Truffles & Bonbons

Truffles and bonbons are bite-size chocolates with a soft center, most often ganache, which is chocolate melted together with hot cream. A truffle is rolled into a ball, while a bonbon is usually shaped in a mold.

How to choose Truffles & Bonbons

  • Ganache center. The cream keeps this filling soft and glossy, so it melts quickly in the mouth.
  • Nut center. Gianduja, a smooth paste of chocolate and roasted hazelnuts, is firmer and tastes of toasted nuts. EU law requires gianduja chocolate to hold 20 to 40 grams of hazelnuts per 100 grams, or 15 to 40 grams for milk gianduja.
  • Shell. In the EU, the chocolate outside of anything sold as filled chocolate must be at least 25 percent of the total weight, so the shell is at least a quarter of the piece.
  • Finish. A dusting of cocoa powder is the original truffle coat. A dipped piece wears a thin layer of chocolate instead.

About Truffles & Bonbons

Truffles and bonbons are small filled chocolates meant to be eaten in one or two bites. Both start with a center, and the two names describe how that center is finished.

For a classic truffle, ganache is cooled until firm, rolled into balls, and then dusted with cocoa powder or coated in a thin layer of chocolate. Molded bonbons are built differently. Chocolate is poured into a mold to form a shell, the shell is filled, and a last layer of chocolate seals the base.

Keep a box somewhere cool, out of sunlight, and away from damp. Take pieces out a little before serving so the center softens and the full flavor comes through.

At a glance

Made from
Chocolate, cream, butter, nuts, sugar
Main types
Ganache truffle, molded bonbon, gianduja, praline
Label terms
Ganache, praline, gianduja, filled chocolate

Truffles & Bonbons questions

Why is a chocolate truffle called a truffle?

Because of how it looks. One popular story credits Louis Dufour, a confectioner in Chambéry, France, with rough balls of chilled ganache rolled in cocoa powder for the holidays of 1895, though the origin is disputed. Dusty, dark and irregular, they resembled truffles, the prized fungus they were named for. The name stuck even for smooth, dipped truffles that look nothing like the original.

What is gianduja and where does it come from?

Gianduja is chocolate blended with finely ground roasted hazelnuts into a smooth paste. It began in Turin in the early 1800s, when Napoleon's continental blockade cut off ships carrying cocoa to Europe and chocolatiers stretched what they had with local hazelnuts. Nuts were then seen as cheating, so the recipe stayed quiet for about a century.

What does praline mean on a box of chocolates?

It depends on where the word is used. In European law, a praline is a single-mouthful chocolate, either filled or made of chocolate combined with other ingredients, with chocolate making up at least 25 percent of its weight. In the American South, a praline is a soft nut candy cooked to around 235 to 240°F. That is the soft-ball stage, when a drop of the syrup forms a soft ball in cold water, the same stage used for fudge.

Sources: EU cocoa and chocolate directive; Exploratorium candy temperature chart; Turin tourism office on gianduja.

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