Coffee Chocolate Truffles

An easy to make dessert recipe, Coffee Chocolate Truffles are no-bake and uses very simple ingredients – including instant coffee or espresso granules!

Many, many years ago, I watched an episode of the Barefoot Contessa. It was an episode where Ina Garten described how coffee enhanced the flavour or chocolate. I tried it and she was right!

We’ve all had coffee flavoured chocolate before, but have you had chocolate flavoured with coffee? Yes, there is a difference! When you flavour chocolate with coffee, you don’t taste the coffee. The coffee is meant to enhance the flavour of the chocolate itself.

If you add things like coffee extract to these Coffee Chocolate Truffles, you would be in essence changing the flavour of the chocolate. The chocolate would have a coffee-like smell and taste.

But, if you add coffee or espresso granules, you won’t be adding coffee flavour to the chocolate, but helping the chocolate taste more chocolaty. Am I just confusing you with all of this coffee versus chocolate talk? Let’s just forget about it and talk about these delicious treats!

Let’s talk Substitutes!

Here’s what I did. I added both coffee extract and instant coffee granules to my recipe. Not only did I want to enhance the chocolate flavour, but I also wanted the chocolate to have a hint of coffee flavour. You can do both or just one or the other.

Coffee extract is not easy to find in stores. Although, on many occasions, I have found it at Walmart and Target. I always use the Watkins brand, because it’s the easiest one to find. You can buy it online too, if you can’t find it in stores.

If you don’t have it or if you want to use something else, you can most certainly go right ahead and use vanilla extract. You can use almost any extract, but keep in mind it will change the flavour of your chocolate.

If I did not use coffee extract, I would have most likely used a flavoured extract like coconut (because I freaking love it!) or an orange extract. Because I simply love the combination of chocolate and orange.

Coating the Truffles:

As you can see in the photographs, I decided to roll the truffles in candy sprinkles. There are some other options if you don’t want to use sprinkles. You can use really good cocoa powder. You can also use finely grated coconut or even crushed nuts.

I used the candy sprinkles, because I knew they would not change the flavour of the truffle. If I had used nuts or coconut, they would obviously interfere with the chocolate and coffee flavours.

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