she cooks…he cleans

Adapted from The Craving Chronicles

What would Valentine’s Day be without dark, decadent chocolate?  I’ll tell ya, it would be lacking!  I found this recipe on a beautiful blog, The Craving Chronicles.  Sadly, most of the treats there are off limits to us since we avoiding grains (and sugars, with limited success), but the rest of you should visit there and check out the brownies and other yummy things.

I slightly adapted this to cut out a small bit of sugar, and added an alternative truffle flavor – using Grand Marnier instead of Bailey’s. Also, the original recipe calls for 3 oz of semi-sweet chocolate and 3 oz. of bittersweet chocolate, but that’s not what was in my cabinet.  I listed what I used and it tastes great…so improvise at will.  However, be sure to use good quality chocolate!

Ingredients

• 1 oz Scharffen Berger bittersweet chocolate (70% cacao), finely chopped
• 4.0 oz 365 Organic Semi-Sweet chocolate Chips (Whole Foods brand, 49% cacao)
• 2 oz Scharffen Berger Unsweetened Dark Chocolate (99% cacao), finely chopped
• 3/4 cup heavy cream
• 1 T Coconut Oil, unrefined
• 1 scant T sugar
• 1 T dark rum
• 1 T Grand Marnier
• 1/2 cup (or so) unsweetened, flaked coconut
• 1/2 cup (or so) finely chopped walnuts (pulse in food processor) with ~1 T finely grated orange zest added

Combine chopped chocolates and chips in a medium bowl.  Set aside.

In a saucepan over medium heat, bring heavy cream, butter, and sugar to a simmer, stirring to dissolve sugar.  Pour hot cream mixture over chocolate; stir gently until completely melted and smooth.  Divide the chocolate into two small bowls.  To one bowl, add the rum and mix well by stirring.  To the second bowl, add the Grand Marnier and mix thoroughly.  Cover the bowls with plastic wrap and label so you know which is which. 

Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

Once chilled, and working with one flavor at a time, scoop out about a teaspoon of the chocolate mixture and quickly roll it into a ball with your hands.  That’s what the recipe says, but I must have extra hot hands because the chocolate immediately coated my palms and was just a mess.  So what I ended up doing is scooping the chocolate out and dropping it into a bowl of the coating, rolling it around to cover, THEN rolling it into a ball with my hands before adding the final coating.  This still left me with chocolate-y hands but not nearly as much chocolate wastage.  (As if licking chocolate off your hands counts as wastage.)

For the Rum Truffles, roll chocolate in unsweetened coconut flakes.  For the Grand Marnier truffles, roll chocolate in walnut meal/orange zest mixture.

Store truffles in an air tight container in the refrigerator.

Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone, but most especially to my sweetheart!!!  You make my every day better!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Romance! Chocolate! Valentines Day! I’m in the mood for love…how about you?

Don’t even try to have a romantic evening without this guy…

Greatest Love Songs from the greatest American vocalist ever, Frank Sinatra.

And on a more contemporary note, this is one of the greatest albums of love songs I’ve ever heard…

k.d. Lang’s Ingenue. That song “Constant Craving” gives me shivers…and how apt, because I’m craving the cook!