The Saga of the Truffles: Part 2

So, this is one of the truffles I entered in the competition. This somewhat pitiable truffle was the result of much travail and stress and general unease. You see, I had made several batches of truffles - all of which had tempered chocolate - and most of them turned out splendidly. They were marvelous. Marvelous, I tell you.
And then  made the last batch and it flopped. The filling had been a nightmare, the temper had broken, and as I realized at midnight that the chocolates I had envisioned taking to that day's contest were not going to exist, I knew I had to come up with a plan B.

Plan B consisted of going to bed, then waking up a few hours later to hide the dull-looking chocolate coating with cocoa powder. It was (harrumph) not what I had envisioned.

So I took them to the contest and placed somewhere in the bottom (sixth or seventh . . . we're not really sure which) and was slightly miffed the whole time.

But on the upside, I did lots of things I never thought I could do. I tempered chocolate. I entered a contest. I talked to our local food writer. I got to taste some pretty exquisite samples of candy from local cooks. Even though the perfectionist in me still has her panties in a wad about all the stuff that went wrong, I'm glad I did it.

And you know what else? I'm already raring to go for next year. Next year, my dears, I'll enter again and then we'll see what's what. My recipe will be fool-proof, and I will plan ahead so much, Martha Stewart would be proud. Stay tuned . . .