Walk through Amsterdam centrum and you'll see the word 'handmade' on more chocolate windows than you can count. It's worth being specific about what that means — and what it doesn't. Here is how a real handmade truffle comes together, and what to look for the next time you buy one.
A real handmade truffle starts with ganache — warm cream poured over chopped chocolate, stirred until glossy, then rested for hours. Industrial ganache is poured by machine into moulds. Hand-piped ganache has irregular tails and slightly different sizes. That's the giveaway.
Tempering chocolate is the part most industrial producers skip. A properly tempered shell — the kind the makers in our collection insist on — is what gives a truffle its clean snap and its glossy shine, and what keeps it from blooming after a week on the shelf.
Industrial truffles get a perfect machine-applied shell. Handmade ones get rolled in cocoa, hand-dusted with gold leaf or dipped twice. Look for slightly uneven coverage — that's the human hand.
Three quick checks: (1) ask how often they make a fresh batch — daily is the answer you want, (2) look at the truffles, not the box; if they're all identical to the millimetre, they're moulded, (3) the shop should smell of chocolate, not of perfume or air freshener.
A chocolate truffle is a soft ganache centre — cream and chocolate — coated in tempered chocolate or rolled in cocoa powder. The name comes from its resemblance to the truffle mushroom.
A handmade cream-based truffle stays at its best for 7–10 days at cool room temperature. Longer if refrigerated, but never freeze — it cracks the shell.