I have made chocolate truffles with ingredients of chocolate, heavy cream, butter and SOUR CREAM. Some say to refrigerate; some say to freeze; some say no. I want to keep the truffles for about four weeks. I have searched the Internet for an answer and found none. Help.

 Stupid Internet! You'd think it could answer a simple question like that. Hey, remember when we didn't have the Internet? You don't have to be very old at all to remember the days when we did not have all this instant information at our fingertips – some of it right, some of it a little questionable. Hmm, maybe we should just cut the Internet a little slack.

Chocolate truffles are best eaten at or near room temperature, but they don't want to be stored at room temperature for very long. Depending on how stiff your truffles are, they will begin to melt and sag if left out for too long. Some can be very messy to eat at that point.

We always refrigerate truffles if we're going to keep them for a bit. If we're going to keep them for four weeks – and we try not to make them that far in advance – we freeze them. The danger is that truffles tend to dry out in the parched environment of both the refrigerator and freezer, and they can develop ice crystals in the freezer, which detracts from the smooth, creamy texture you worked so hard to create.

You can take a page from the berry-freezing process and freeze the truffles individually on baking sheets, then move them to freezer bags and remove as much air as possible before sealing the bags. Truffles are fragile, though, so you should be careful. If you have dipped your truffles in chocolate, they will be more stable through the freezing/thawing process. If you have rolled your truffles in cocoa, the cocoa is likely to be rubbed off and/or absorbed while the truffles are stored. We would roll them in cocoa a second time before you serve them.

SOUR CREAM is a somewhat unusual ingredient for truffles, but you don't have to shout about it. If you are emphasizing it because you are worried that it will make your truffles more susceptible to harm in freezing, we think they will be fine. Once it is thoroughly mixed with the chocolate, cream, and butter, it will not retain the tendency to separate in freezing.

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