Chocolate Truffles

When I asked Martha what she wanted for her birthday her answer was, "I’d love something small (bite-sized even) and very chocolate". The first thing that popped into my head was truffles. After all they were bite-sized and are to some the very definition of chocolaty. I did my usual research and found two recipes to try but couldn't' decide between the two so I made both.
The first one I found was just a basic Chocolate Truffle recipe. It was easy to prepare but BOY is it messy to shape and form. I think with more practice, it would be easier. They taste like the real deal! When I gave one to my friend, he squinted his eyes and said, "Wow is that chocolaty! Woo!" The second recipe I found was Easy Decadent Truffles. I was intrigued by it because of the high number of good reviews it received. Personally I think it tastes more like a rich chocolate cheesecake and less like a real truffle. However I can see how it appeals to so many people. It was much easier to shape and it wasn't nearly as messy as the traditional recipe. This recipe was a lot less intense on the chocolate scale, even though I used 71% dark chocolate. The cream cheese seems to cut the bitterness a bit.

I elected not to enrobed the truffles in a chocolate shell because I had ran out of good chocolate so I skipped that step and just dressed the little fellas in coconut, powdered sugar, dark chocolate cocoa, and almond dust. Here are the flavor combination I put together:

• Grand Marnier rolled in coconut
• Grand Marnier rolled in almond dust
• Mexican Vanilla (thanks Mandy!) rolled in powdered sugar
• Espresso Chocolate Cheesecake Truffle rolled in dark chocolate cocoa powder -( for these I used a high quality dark chocolate that had espresso beans premixed into bar.)