Galaxy Chocolate Truffles With Mango Ganache Recipe

Don't wait until the next Valentine's Day to blow someone away with these gorgeous filled galaxy chocolates with mango ganache.

As usual, I didn't use any special equipment to make the chocolate – the method I use to temper chocolate without a thermometer or anything else is, as usual, to partially melt some chocolate, take it off the heat and then add more solid chocolate to cool it down and get the cocoa butter crystals to reform properly (also known as the 'seeding' method). And the great thing is it works for dark, milk and white chocolate.

You can also see how I make these on my YouTube video:

The real challenge of this recipe is making sure you have enough chocolate to coat the insides of the mould to create hollow shells, and then more to seal them once you've put the mango ganache filling in. You need to work quickly as well-tempered chocolate sets quite quickly at room temperature, which is why you need a bit of an excess of chocolate which lets you spread it into the moulds and tap it out faster.

You will end up with extra melted tempered chocolate, but that's not a problem – just spread it out on some clean tin foil, let it set, and use it / it another time.

Ready? Let's go.

Ingredients for 'Galaxy' Pattern

Edible metallic lustre dusts (I used purple, blue and green for the swirls, and white for the stars)
Vodka (don't worry, this evaporates away)

Ingredients for Mango Ganache:

100g fresh, ripe mango, puréed
50ml double cream
100g white chocolate

Ingredients for Tempered Chocolate Shells:

300g dark 70% chocolate

Method:

1. Mix up your coloured lustre dusts with a little vodka until they're paint-like in consistency, and brush the insides of a chocolate mould in swirl-like motions using clean paintbrushes. Leave to dry completely (the vodka will evaporate away relatively quickly) – make sure it's completely dry before you put any chocolate in it.

2. Make the mango ganache: cook down the purée in a small saucepan on a low to medium heat until reduced by half, then add in the cream and chocolate. Stir until the chocolate is melted and everything's well combined, scoop into a bowl, and leave to cool to room temperature.

3. Now it's time to temper the chocolate. Put 200g of the chocolate into a heatproof bowl sitting over a pan of just-simmering water (make sure the bottom of the bowl isn't touching the water). Stir gently, and take off the heat when about halfway melted. Continue to stir until the rest of the chocolate has melted, scraping down the sides of the bowl as you go, and gradually add the remaining 100g of chocolate bit by bit, each time stirring until completely melted.

4.  When the chocolate begins to become stiff and won't melt any more (you might not need all 300g to get to this stage), return the bowl to the heat for just 5–10 seconds to loosen it up for working with. Don't heat it back up for any longer or you'll bring it back out of temper and the chocolate won't set properly.

5. Immediately pour the chocolate straight over the painted and dried moulds, spreading all over evenly and into the cavities. Give the mould a good bang on the counter to make sure every nook and cranny is filled (make sure your counter's clean or is lined with baking paper – I did the latter for easy cleanup), and quickly turn it upside down, tapping firmly to shake the excess chocolate out. Flip right-side-up again, scrape the top clean with a blunt knife or bench scraper, and pop in the fridge to set for half an hour.

6. Scrape the chocolate off your counter, and pop it back in the bowl to be tempered again soon (if you tempered it well it'll already have begun to set as you worked with the mould).

7. Once your chocolate shells have set in the mould, scoop your mango ganache into a piping bag, snip off the end, and pipe some into each shell until there's just a little space at the top of each (you may have a little ganache left – pop in the fridge, and enjoy melted over ice cream another time!). Bang on the counter to get rid of air bubbles.

8. Temper your remaining chocolate again using the same process as above (remember to leave some chocolate unmelted to add to it after you take it off the heat). Now fill another small piping bag with it, snip off the end, and pipe on top of the ganache to seal your chocolates, overfilling just a little. Give the mould another few bangs on the counter, scrape the top to level out, and leave at room temperature to set completely (or pop in the fridge if it's a hot day – but just leave it at room temperature if you can). This will take about 30 minutes to an hour depending on the temperature of your room. Scoop up any remaining chocolate and store in some tin foil to use again or eat another time.

9. Invert the mould and give it a good bang on your counter to get the chocolate out (if you have a hard mould), or just pop them out if you're using a silicone mould. You may have to give the hard one a few taps to get every shell out.

10. Finally, mix your white lustre powder with a little vodka to get a sparkly white paint. Dip a clean toothbrush head into the paint, and pull back the bristles with your thumb or finger to 'flick' the paint onto your chocolate to create little stars. Leave to dry for a few minutes and you're all done.

Enjoy, and have fun.