Friday Food Craft: Dark Chocolate Truffles

Feast your eyes on these! In honor, yet again, of Valentine's Day I decided to throw you yet another gift idea: Dark Chocolate Truffles. You can certainly change up the recipe a little bit depending on your taste, but I assure you these are super easy and VERY delicious.

You will need:

1/2 pound (8oz.) dark chocolate (I get mine in the bulk bins at the grocery store)
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 Tablespoon coffee flavored liquor
1/2 tsp vanilla

Cut up your chocolate as finely as you can (try to get uniform pieces so they will all melt the same, or you will get some little chunks). Place the chocolate into a bowl (I use a glass mixing bowl).

In a small saucepan, heat your cream just until it comes to a boil (bubbles will begin forming around the edges). Add the heated cream to the chocolate and allow to sit a few minutes.

Add in your vanilla, cinnamon, cayenne and coffee flavored liquor (you could also use just a Tablespoon of regular fresh brewed coffee). *you do not have to add the cinnamon and cayenne, but I find it adds a nice flavor to the truffles.

Whisk everything together until it is smooth. If you happen to have a few larger chunks, do not fear, you can place the bowl into the microwave for 10 seconds, then remove and stir again. Do this until your mixture is smooth, then allow the bowl to sit at room temperature for 1 hour (and good luck not "tasting" it every time you walk past for that hour).

With a small spoon or cookie scoop, scoop out small balls of the truffle mixture and place on a cookie sheet (to avoid a huge mess I generally line my sheet with parchment or wax paper) and place these into the fridge for 30 minutes to set.

Take out and gently roll to form round balls, then roll these into any coating you want. Pictured below I have toasted coconut, powdered sugar, cocoa, roasted almonds and candy melts (if you want a hard outer coating I highly recommend the candy melts--you can get them in several colors as well). You could also fancy it up with a sprinkling of some salt if you are into the sweet and salty flavor. I have made these several different ways and no one has ever complained.