adventures of truffles

I finally made truffles this afternoon. They was something that I had been wanting to make for a while after seeing an episode of Alton Brown's Good Eats where he focused on anything and everything chocolate... it was 30 minutes of drooling. Anyway, he made them look so easy to make, and since recently I've been craving coconut and chocolate for months now (and mini mounds bars just aren't cutting it anymore) I decided to take the plunge into candy confection making.
First came the hunt for the proper tools, since a melon baller is the one thing mama callimanis doesn't have in her drawers filled with kitchen gadgets, the quest was on. Alton recommended using either a melon baller or one of the mini ice cream scoops with the swishing swingy thing to loosen up the deliciousness in the scoop also known as a cookie dough scooper, off we went on a adventure to William Senoma... and after lusting after all the gadgets, and recovering from the fainting attack that I felt coming on from the prices (30 some-odd dollars for a cookie dough scooper)... we decided to hit up Crate and Barrel where once again I lusted after kitchen gadget after kitchen gadget, with much more realistic prices (12ish dollars for a cookie dough scoop), my truffle making dreams were becoming more and more tangible.
Saturday was going to be the day... but the comforting familiar rain made it difficult to do anything other than playing around with the newly installed internet on my blackberry. Waking up this Sunday I was committed to the cause, I was going to make truffles. And so I did.

The first part put me at ease, melting chocolate adding heavy cream and brandy or in my case metaxa ( you know me always have to throw some greek into the mix), the closest thing to brandy that we had in the liquor cabinet, then put in the fridge for an hour... the next part was a little more labor intensive, having to use the new scooper and put them back into the fridge to get nice and hard. After a hotdog lunch break, back to truffle making I went. Alton's strict instructions not to let the coating chocolate to get above 94 degrees got me a little overwhelmed but then I was what eva alton its chocolate if it goes above 104 degrees its still going to be delicious and tasty! Then I got to coating, leaving the tray of uncoated truffles in the fridge so they stayed cold, and taking them out as needed, which meant that I had to wash my hands quite frequently because I gave up on his instructions of using a spoon to lightly coat the trufs and used my fingers instead, then rolled the coated truffs in the truffle toppings of toasted walnuts, coco powder and cinnamon, and toasted coconut. Rolling the truffles in the toppings proved to be the most difficult part since my hands were coated in chocolate then the toppings got stuck to my fingers which made it hard to open the fridge to get out the remaining truffles but was a tasty treat indeed!
Finally the coating process was finished and back into the fridge they went.
Then came the dishes, the worst part of the truffle making experience, and since I don't want to disturb you with the amount of dishes that are required to make and then are disturbingly dirty after you finish making them, I'll leave you with a picture of them all nice and clean and drying.