There was a demo tonight to a large and eager group (oh yeah) of women at church tonight about how to make your own chocolate truffles. The guy had printed out the basics, which was very helpful for people like, y’know, me. We were handed one of his as we came in and after the lecture and demo made four of our own: squish it, work it, roll it, dip it, done.

My question, which I did not ask because I had no way to know if he’d already addressed it, was, how do you assume the cream in the ganache is safe when the truffles are left out at room temperature like he said they should be? He was adamant that they not go in the fridge.

From what I was able to find afterwards, the answer is, it has to be at least 50% chocolate, and more is better. Liqueurs help, too. (For those who eat such, I don’t.) It’s the amount of available water that is the problem.

I brought mine home to share in the morning, when the chocolate won’t keep me up all night but mostly because I thought that in all fairness the men should have been invited, too.

I’m living dangerously. Having never gotten sick from eating anyone’s truffles, I’m leaving them on the counter.

So far, anyway.

Update: and then, having written that, I went back to the guy’s instruction page and turned it over. Oh. There it says refrigerate leftover ganache and only roll and coat the truffles you’re going to eat that day.

Okay, then. Common sense and caution wins out after all. Mine went straight in the fridge.