Roasted White Chocolate & Coffee Truffles
from https://www.foodandwine.com/

Belinda Leong made many kinds of ganache (a rich, smooth chocolate-and-cream mixture) during her time at the venerable Pierre Hermé pâtisserie in Paris. Here, she slow-roasts white chocolate, which adds an enticing caramel flavor to the supercreamy ganache filling in her truffles. Recipe from Food & Wine America's Greatest New Cooks.

9 ounces Valrhona Ivoire white baking chocolate* (chopped)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon freshly ground coffee
Salt
Unsweetened cocoa powder (for dusting)
7 ounces bittersweet chocolate (chopped)

Preheat the oven to 225°. In a medium stainless steel bowl, roast the chopped white chocolate for 3 hours, stirring every 15 minutes, until golden.

[*Roasting white chocolate results in a flavor that is hard to pin down, but toffee/butterscotch/salted caramel should give you an idea. The only thing you really need to do to ensure success is to start with superior quality white chocolate – meaning, one with at least a 30% cocoa butter content. It can be a block, in chips or in “feves,” but it CANNOT be a bag of baking chips that you get at the grocery store.

You want to scoop, stir, spread and smooth the chocolate so that all of the chocolate is well incorporated at every interval of stirring. Start paying attention to the color at about the 30-minute mark, as over-baking the chocolate will dry it out (this recipe sets the oven to 250°). Better to under bake than over. Don't panic if the chocolate appears grainy—just keep scraping and stirring at regular intervals.

When you’re finished roasting, you can scoop the chocolate into a glass jar to store it. Or If it hardens, simply warm in the microwave or in the top half of a double boiler. Pour it over ice cream, make hot chocolate with it, use it as a dip for fruit or cubed pound cake. OR Transfer roasted white chocolate to a sheet of parchment paper (as thick or thin as you like) and spread evenly. Chill until firm. Chop into pieces to use however you’d use chocolate chips or pieces – in cookies, pancakes, quick breads, etc.. ]

In a medium saucepan, bring the cream to a simmer over moderate heat. Remove from the heat, add the ground coffee and a pinch of salt and let steep for 2 minutes. Strain the cream through a fine sieve into the bowl with the roasted white chocolate and whisk until blended. Scrape the ganache into a shallow baking dish and press a piece of plastic wrap directly onto the surface. Refrigerate until firm, at least 3 hours.

Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Using a 1-inch ice cream scoop, drop heaping teaspoons of the ganache onto the prepared baking sheet. Moisten your hands with ice water and roll the ganache into balls. Refrigerate until very firm, about 1 hour.

Spoon the cocoa powder into a small bowl. In a medium bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water, melt the bittersweet chocolate over moderately low heat, about 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir the chocolate slowly until glossy and just starting to thicken, about 5 minutes.

Using a fork, dip each truffle in the melted chocolate, coat it in the cocoa powder, then return it to the baking sheet. Refrigerate the truffles to set the shells, about 15 minutes, before serving.

Make Ahead: The coated truffles can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Yield: 24 truffles