This year's chocolates...

[jay]

Waiting in Albuquerque airport.... I now have confirmation that every long-distance recipient has now received theirs, so I won't spoil any surprises. Among the proposals and home crises and travel this week, I managed (with significant help shopping by tenacious_snail, making by patgreene and drop-offs by cyan_blue) to make homemade chocolate truffles and send them out in various decorated boxes to my various layers of sweetie-dom. There's actually an algorithm for who gets how many, based on relationship type and years of seniority (I won't explain, other than Pat gets at least double what anyone else does ;) and modified for dietary restrictions. It sounds more complex than it actually is, in practice.

Anyway... this year's basics:

- Traditional truffle rolled in Valrhona cocoa powder (most intense chocolate flavor, IMO)
- Regular truffle, dipped in chocolate (less messy on fingers)

And this year's specialty fillings:

- Intense orange-flavored, dipped and with chocolate sprinkles (lovely sweet-tangy, and an improvement over last year's)
- Mole-flavored, dipped with ground cinnamon sprinkles (cayenne, chipotle, and cinnamon... sweet sparkly rush, followed by a slow tingle)

The base for these this year came mostly from ground Lindt bittersweet and 61% local Guittard, using Ghiradelli for the specialty bases, and blended with heavy whipping cream and other flavorings (I didn't promise to reveal *all*... ;).

Comments

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

(blush) you flatter me, production-wise, as they aren't uniform... some are only vaguely round.

As someone who was likewise alone and fending for themselves on V-Day, I'm glad that it brightened things for you. :)

Yes, there was a spreadsheet copied on to a red piece of paper, when packing. Someone may have inadvertently gotten it as layering... hopefully not (blush, again).

[dawnd.livejournal.com]

"vaguely round"--ha! Don't you realize that the name "truffle" comes from the fact that they resemble the underground fungus of the same name, being brown, and dusty, and lumpy and misshapen? Only vaguely round is quite traditional!

And thanks for the truffles. You have totally outdone yourself this year, dear. OMG YUM.