Tartufi Recipe

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Lara Hata © 2007

Okay, we wanted to share this recipe less because of the ice cream, and more because of the chocolate coating. Chocolate sauce is a great thing, but isn't a thin, crackly chocolate shell a hundred times better?

Use whatever ice cream you want in this recipe; homemade is always good, of course, but if you're looking for a simpler project, just use your favorite store-bought brand.

Reprinted with permission from The Perfect Scoop: Ice Creams, Sorbets, Granitas, and Sweet Accompaniments by David Lebovitz, copyright © 2007. Published by Ten Speed Press, a division of Random House.

Recipe Details

Tartufi Recipe

Prep 20 mins
Cook 5 mins
Freezing Time 60 mins
Total 85 mins
Makes 8 tartufi

Ingredients

  • 2 cups (500 ml) ice cream
  • 6 ounces (170 g) bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
  • 6 tablespoons (85 g) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Directions

  1. Line two large dinner plates with plastic wrap or parchment paper and put them in the freezer. Once the plates are chilled, use an ice cream scoop to make balls of your favorite ice cream, setting them on one of the plates. Take care that the scoops are solid and well formed, with no dangling bits of ice cream; use your hands if necessary. Freeze the ice cream scoops thoroughly.

  2. To dip the Tartufi, melt the chocolate, butter, and corn syrup in a medium bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Once the chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth, remove the bowl of chocolate from the improvised double boiler. Remove the ice cream balls from the freezer, and the second plate as well.

  3. Here the trick is to going to be to try to get as thin a shell as possible around the ice cream. Using two soup spoons, drop a frozen scoop of ice cream into the melted chocolate mixture and toss it quickly until it’s coated. Transfer it onto the unused dinner plate. Repeat with the remaining scoops of ice cream, then return the scoops to the freezer until ready to serve.