the frozen raspberries into a medium saucepan.
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Heat on medium heat, stirring often, until the raspberries begin to break down.
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Smash the raspberries until they are all broken down.
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Remove the pan from the heat.
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Set a fine-mesh sieve over a measuring cup.
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Pour the raspberries into the sieve and press down on them to extract the puree until you get ¾ cup of liquid.
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Discard the seeds and pour the puree back into the saucepan.
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Heat the raspberry puree over medium heat until it just begins to bubble.
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Pour the finely chopped chocolate into a large shallow bowl (or in the bowl of a food processor).
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Pour the hot raspberry puree over the chocolate, covering all of the chocolate. If using a food processor, pulse for 2 seconds, then scrape down the sides of the bowl. Cover and proceed.
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Let the bowl of chocolate rest for 3 minutes.
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Then stir, beginning with small circles in the center, creating an emulsion of the puree and chocolate.
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Make the circle bigger and continue to stir until melted and smooth.
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If all of the chocolate pieces do not melt, you can reheat the ganache either in the microwave for about 10 seconds or on the stove over low heat for about 10-20 seconds just until it all melts.
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If using a food processor, pulse for 2-3 more seconds just until the ganache is well blended and smooth. Pour into a shallow bowl.
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Cover the bowl of ganache with a lid or press a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface of the ganache and set it on your counter for at least 4 hours (it may take up to 8 hours) until it thickens into a fudge-like texture.
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To make the chocolate-raspberry topping, crush the freeze-dried raspberries into tiny pieces.
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Grate the chocolate bar using a cheese grater.
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Combine the grated chocolate and raspberry bits in a bowl.
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When the chocolate ganache is ready, uncover it, and scoop out heaping teaspoons of the ganache onto a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. You'll get between 36 and 44 truffles.
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Roll one chocolate truffle in the palm of your hands then immediately roll them into the chocolate-raspberry topping.
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Repeat, rolling and coating all of the truffles.
- Store the truffles in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 10 days.
- You can freeze the truffles for up to 3 months if you wrap them well, place them in an airtight container. Thaw them overnight in the refrigerator then continue to thaw them on the counter at room temperature for a few hours before unwrapping. This will keep them from becoming sticky with condensation.
If you enjoy this chocolate raspberry truffle recipe you might also like to try these other chocolate truffle recipes.
White Chocolate Biscoff Truffles
Chocolate Raspberry Ice Cream Truffles are made using ice cream instead of cream.
Salted Caramel Ice Cream Truffles
Milk, White, and Dark Chocolate Truffles
Mexican Hot Chocolate Truffles
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