Nipple’s of Venus – Chocolate for valentines day

These heavenly little treats are my version of the italian truffle Capezzoli di Venere or Nipples of Venus.

These would be a perfect gift to make for your honey on valentine’s day.

To make these yummy truffles I piped creamy milk chocolate ganache, flavored with blood orange zest and grand mariner into bite sized nipples which I then enrobed in 66% dark chocolate. To finish, the tips of the nipples are dipped in tempered white chocolate.

Juliette Binoche made these lovely Nipple’s of Venus in the movie “Chocolat”

She was inspired by Venus de Milo, an extraordinary piece of art and a universally recognized symbol of feminine beauty. Venus, the Roman Goddess of Love was immortalized in stone and now in delicious chocolate.

Ingredients:

• For the ganache:
• 8 ounces high-quality milk chocolate, finely chopped
• 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1 tablespoons softened unsalted butter
• 1 tsp blood orange zest
• 1 tsp Grand Mariner Orange liqueur
• 1 pound high-quality dark chocolate, finely chopped for tempering.
• 3 ounces high-quality white chocolate, finely chopped, for the final dip

Directions:

Makes 30 truffles

For the ganache: Heat the cream just to boiling in a pot on the stove, pour the heated cream over the chopped chocolate. Add room temperature butter, the orange zest and the liqueur and whisk together slowly until emulsified and shiny. If necessary, heat 30 seconds at a time if not fully melted.

Let this mixture sit at room temperature until it thickens enough to pipe out, or stick the tray in the refrigerator to hasten the chocolate along.

With a piping bag and a No. 7 open piping tip, pipe into little kiss/nipple shapes onto a parchment-lined sheet. Chill in the freezer for at least 10 mins or while you temper the chocolate for the enrobing process.

For the tempering of the dark chocolate: Melting chocolate is usually done best in a bain-marie or double boiler, which is just a pan of hot or simmering water, with a bowl placed over it i use a glass bowl for my tempering. Melt the 1 pound of dark chocolate. Using our bain-marie pan. Place the glass bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water and leave for a few minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is completely melted, not to exceed 120 degrees.

Remove from the heat, wiping the bottom of the bowl to remove any water. The perfect temperature for dipping chocolates is between 88 and 90 degrees. If the chocolate is still too hot, allow to cool further. If the chocolate gets too cool, the bowl can go back briefly on the bain-marie.

For the white chocolate: Temper the same way as the dark chocolate, but the bain-marie or pot of water should have very warm, but not simmering water. Melting temperature should not exceed 115 degrees. Dipping temperature should be between 87 and 89 degrees.

Dipping the truffles: When the ganache nipples have set up in the freezer, and the tempered dark chocolate is ready. Use a tempering fork (or dinner fork) to immerse one truffles into the chocolate completely make sure it’s covered, but don’t lose it in your bowl. Remove the nipple from the chocolate and carefully shake off excess chocolate by tapping the fork on the side of the bowl. With a butter knife carefully place the truffle on a parchment-lined sheet. Continue with all truffles, slowly reheating chocolate if necessary. once all the truffles are covered in chocolate let them sit at room temperature until hard or to hasten the chocolate along, place in the refrigerator.
After the white chocolate is tempered, dip just the tip of the truffle in it and the let the truffles sit at room temp until set.

The truffles can be kept in a tightly covered container in the refrigerator for up to a week, but there best eaten within a few days. I recommend making them for you honey for valentine’s day and then they wont last very long.

If you don’t think you can get them all goggled up soon enough then they can be stored, tightly wrapped, in the freezer.

To defrost them, remove them from the freezer and let them defrost still wrapped until they come to room temperature. This will eliminate any condensation.

You can create many variations of the ganache for this yummy truffle by infusing the cream with any flavors you like. such as coffee, vanilla beans, tea, or any liqueurs.

Vanilla: Place 1 vanilla bean cut in half and scraped out into the cold cream, and then follow directions above just strain the cream before adding it to the chocolate.

Tea: Steep the cream with 2 teaspoons of black or green tea. Strain the leaves out before adding to chocolate.

Coffee: Steep the cream with 1/2 cup coarsely ground coffee beans. Strain the grounds out before adding to the chocolate.