Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles

Salt is becoming almost as ubiquitous in chocolate candy as sugar and cream. That's because salt is a flavor booster like no other, whether in a sweet or savory dish. Here, the salt imparts a delightful counterpoint to the the richly sweet caramel and all of it becomes a splendid symphony of flavors and textures with the addition of chocolate.

By The Cookingactress.com

Cookie Dough Truffles hit the sweet spot for cookie dough lovers!

Kayle Blogna is the woman behind the cookingactress.com blog. She adapted the recipe for these truffles from one featured on another blog, cookingclassy.com by amping up the ingredients a bit. Kayle adds chocolate-covered cocoa nibs to the filling mixture instead of the plain chocolate chips called for in the original recipe.

One word of caution when making these: Browned butter is a wonderfully fragrant and tasty ingredient here, but it's easy to burn the butter, in which case you should discard it and start over again. Burned butter doesn't taste good at all. So don't be impatient and overheat the butter. It may take a few minutes longer to achieve browning, but you'll be love the results.

Yield: about 26 truffles

Ingredients

10 tbsps. butter
Seeds of 1/2 a large vanilla bean
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 tbsp. heavy cream
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/4 tsp. fine sea salt (or table salt)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1-2 tbsps. milk
1/2 cup chocolate covered cocoa nibs (or mini chocolate chips)
12 oz. chocolate coating/chocolate or 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Coarse sea salt, for sprinkling

Recipe Instructions

Slit open half a vanilla bean and scrape out the seeds.

To brown the butter: In a preferably light colored saucepan, combine butter and vanilla bean seeds. Over medium heat melt the butter and whisk constantly as the butter melts, foams, bubbles, and eventually little brown specks appear, and it turns amber.

Pour into a heatproof bowl (making sure to get all the brown specks and vanilla bean seeds) and place into the freezer or refrigerator until cooled to a semi-liquid state.

In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer combine cooled butter, brown sugar, cream, vanilla, and salt and beat on medium speed until fluffy.

Stir in flour and 1 tbsp. milk until combined. If needed, add milk 1/2 tbsp. at a time until you have a pliable but firm dough.

Mix in chocolate-covered cocoa nibs or chocolate chips.

Chill dough in freezer until it can easily be rolled into balls – about 30 minutes.

Line a baking sheet with wax paper. Melt the chocolate.

Once dough is ready, scoop out 1 tbsp. at a time and roll into small balls. Coat in chocolate (or drizzle the chocolate over the dough balls) and place on the prepared sheet. Sprinkle each truffle with sea salt before the chocolate sets. (If the dough becomes difficult to roll into the balls or coat in chocolate, put back in the freezer for a little while.)

Place finished truffles in the refrigerator to set. Store, chilled, in an airtight container.

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Want to become expert in working with chocolate in order to create beautiful chocolate bonbons, confections and bars, check out our Professional Chocolatier Program.

Photography by Jessica Washburn, Bliss Chocolatier and Ecole Chocolat