Easy Coffee and Cardamom Truffles ~ this easy homemade candy is a decadent combination of dark chocolate, cardamom, and coffee, reminiscent of the flavors of Turkish coffee!

I’m catering dessert for a friend’s book club meeting next week. I don’t know what they’re reading, but apparently they’re quite a group of chocoholics, so one of the things I’m making for them are these tiny dark chocolate truffles infused with the flavors of Turkish coffee. I don’t see any reason to file away truffles just because the holiday season is over. I think these cardamom and coffee truffles are the perfect mid January after dinner reward for all the dieting and organizing everyone’s been doing.
cardamom truffles are decadently easy!
Even though I’ve been making truffles for years, I still can’t quite believe that something so delicious is so utterly simple to make. It seems counter to the rules of food physics or something. Chocolate ganache, a combination of chocolate and cream, is delicious all by itself, but when you start to infuse flavors into it, things really get exciting!
why we love these little coffee and cardamom truffles
I love that I can make them a few days ahead, and I also like that they are bite sized, so people who just want a taste of something sweet can do that without having a whole plate of dessert. The unusual flavor combination in these truffles makes them really special.
how to infuse the flavors of coffee and cardamom into your truffles
I mixed a tablespoon of instant espresso powder with the heavy cream and dropped in a few roasted and crushed cardamom pods. I let them steep for about 10 minutes before I strained the hot cream over the dark chocolate. Just those fee minutes of steeping infuses the truffles with a subtle background hint of cardamom…so exotic!
TIP: You can use convenient semi sweet or bittersweet chocolate chips for these cardamom and coffee truffles, too.
love truffles?
- Peanut Butter Truffles
- Jewel Box Truffles
- Hot Chili Pepper Truffles
- Fresh Lemon Truffles
- Grand Marnier Truffles
Coffee and Cardamom Truffles
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 Tbsp instant espresso powder
- 5 cardamom pods, cracked open, don't lose the little seeds!
- 8 oz good quality dark chocolate, cut in small pieces
- 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder for dusting
Instructions
- Pour the cream into a small saucepan, along with the coffee powder and cardamom pods. Heat over medium heat, stirring to dissolve the coffee powder. When the cream almost reaches the simmer, turn off the heat and let it steep for 10 minutes.
- Put the chocolate in a small bowl.
- Bring the cream back up to a simmer, then pour the hot cream over the chocolate and let it sit for 10 minutes. Note: pour the cream through a seive to catch the cardamom pods and seeds.
- Stir the chocolate cream mixture to completely melt the chocolate. Keep stirring until you have a smooth glossy mixture. If there are still any lumps of chocolate, you can microwave the mix for about 10 seconds.
- Pour the ganache into a shallow pan, like a pie plate. No need to spread it out.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the ganache is firm enough to scoop, this will take about an hour to an hour and a half.
- Remove from the refrigerator and, using a small 1″ scoop, melon baller, or a teaspoon, scoop small portions of the ganache and roll between your palms to form a smooth round ball. Set the balls on a plate while you finish the rest. Don’t worry if you can’t get the truffles perfectly round—the candy is named after the rare underground mushrooms that are famously misshapen!
- Roll the truffles in the cocoa powder to completely and evenly coat them. Store in the refrigerator, or at room temperature.
I’m not sure which I more drawn to…the truffles with that lovely cardamom flavor or those gorgeous cups! Beautiful – both of them.
What gorgeous photos! Cardamom sounds like the perfect complement to dark chocolate truffles. Looking forward to sampling them myself–thanks!
Cardamom is such an evocative versatile spice – I love it – just the smell of a crushed pod rubbed between the palms heightens all the senses somehow. These little coffee gems look perfect.
I’ve been a little obsessed with it lately, it has an almost spiritual scent.
I think the book club will eat these up! so delicious and I love the addition of caardamom
Mary x
Love the cups:-)
And the truffles of course..
I was more concerned with getting a shot of the pretty cups than I was about the truffles ๐
Mmmm, cardamom is one of my favorite spices, ever since I made a cardamom coffee cake! I’ll bet these are delicious. I’ll be adding them to my list of yummy things to make.
Claudia
That Moosewood Cookbook Cardamom coffee cake was one of the first things I ever made, and it’s still a favorite. It definitely introduced me to cardamom.
I’d read a stinkin’ encyclopedia if I’d get one of these!!
Gorgeous cups, too!
I have to stop ‘testing’ them or there’ll be none for the group!
Oh, I definitely think truffles are seasonless! These sound amazing, such a perfect combination. And I just love that tea/coffee service – it fits perfectly with the turkish theme. Lovely.
I got into Turkish coffee a few years ago, but only just found the cups buried in some of my family boxes in the garage. They were my grandmothers, I think, and I was thrilled to find them. I think Turkish coffee must have been a fad back in the 1920s, I’m going to look it up.
Funny you should mention the chocolate, after I got finished photographing the chocolate I realized it was unsweetened, so I wrapped it back up and ended up using the only other dark chocolate I had left in my ‘chocolate drawer’, the super-primo Scharffen Berger bittersweet! Actually I’ve always been pleased with the Baker’s squares, but I know you’ve mentioned the Trader Joe’s brand before, and I mean to give it a try.
I can only imagine how good these are! The coffee flavor, the intensity of the dark chocolate – I would love one of these rich little babies! Random aside but it looks like you’re probably using Baker’s brand chocolate squares. I find that in recipes like this TJ’s 72% Pound Plus bar works very well and ounce for ounce is about half the price. But clearly you don’t need to change a thing b/c they look amazing!