Twitter Tang Truffle Trio

Tonight, I made truffles. I didn’t just make truffles, I made truffles with TANG.

“Why? Why would you do that, Chef Z?” might be the response of you, the Hardcore Reader. And I have  but one answer:

Because the Internet told me to.

For those not aware, I am an avid Tweeter. Judge all you want, but I just happen to love that 140 character goodness. One day, while browsing my Twitter feed, I see a tweet by the very awesome @awonger, reading:

“Dark Chocolate Infused With Red Chili”. They really need to make some chocolate infused with Tang.

The first thing I thought of were my Cocayoa Truffles – a dark chocolate truffle I make with cayenne pepper.  And I realized, @awonger was right.  If I could make truffles with pepper, I should damn well be able to make them with TANG.  I accepted his challenge. It was new, it was quirky, and frankly, I really do pretty much anything the Internet tells me to. Unless it involves a webcam. The Internet does not need any more of THAT.

So, this past weekend, I went to the local market and bought my first ever canister of Tang.

You see, I didn’t grow up on Tang like oh-so-many of my peers. I knew it had a firm place in pop-culture and that it had something to do with astronauts, but that’s about it. (That, and also, it is an ingredient in the culinary art of bomb-making.) I opened the canister when I got home. It looked like those powdered cheese sauces that come with boxed mac ‘n’ cheese. I silently prayed I would not get the two mixed up.

My first thought was to break out the white chocolate. I figured “Tang + White Chocolate = Orange Chocolate.” THIS IS NOT TRUE. I have always had a troubled relationship with white chocolate and this experiment didn’t help at all. What I did learn is that Tang does not dissolve in chocolate. It just stays there as tangy little crystals suspended in chocolatey goodness. And that is how we learn.

BECAUSE OF SCIENCE, THAT'S WHY.

I reformulated my plan. Tang in its powdered state was precious little good to me. I needed something more substantial. My plan? Tang SYRUP. A thick substance that would be easier to work with. So, I mixed together two cups of granulated sugar with two cups of Tang in a small pot. I brought the mixture to a boil, stirring often to keep any stray, undissolved sugar from burning, and let it boil on medium high for about five minutes. Then I turned the heat down to a simmer and cooked the mixture down to almost half volume, about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. At this point, I had a very hot, but viscous, Tang syrup. I poured it into a heat safe container and let it cool overnight at room temperature. (Don’t put it in the fridge, it will get MUCH too hard.)

Not what Kraft had intended.

The next day, I checked in on my Tang syrup. And lo and behold, it had cooled and thickened, not into syrup, but into a soft caramel-like texture. It wasn’t what I had expected (though, in hindsight, I should have), but I was not upset, as the texture actually lent itself very well to candy-making. Also, it tasted like an orange lollipop, which was pretty darn keen, too.

So, I painted the inside of some chocolate molds with some melted bittersweet chocolate and left them to set in the fridge while I whipped up an all-purpose, easy-as-pie faux truffle recipe. 1 14 oz. can of condensed milk, 18 oz. semisweet chocolate, a 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and  1 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla, all melted together and mixed until smooth.  I set the truffle mixture in the fridge to chill while I took out the chocolate molds and began to fill them with Tang candy. I had two mold types, a shallow mold and a bonbon mold. The shallow molds were filled completely with Tang candy, by dipping a spoon into the Tang candy, lifting it to create a strand, and pinching off a piece of the strand with wet fingers. It sounds complicated, but after a few goes, it becomes surprisingly easy. After filling the shallow molds, they get popped back into the fridge to chill. Eventually, they are taken out, given a coat of chocolate on the bottom, and popped back in to chill for the last time. Once the chocolate bottom is hard, they are ready to be popped out of the mold.

The bonbon mold started out similarly. After a short chill, it is taken out and filled halfway with the Tang candy. Then, small balls of the truffle mixture are flattened into discs and pressed gently on top of the Tang candy layer. One last coat of chocolate created the bottom, and of course, a short chill between steps, and voila! The dual layer Tang Truffle.

And finally, I rolled out small balls of the truffle mixture and rolled them in a Cocoa-Tang coating: 2 parts cocoa to 1 part powdered sugar, with about a teaspoon of Tang for every cup of the mixture.

And THAT, my Hardcore Readers, is how you make the Twitter Tang Truffle Trio. It was fun to develop, fun to make, and fun to eat. Make sure that you serve ALL of the candies at room temp, it’s just a better texture and flavor that way.
And yes, I know the shallow molds weren’t actually a “truffle”, and the rolled truffles were sort of cheating, and I didn’t actually “infuse” any of my chocolates with Tang. But you know what?

I MADE TANG CLASSY.

So, I think that’s good enough.

~ Chef Z

Additional and full sized pictures of the creation and final Tang Truffles can be seen at Chef Z’s new photo gallery here.

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