These bite-size homemade Chocolate Bourbon Truffles made with creamy ganache and covered with toasted hazelnuts are the perfect easy indulgent treat during the holiday season!
I love making simple desserts that require only a few ingredients and minimum effort, like these amazing Chocolate Bourbon Truffles! These bite-size treats are made with rich and creamy ganache with a touch of bourbon and covered with crunchy toasted hazelnuts crumbs.
If you are like me and love mini sweets, you probable already tried my Coconut Truffles, No-Bake Brownie Bites, and Energy Bites with Dates.
Ingredients
- Chocolate. Make sure you use a high-quality chocolate.
- Heavy cream. Make sure you use heavy cream and not half and half or regular milk. Otherwise, your ganache won’t properly set.
- Butter. A tablespoon of butter will make your truffles creamier. But this is really optional.
- Salt. I always like to add a pinch of salt in my desserts as it helps to balance the sweetness.
- Bourbon. Use your favorite Bourbon. I like to use Breckenridge in my desserts.
How to toast hazelnuts
Preheat the oven to 350˚F.
Place the hazelnuts on a baking sheet with a parchment paper. Bake them for about 8-10 minutes or until the nuts are getting golden color and the skin is blistered.
When done, transfer hazelnuts of a clean towel and rub them with the towel to remove the excess loose skin.
Remove cleaned hazelnuts from the towel to a plate.
You can chop them in a small food processor or just using a knife.
How to make it
First, we need to warm up the heavy cream. You can pour it in a sauce pan and bring to a simmer or pour in a mixing bowl and microwave for about 30 second to a minute.
Put chocolate, butter, and a pinch of salt in a mixing bowl, pour the hot cream on top.
Let the hot cream sit in the chocolate for a minute before you mix it.
Then whisk it until chocolate is melted and smooth consistency.
Add your favorite Bourbon and whisk again.
Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until the ganache is set.
When set, scoop the ganache and roll it into balls. Then coat into chopped hazelnuts.
Place on a cookie sheet with parchment paper and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to an hour before transferring to an air tight container.
Toppings ideas
- Chopped hazelnuts (or other nuts of your choice)
- Cocoa powder
- Unsweetened coconut flakes
- Tempered chocolate
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
Most likely the cream is not hot enough. If you already poured the cream into the chocolate and it’s not melting, place the mixing bowl (make sure it’s heat proof) on a pot with simmering water and stir until all the ingredients are melted and well incorporated.
The ganache might be too runny for two reasons. One, you didn’t refrigerate it long enough to set. Second, you use low quality chocolate with high amount of fat in it.
Most likely the cream was not hot enough when you add it to the chocolate.
MORE DESSERT RECIPE YOU MIGHT LIKE:
- 3 Ingredient Coconut Truffles
- No-Bake Brownie Bites
- Energy Bites with Dates
- Chocolate Mousse Pie
- Chocolate Cupcakes with Caramel Filling
- Kahlua Cupcakes
- Mini Cheesecakes with Blueberry Sauce
- One Bowl Brownies
- Homemade Chocolate Cake
- Chocolate Overload Cake
Did you make this recipe?!? I’d love to know how it turned out! leave a comment and a rating below👇 thank you!
Chocolate Bourbon Truffles
Ingredients
- 12 ounces semi-sweet chocolate
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- ⅔ cup heavy cream
- Pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon bourbon
- ⅔ cup roasted hazelnuts finely chopped
Instructions
- First, we need to warm up the heavy cream. You can pour it in a sauce pan and bring to a simmer or pour in a mixing bowl and microwave for about 30 second to a minute.
- Put chocolate, butter, and a pinch of salt in a mixing bowl, pour the hot cream on top.
- Let the hot cream sit in the chocolate for a minute before you mix it.
- Then whisk it until chocolate is melted and smooth consistency.
- Add your favorite Bourbon and whisk again.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours or until the ganache is set.
- When set, scoop the ganache and roll it into balls. Then coat into chopped hazelnuts.
- Place on a cookie sheet with parchment paper and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to an hour before transferring to an air tight container.
Notes
Nutrition
These were the perfect addition to a few gift baskets I made for a ‘friends’ Christmas we do early in the month of December. All my friends raved and asked for the recipe.
Thank you so much, Mikayla! So glad your friends loved them as well 😉
We made these as a gift for a friend and they absolutely raved about them. We made them again for us, they’re so good!
Thank you so much, Tracy!
I’ve tried different liquors or liqueurs in truffles and I have to say I was surprised at how tasty they were with the bourbon. In fact, I served them at a little get-together and they were the first thing that disappeared.
I love these truffles because they are so easy and better than the store bought ones! I need more easy recipes like this for the holidays!
You’ve got the best of both worlds in these truffles, that is something I am absolutely sure about. Can’t wait to make a big batch now!
These truffles are going to be a new item on my Christmas baking list! They sound so delicious! Thanks for the recipe share!
Okay, I might have added a little bit more bourbon to mine, but never mind. These truffles were so delicious! I loved the contrast of textures and flavors.
You have just refreshed my memory of a Christmas treat I used to make with my husband many years ago. We made this truffles almost exactly but used Bailey’s instead of bourbon. Both are delicious!
Bourbon and chocolate are a match for sure. What a great food gift for the holidays. Perfect addition to the treat trays at parties too.
I found espresso chocolate chips and used 1/2 regular and 1/2 espresso chips for mine plus toasted coconut cashews to roll them in OMG
Espresso chocolate chips sound very tasty! Need to try them too 😉
Can I freeze these
Hi Sherry! I’ve never tried to freeze them. But you can put them in an air-tight container and refrigerate for up to a week.
You had me at bourbon chocolate… and then again at hazelnuts. These sound so deliciously decadent! I can’t wait to add them to our cookie platter line-up.
I found espresso chocolate chips and used 1/2 regular and 1/2 espresso chips for mine plus toasted coconut cashews to roll them in OMG
These truffles look and sound delicious! Chocolate and bourbon together is always the best idea! Sign me up!
All it took was one quick look at the image and I pinned the recipe. This is just what I’ve been looking for. The bourbon plus the chocolate will make delicious treats for me to share with family and friends.
I’m skipping a batch of Christms cookies this year for the hokdiays and making these bourbon truffles instead!
Your truffles look so amazingly delicious, they have to be addicting! This would be a nice addition to my Christmas Cookie tray!
That first shot of the first bite (maybe the second one lol) is SO INVITING! I can almost feel how delicious these truffles are and would absolutely LOVE to have them in front of me right now!
Whoa, these truffles look insanely delicious! I love the idea of the ganache mixed with bourbon and the hazelnuts. They look like such a great treat to pass around on Christmas!
Oh boy…these spell trouble for me because I could not just stop at one. What a great combination of flavours. I love how you laid out this post too. So many things can go wrong with ganache and it’s good to know how to fix them!
Chocolate Truffles has always been my weakness and it will be. And looking at these deliciousness, you are giving me goal to make these today itself (minus the bourbon). Tomorrow is Children’s day in our part of the world, making these will be great idea to make my kids happy! thanks Veronika! 🙂
Rich and chocolaty with bourbon! These sound so good almost like jello shots meets ganache! Thanks for sharing. Cheers!
If I can’t drink, and all my husband drinks is whiskey, do you think that is an OK substitute? Or would just leaving out the alcohol be just as tasty too?
Hi Donna! Different whisky have different flavors. I never used in the the truffles, but I think it might work. Or you can simply skip the alcohol in this recipe 😉