Valentine Truffles

These confections are named after the savory black truffle mushroom found in the forests or France. They are not meant to be perfectly round in shape, but organic looking and earthy. We cover them in cocoa powder to represent the dirt found on truffles in the woods. How cute! I can remember my mom making these around Christmastime and I loved them -- still do!

The great news is is that these are easy easy easy (did I say easy?) to make. Here you go:

Dark Chocolate Truffles

Makes about 80 pieces (so the recipe states...I think I just make mine a bit bigger because I've never gotten more than 40 out of it)

-12 oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate ($1.99)
-1 1/4 c. heavy cream ($1.50)
-1/4 c. organic cocoa powder ($1.24 - TJs)

1. Prepare! I like to cover a 9 x 12 stoneware baking dish with plastic wrap to cut down on the mess. So, do that. Prepare a dish to pour the chocolate in to so that you aren't scrambling to do it later.

2. Chop chocolate into tiny pieces and put in a medium mixing bowl.

3. Heat the cream until just under a simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat. This is called "scalding" milk.

4. Pour the hot cream all at once over the chocolate and stir gently until the mixture is smooth and thoroughly blended. Pour it in to your prepared dish and let it cool to room temperature.

5. Refrigerate the dish of chocolate (now a "ganache") for 3 to 4 hours until the ganache is thick and stiff. Also put the platter you plan to place your rolled truffles on in the fridge, too, so that it's cold when you put them on there.

6. Cut a grid into the dish of ganache, forming squares the size of half an ice cube from an ice cube tray. That's the best way I can explain how big they should be. I guess the squares should be anywhere from 1/2"-3/4".

7. Take each piece and roll between your hands until they are round and place on the chilled dish.

8. Cover them in plastic wrap and refrigerate again for 2 hours.

9. After 2 hours, roll them in your hands again, and coat them in cocoa powder, cocoa powder/cinnamon mix, cinnamon, confectioners sugar, finely chopped nuts, or coconut.

10. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Bring the truffles to room temperature about a half hour before serving.

Total Cost: $4.73 (with the cost of 2 oz. of organic cocoa powder - this is the least expensive way to make them other than using confectioners sugar which is nice, also). This makes a lot of truffles and is a great idea for gifts around the holidays or any other time of year when it's not sweltering outside.

scrimpyTruffleTips:

- If you prefer semi-sweet chocolate, you can use a bag of chocolate chips, just pulse them in the food processor beforehand, because the chips are a *little* bit too big for the recipe. They won't melt all the way in the hot cream. I figured that out the hard way the last time I made these.

- These make a great hostess gift. For Mike's Christmas party, I took a small platter and arranges 6 rows of truffles alternating nut covered and cocoa covered. They looked beautiful and were so inexpensive. It was like, $1.25 worth of truffles, but they are so delicious and impressive.

- If you make these with bittersweet chocolate, beware that they are REALLY chocolately, so they may not quite be for everyone. I love them, and actually prefer the bittersweet, but I also drink black coffee and like stuff like that. So, if you're serving them to people whose tastes you're not quite familiar with, I'd play it safe and go for the semi-sweet chocolate chips.

- Trader Joe's has great prices on chocolate. They sell something called "pound plus" which
actually turns out to be more expensive ounce for ounce than chocolate chips, but I believe it's better quality chocolate. It's worth buying when you need something less sweet than semi-sweet (bittersweet). It's $3.99 for 18 ounces I believe. I'll double check and update that.

- If you can find mini muffin cups those are perfect to put these in for a professional presentation.

- These make great gifts and are much more delicious and inexpensive than commercial truffles.