Valentine's Day Truffles

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! Now I know a lot of you are either smiling like a goof or rolling your eyes. You have either labeled today S.A.D. (Singles Awareness Day), calling it a marketing scam, or truly believe in the sappy holiday. However you feel about today I think we can all agree that it can be used as an excuse to show how much you love anyone, even if it is not a significant other.

So in the spirit of showing my love for people, I decided to use my blog for something good. I decided to make Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough truffles for all my classmates. I even took the time to make some of them red or pink to go along with the Valentine's Day theme. I got adorable zipper sealed bags from Dollarama to present them in. I interpreted today as an excuse to show how much I appreciate my classmates… especially when they help with my grammar homework.  

Claire enjoying a truffle

So I gave them all a couple of these delicious treats to show how much I care and was thrilled to see how well received they were.  Claire is happily enjoying her treat, and Sam posted a great tweet with a photo that I am borrowing (hope you don’t mind Sam). You should check out their blogs by clicking their names.

Sam's Photo

Her photo also shows Andrew’s Valentine's Day cards that he handed out. It’s really nice knowing that even though we are all in our twenties, we all appreciate a cartoon card with a cheesy phrase asking us to be their Valentine.

My valentine from Andrew

I got the recipe for the truffles from Recipe Girl, which is a blog that has a lot of great recipes that I hope to try in the future. For the truffles recipe click here.  

For my friends who I don't get to see today, Happy Valentine's Day and you know I love you all.

Pam’s Forgotten Mocha Kisses

As I walk down the aisles of my local Shopper’s Drug Mart I notice an abundance of valentine items. I look around and see all the lovely chocolate treats that are out for the ‘holiday’ and think to myself “Damn you Valentine’s Day chocolates, how I want all of you”. I then ponder what I could turn any of these delicious treats into. I pick up a few bags of Hershey’s Kisses, Hugs, and Cookies’N’Cream knowing I can make a delicious treat out of them if I only put my mind to it.  

Looking at the Kisses reminded me of the Valentine's Day episode of The O.C. that features a cookie called Forgotten Kisses. And don't lie to me; we all remember the show. It inspired me for this post and I knew I could work with that idea. I tried to make my own version of the cookies, so this is an all around experimental recipe.

I settled in to watch Once Upon a Time (yes I am 21 and love a show about fairy tales) this past Sunday night and started baking. I made a batch of chocolate mocha cookies and as soon as I took them out of the oven pressed a Kiss on top of each cookie. I think they turned out pretty well, although I do not like my cookies that dense so I will need to keep playing with the recipe!

Pam’s Forgotten Mocha Kisses

Ingredients

8 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate

3 tablespoons butter
1 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon instant coffee, crushed
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup All-Purpose Flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup chocolate chips, optional*

*I did not include the chocolate chips since I opted to put a kiss on top, which the recipe never called for.

1.     Melt the chocolate and butter together in a double boiler.

2.     In a separate bowl, mix together sugar and eggs until they are thoroughly combined. Add to the chocolate mixture and stir. Add in remaining ingredients, including the chocolate chips if you’re going to use them.

3.     Refrigerate the dough for at least an hour since it will be really runny.

4.     Preheat the oven to 325°F. Line your cookie sheets with a Silpat.

5.     Drop cookies by tablespoonful (size of a ping pong ball) and bake for 11 minutes. As soon as they come out of the oven put a Kiss on top. Be careful they melt and keep their shape so long as you don’t touch them. Enjoy!

Don't forget you can get a printable copy of the recipe here!