Dark Chocolate Rhum Truffle Part 2.

So you've managed to emulsify the chocolate and cream, and now it is a 'ganache'. It should be still quite fluid, however thick like milkshake, but smooth like pastry cream. Let that chill and cool for about 20-30 minutes, and eventually you will be able to either fill it in a pastry bag and pipe out little balls, OR you can wait until it's firmer and use a spoon to scoop into balls. I did the scoop with spoon method and rolled it in my hand to make it into a more sphere shape. You need to have a bowl of tempered chocolate to enrobe your truffle balls and create a protection shell that will mostly prolong the shelf life of these truffles, and also give you a thin layer of crunch.

 Working with chocolate is always a challenge to stay clean, and it takes lots of good cleaning habits to prevent a chocolate messy. Once, you feel like you are getting chocolate on areas where you're not suppose to have chocolate. STOP! Stop what you are doing and clean up the mess before continuing or else you will surely end up with chocolate on your clothing and on your shoe and everywhere else besides the truffles.

You need to prepare yourself a big enough of a bowl or tray to roll your enrobbed truffles in. The bigger the bowl, the wider the surface area for your coco powder to spread, therefore easier for your truffle balls to roll around in and not bump into each other. You need to roll your truffles in coco powder as soon as each one is enrobbed, because you will need the help of the tempered chocolate to glue the coco powder on. If you allow the enrobbed truffles to dry out before you roll them in the powder, they will not coat at all. And DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT BUYING CHEAP COCO POWDER...

Until they are all nicely coated, you should use a mesh sift and sift out the excess coco powder. You just want a even light coat, not a ball of cocaine shot in your mouth. Be gentle with the sifting, you don't want too much force being appliced, or else you might break the chocolate shell. These truffles will store in the fridge for up to 3 weeks, given the condition that your cream and other ingredients are fresh. Chocolate by itself will last up to 2 years in dark, cool and dry places. If you decide to freeze them, they will store up to 3 months, but defrost them over night in the fridge. If you leave them out in the open, room temperature to defrost, the drastic change in temperature will most likely create some condensation on your truffles and that's where the sugar bloom, fat bloom and spoilage comes into play.
ANYWAYS, why store them? Make'em and EAT them right away or give them away to strangers. That's what I do all the time. The homeless people that lives just down the street, underneath the train tracks, they get all the delicious desserts from me. =D