Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is one Hallmark Holiday that I love - only because it's a great reason to make, give and EAT fancy chocolates! My family and friends know that there are a few holidays I go all out in my candy making -- and Valentine's is one of them. This year my Mom came down and we made three batches -- coffee, coconut lemon and mint. Then we packaged them up in pretty containers to give away -- and believe it or not -- we didn't eat any while we were making them. -- though I did catch her licking the spoon before she put it in the sink, lol. I've already been warned about sharing THAT photo here so you'll have to imagine her chocolate wart, ha ha. 

Anyway -- here's the pretty packaging we came up with -- down and dirty -- quick and easy. LOVE that. Each one took about 2 minutes. 

Here's the process. First you melt the chocolate and add the flavorings. Then you let that cool and roll it into bite sized chocolate balls and let them cool in the freezer while you prepare the chocolate melts.  

Melt the Wilton Chocolate melts over a double boiler. Make sure it's completely melted and dip each truffle into the molten mixture. Drop the truffles one by one into the melted chocolate. 

 Pick up the chocolate with a fork, tap the fork handle on the edge of your double boiler to remove the excess chocolate -- make sure the excess chocolate falls back into the pan to be re-used. 

Gently drop the covered chocolate down on a piece of parchment or wax paper. Use the fork to cover any areas that didn't get any chocolate. 

Have a helper to quickly sprinkle some pretty decorations on each truffle before the chocolate cools. 

Yummy and so pretty! Use a different sprinkle to identify each flavor. White for coconut, pink hearts for coffee, multi-colored sprinkles for mint -- you get the picture! 

So pretty! You can usually coat one batch of truffles with one package of Wilton Chocolate Melts. A couple of things to consider: don't contaminate the chocolate melts with anything especially water as they melt. This will cause a chemical reaction and covering truffles will not be possible. Only melt one batch at a time -- and wash everything up/dry completely in between each batch to eliminate contaminating your chocolate coating. 

We figured out that between the two of us we spent about $21.00 to make 3 batches -- and fill 9 containers. Three of the containers had 14 truffles each, the others had between 5 and 8. That's a lot of chocolate sitting in my studio today calling my name ;-)

There's no WAY we could have gone to the Godiva store and gotten that many GREAT tasting, custom truffles for $21. Plus, we spent the afternoon together laughing and cooking -- which is always time treasured with my Mom. 

I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day -- show the love with some home made chocolates! Thanks for stopping by -- see you tomorrow!