Dark Chocolate Key Lime Pie Truffles

Smooth-as-silk key lime ganache filling enrobed in dark chocolate. These homemade truffles make me weak at the knees!

Today, 12 days before Sally’s Candy Addiction Cookbook’s manuscript is due, I’m going to show you exactly how to make one of my favorite truffle recipes. I’ve been surrounded by truffles for the past 3 months (everyday I’m trufflin’) and have about 1 billion truffle recipe ideas in my head!

You’d think I’d be sick of truffles by now. But, come on. Bring on the chocolate!

Here is exactly where this recipe idea came from. About 10 years ago, my friend Amy was telling me about these incredible dark chocolate-covered key lime pie treats she had in Florida one time. Key lime pie is her favorite dessert. Instead of birthday cake each year, she has key lime pie.

Back to those dark chocolate key lime pie treats. The slices of pie are frozen and sold on a stick. Yes, frozen key lime pie slices… on a stick… covered in chocolate. Have mercy. Amy says they are ridiculously good. Uh, I can imagine. Naturally, the thought of them hasn’t escaped my mind in 10 years. So I recreated them. Sorta.

Key lime pie truffles… the centers are made from white chocolate and lime-infused cream. Citrus-y tart lime pairs wonderfully with sweet white chocolate, no? To avoid a sugar rush (well, as best as we can), I cover the key lime truffles in dark chocolate. A little white chocolate drizzle, tinted very light green, is the perfect finishing touch.

These dark chocolate key lime pie truffles are every bit as creamy, luscious, and extravagant as you see here.

Chocolate truffles are special, which is why you usually buy them. There’s a lot you need to know about making them at home. It’s not simply melting chocolate with cream and rolling into a ball. It is so much more than that! That’s why I’m writing an entire chapter about them in my book! But I promise, they’re approachable, and you can do this.

Here is the recipe if you’d like to skip all that. Below the recipe are step-by-step photos and lots of tips and tricks to help you make the very best truffles ever. Really really. Ever.

What Are Truffles?

So, what are truffles? To make chocolate truffles, you have to make chocolate ganache. Ganache is a water/oil emulsion of cream and chocolate. It can be made from a 1:1 ratio or more than that… like a 1:2 ratio. The former will produce a much smoother ganache; the latter, a firmer ganache. Cream lowers the melting point of chocolate so that it is smooth at room temperature.

To make white chocolate truffles, you need to start out with pure white chocolate. Not white chocolate chips, not almond bark or any other white candy coating. Pure white chocolate. I prefer Baker’s, Ghirardelli, and Lindt. White chocolate is much different from chocolate. It does not contain cocoa solids like milk, semi-sweet, and dark chocolates. It is made from cocoa butter. Hence, the smooth and creamy texture. That being said, white chocolate ganache is made a little differently than regular chocolate ganache.

As written in the recipe below, you need 14 ounces of white chocolate for these truffles. Chop it up into very small pieces. The smaller, the better. This will help the chocolate melt down easier.

Weigh your chocolate using a food scale. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. And again. And again. Weigh your ingredients! A cup isn’t always a cup, but an ounce (or a gram!) is always an ounce (or a gram!).

Set the white chocolate aside as you make the lime-infused cream. Did you read that? Lime-infused cream!!!

To make the lime-infused cream, simply warm heavy cream on the stove with the zest of two limes. I totally cheated and did not use key limes. I can’t find them in the stores near me this time of year. Regular limes are fine. Heat and stir until the mixture barely comes to a boil. Once it gets to this point, remove it from the heat and set it aside and let the lime flavor infuse into the cream for 30 minutes.

After that, heat it back up on the stove, then strain the cream through a mesh sieve on top of the chopped chocolate. We don’t want lime zest shreds in our creamy white chocolate centers! We’ll also add a little fresh lime juice and softened butter. Not much butter, only 2 Tablespoons. The small amount of butter is for taste and texture. Buttery taste, smooth texture.

Now, here is an important ganache tip: Gently stir the white chocolate mixture with a rubber spatula or spoon. Do not forcefully stir it. You are not mad at the white chocolate! Use gentle, circular motions… again, in one direction. The emulsification of the chocolate and cream takes place by the gentle combination of stirring, which breaks down the fat in both the cream and chocolate.

Once all of the white chocolate chunks are melted and the ganache filling is completely smooth, let it sit at room temperature for 1 hour. Before doing so, cover with a piece of plastic wrap pressed down on top of the ganache filling (actually touching it) to prevent a film from forming.

Then, refrigerate.

After chilling, the ganache filling will be smooth and soft, but still manageable to scoop by hand.

Use about 1 teaspoon of ganache filling per truffle. Again, the ganache filling will be soft. Softness is OK. Expect softness. It will stick to your hands. But this is what makes a creamy, luscious filling! I wipe my hands clean with a towel after rolling each truffle. Clean hands make them easier to roll. Once each truffle has been rolled, refrigerate them.

Now it’s time to dip the key lime pie truffles.

Stop reading and buy these dipping tools. You will need them for a lot of my candy addiction recipes, including Oreo balls, rum balls, and pumpkin spice truffles. Well, you don’t actually need them. But to make dipping easier (and prettier!), you should have them in your kitchen.

For the chocolate, you can temper it or simply melt it.

Tempering chocolate requires a whole other post on its own and when I begin showing you more and more truffle recipes, I’ll show you exactly how (and why!) to temper chocolate. For these key lime truffles, dipping them into simply melted chocolate is fine. In fact, I prefer them cold, so using melted chocolate for dipping is perfectly acceptable (tempered chocolate should not be refrigerated).

Give the truffles a nice dunk into the dark chocolate. I use bittersweet chocolate here, but semi-sweet is just fine. I wanted to avoid a white chocolate exterior because the key lime centers are quite sweet themselves.

Finish the truffles off with a drizzle of white chocolate. I mixed some green candy melts in with the white chocolate to get a lime green color. I realize it totally looks white in these pictures. It’s light lime green, I swear.

I usually buy candy melts at craft stores, but you can order them online. You can, of course, just leave the white chocolate drizzle… white. Or leave it off completely and decorate with green sprinkles perhaps? Get fancy.

Now that’s what I call key lime pie perfection! And finally something that actually looks good on a dull green plate. Why did I buy that?

If you made it down this far, I applaud you. And should ship you some homemade key lime pie truffles… 😉

After you give these truffles a try, see my other gluten free dessert recipes that everyone loves.

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