Dark Chocolate Peppermint Truffles

Oh, hello there! Guess who remembered she writes a blog? Yeah, I've been MIA for a few reasons and now I'm back for more crafty fun. First I thought I'd beg your forgiveness by sharing these yummy truffles with you. Am I forgiven? Excellent.

Not only did the holidays get me bogged down, I also changed up my work life by quitting one job to go Full Time at the other! Yay! I'm super happy about it, but I have had to adjust to a new schedule, which now allows me to actually see my husband more than a few minutes each day while we are both awake. Don't worry too much, I have lots of crafty projects I am working on that I will share with you soon. Now, on to the truffles.

These are super easy, to make them all you need is:

1 pound of dark chocolate
1 cup heavy cream (you can substitute full fat coconut milk for the vegans in the house)
1 teaspoon peppermint extract
1/2 cup crushed peppermint sticks (I prefer the soft peppermint sticks, but you could use candy canes as well)

Start by chopping up your chocolate into small pieces, you want them to be as small and as uniform in size as possible so they melt evenly. Once the chocolate is all chopped up, pour it into a heat safe bowl.

Next, heat your cream in a small saucepan on the stove top. Stir continuously to prevent scorching. Your cream should be all ready to go once small bubbles start forming around the edges of the pan, we aren't bringing this to a boil, just getting it nice and hot.

Add your teaspoon of peppermint extract to the chocolate, then pour all of your cream on top. Don't stir yet, just let it all hang out for about 3-5 minutes. Then, go ahead and stir slowly and watch all the chocolate and cream melt together into yummy truffle goodness. If you have some small chunks that don't melt all the way, you can pop this in the microwave for 10 second intervals and stir after each one until your mixture is nice and smooth.

Let this stand for about an hour, then scoop out small balls of chocolate and place on a parchment lined cookie sheet. If your truffles need to firm up more before dipping them in crushed peppermint candy, refrigerate them for about 10 minutes. Otherwise, you can start dipping them right away and place them in the refrigerator to set up afterward.
Keep them in an air tight container in the refrigerator and they last a couple weeks (well, if they actually stay in there that long). If you plan to server these at a get together, I generally take them out of the fridge an hour ahead of time and serve them room temperature. SO GOOD!

With Valentine's Day on the way, I have another remix on these you could try: Instead of peppermint extract add a couple Tablespoons of Amaretto and then roll these in sliced almonds! You can also mix up your chocolate flavors: dark, milk, bittersweet, just make sure you have a pound of chocolate (chocolate chips will taste fine if it's all you have, but the stabilizers in them will make your final chocolate mixture a little grainy looking, so go forthe big chocolate blocks if you can).

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.