Truffle Cookies

Some of you may already know: I’m a little bit obsessed with foods that look like other foods. I don’t know why, I just am. So with Valentine’s Day creeping up on me, I found myself thinking about making truffles (Nothing says Valentine’s Day like truffles in a heart shaped box, right?). I don’t have a great truffle recipe at the moment, so I was a little hesitant to dive into something that I’d likely have to experiment with and make several times to get right, and then it hit me. Why make truffles when I can make cookies that look like truffles?! And why make normal food when you can make food that looks like other food but really isn’t (and why write sentences in a straightforward way when you can make them confusing for your readers?!)?!

Truffle Cookies
Makes 12 truffle cookies

What you’ll need:
12 cookies (any flavor will do)
A batch of royal icing
Food gel coloring in brown, white, and black
A #104 icing tip
A fine, clean brush
Piping bags

For these cookies you’ll want to start with 12 small, circular cookies (any flavor will do). Using a #104 piping tip (this is a small, tear drop-shaped petal tip) and white royal icing with a 20 second consistency, pipe the outer ruffle that will be the candy cup liner (you can find more information on icing consistencies in this post). You’ll want to have the wider end facing the center of the cookie with the narrow end at the edge. To pipe the ruffle, simply apply pressure to the piping bag, moving your hand up and down (so the icing ruffles) while turning your cookie with the other hand. It’s ok if the ruffles don’t turn out perfect; they’re liners so they’re not perfect anyway.

To make the truffles, color some of your icing in whatever color you want the body of the truffles to be (I went with light brown for milk chocolate, dark brown for dark chocolate, and an off-white for white chocolate). Thin the icing to a 20 second consistency and pipe circles (or squares) for you truffles. The ruffle doesn’t need to be dry for this part, but it should have a crust on it to keep the truffle color from bleeding into the white. Use a toothpick to gently fill in any divots or even out the shape of your truffle. Add the embellishments to your truffles (swirls, zig zags, etc.) once a crust has formed on the truffle icing.

Be sure to let your icing dry completely before moving onto painting your cookies (I like to wait overnight just to be 100% sure). Since the icing is pretty flat by itself (as in, it doesn’t look like it has a whole lot of dimension), painting the cookies will help add depth and dimension to them. Using a light brown/beige and a fine brush, work the color into the ruffles around the edges to help define them. To add dimension to the truffles themselves, use a food coloring shade just a few shades darker than the icing coloring (for the dark chocolate color you’ll need black) to darken the edges and the area around the embellishments. Let the food coloring dry completely before packaging.

Happy baking!