Chocolate truffles are the perfect blank canvas for experimenting with flavors.

If you’re just starting out on your sweeter baking journey, chocolate truffles provide the perfect platform to flex your culinary muscles. Once you’ve mastered the basic truffle recipe, you can expand your creative horizons by adding new ingredients and flavors. Coating truffles couldn’t be easier, as you simply toss these round balls of deliciousness in your chosen ingredients. Instead of staring at a simple batch of white chocolate lemon truffles, let your imagination run wild by imagining the right toppings to pair with your next batch of truffles.

Nuts and chocolate are old friends, so you can start by toasting and crushing almonds and cashews and customize your mix with baking spices. Add pumpkin pie spice to a shallow dish of carefully chopped pecans, or season ground peanuts with cinnamon and sugar. For a more colorful candy platter, roll truffles in a mixture of matcha powder and crushed toasted coconut flakes, or make candy dust from crushed Jolly Ranchers. Once you realize that truffles are just waiting for your adventurous experiments, you may be able to demonstrate your new talent with increasing regularity.

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Navigating the Road from Beginner to Truffle Master

As you become more familiar with your palate preferences, vary the truffles you make by dipping the pieces halfway into a dish filled with white chocolate chips before rolling the other side of the truffle in a cocoa and espresso powder. For a more vibrant aesthetic, you can use colorful sprinkles more commonly associated with cupcakes and cakes to add a playful touch to your creations. Adapt your recipes to seasonal and holiday themes with crushed candy pieces like peppermint and crystallized ginger or edible gold flakes. Your creative culinary experimentation may inspire you to take a recipe for dark chocolate raspberry cheesecake truffles and put your own unique spin on it.

Whether you’re celebrating a special event or just satisfying a lingering sweet tooth, your creatively prepared truffles are the perfect after-dinner dessert. Any leftovers can be packaged in cute boxes to take to the office or given as party favors to your guests at the next dinner party.

Read the original article on Tasting Table.