Brownie truffles were originally posted on my first blog “Heather’s Sweets and Treats.” I’ve updated and moved the recipe here.
Brownie truffles sounds so fancy doesn’t it? And really, “truffle” has a better ring to it than brownie “balls” But that is essentially what they are. A decadent ball of baked, crumbled up brownie stirred together with buttercream, rolled in a ball, and dipped in even more chocolate. Not a bad way to go.
I once took these to a party and my friend’s boyfriend ate like half of them in less than an hour. I’m not recommending that course of action (but I’m not not recommending it either…). For real, these are hard not to eat.
Another awesome feature of these truffles is that you don’t have to use super fresh brownies. I’ve been known to take a half pan of brownies that’s maybe like 3 days old, you know when it’s like a little stale for prime enjoyment but you can’t really bring yourself to throw them out, and revive them with some buttercream and chocolate dipping.
The trickiest part of this recipe is dipping the truffles. When cake pops were all the rage I was determined to get on that train. And I made the ugliest looking cake pops on the planet. All the things that seemed straightforward were not. Worst of all, they would commonly fall off the stick or crumble in my melted chocolate. Neither of which were ideal. I learned a few things along the way. The biggest one being, ditch the dang stick!
Tips for top notch brownie truffles
- Use homemade buttercream-I know a can of store-bought frosting seems waaay easier but trust me, in this situation, it is not. You want the real butter because it will firm up hard in the freezer and make it easier to dip.
- After you roll the balls of brownie/buttercream-freeze them on a tray lined with parchment paper for 1/2 hour.
- Use a little more buttercream than you think you need. (But just a little). When you’re rolling the balls and your hands are sticky with buttercream, you will not love me but after everything freezes into a nice smooth ball, you will be glad you did.
- Use dipping chocolate, like Candy Melts or the Ghirardelli Melting Wafers rather than chocolate chips. The dipping chocolate is designed to get a hard shell where melted chocolate chips will always stay a little soft.
- If your truffles are still ugly (or even if they aren’t), take a contrasting color dipping chocolate, melt it, put it in a piping bag with the littlest tip cut off, and stripe the tops. I promise, if you stripe the tops, everyone will think they are fancy.
Brownie Truffles
Ingredients
- 1 9×13 pan baked brownies boxed mix brownies are fine
- 1 1/2 cups chocolate buttercream
- 2-3 packages melting chocolate melted
Instructions
- Take pan of baked brownies and crumble it up in a large bowl. You want your crumbs to be very crumbly and small, no large chunks.
- Stir in chocolate buttercream. If the mixture looks dry or doesn’t easily press together, add in more buttercream by the 1/4 cup until mixture very easily presses together.
- Take 1 tablespoon of brownie mixture and roll onto a ball. I like to use a medium size cookie scoop because I like a 2 bite brownie truffle. Feel free to make these smaller. Don’t make them much bigger or it will be hard to dip. Place the rolled balls on a parchment lined cookie sheet. It’s ok if they are really close together but you don’t want them touching each other.
- Once the brownies are rolled and on your cookie sheet, transfer cookie sheet to the freezer for at least a 1/2 hour. At this stage of the process, if you don’t have time to finish your truffles for the day, you can transfer the frozen balls to a freezer bag and dip them at a later date.
- While your truffles are in the freezer, melt your melting chocolate. I like to melt mine in the microwave. To do this, place the melting chocolate in a microwave safe bowl. Melt chocolate in short, 15 second bursts, stirring between each burst. Stirring and short bursts of heat are very important to keep the chocolate from burning.
- Pull the truffles out of the freezer. Using a fork to hold the ball, dip the ball into the chocolate. Slide the truffle coated in chocolate off the fork and onto a piece of parchment or wax paper to dry.
- If you’d like to stripe your truffles, melt a small amount of white (or whatever color) melting chocolate and place in a piping bag. Snip just the very tip off and drizzle the white chocolate over the truffles. Wait until dry and enjoy!
Chocolate Buttercream
Ingredients
- 1 sticks salted butter softened (1 pound)
- 8 cups powdered sugar (2 pound bag)
- 1 1/2 cups cocoa powder
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1/4 cup water as needed
Instructions
- Beat butter on high speed until smooth.
- Slowly beat in powdered sugar and cocoa powder. As mixture becomes thick, add in heavy cream.
- If buttercream is still thicker than desired, add water while mixing, 1 tablespoon at a time until desired consistency is reached.
Notes
- Don’t add the whole amount of water at once. Just add it one tablespoon at a time. You think you are going to save time, you are not. You are going to have soupy buttercream on your hands.
- For chocolate buttercream with a little bit something extra, substitute strong brewed coffee for the water portion.
- For a peanut butter chocolate buttercream, use 1 cup of peanut butter in exchange for 1 cup of butter (2 sticks).
If you love brownies, you might want to try my caramel swirl brownies or maybe these M&M brown cookies!
Happy Baking!