Saturday, February 14, 2015

St. Valentine's Day Double Chocolate Truffle Cookies !

Hello, everybody! the Fresh Pioneer is back and I have a delicious recipe for St. Valentine's Day. It seems this whole week was FILLED with chocolate here at the cafe and I'm loving all the beautiful photos! I definitely have to try and make Ruthy's cake. That's just too much deliciousness in one cake to pass up.
Before we start, here's a little link to WHO St. Valentine is. He's a lot more than hearts and cookies so in this house we celebrate him by going down to the nursing home and handing out home made valentines. If all my six kids make five, and I make ten, we can cover a whole wing of older folks! Sometimes we sing a little, too, since the little guys always think it should be like Christmas caroling. Of course, we don't sing Christmas carols because that would be CONFUSING.  (I'm not really into singing publicly but the residents seem to enjoy it so we just go with it. nobody has complained. YET.)

 Ok, let's begin.
You'll need:
 four squares of good chocolate.
2 cups of chocolate chips, semi-sweet
6 TBS butter
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
4 TBS cocoa powder
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
 Here are the chocolate chips. Sooooo pretty. Yum.
 My helpers are very excited to see these cookies. They have CHOCOLATE.
 Butter. Where all good recipes begin.
 Eggs. I miss our free range eggs but we just can't get our girls to lay in the winter. So, they're on vacay until spring and we're stuck with store-bought eggs.
 Melt the squares, the butter and ONE CUP of chips in a pan over low heat.
 Oh my. We all had to taste this to make sure it wasn't bad. I'm happy to report it's perfectly fine.
 I missed a picture but the eggs, vanilla, and the sugar need to be whipped until light and frothy. Then fold in the chocolate. This picture is after that happened.
 Mix the salt, baking soda, flour, cocoa powder together
 Pour the chocolate-egg-sugar mixture into the flour.
 He says, "I have faith in this recipe. It doesn't look like much right now, but I BELIEVE."
I thought this was a fail shot but my kids loved it, so here is the five year old looking like Barry Allen (The Flash) stirring the cooking. Speedy!
 So, after chilling the dough for an hour, add the other cup of chocolate chips.
 Eleven minutes later at 350F, we have... super chocolaty goodness! While they were warm, I stuck some candy hearts in the center just for fun.
 MMM, I wish you could smell them.
And a shot of the underside, which remains fudgy and very much like a truffle. Lots of smooth chocolate taste. 
                                                     
I think they passed inspection! Now, to enjoy the fruits of our labor.
                                    Happy St. Valentine's Day everybody!

12 comments:

  1. Such sweeties! And great cookies to boot. Happy Valentines Day!

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  2. What a wonderful thing for you and your cute kids to do!
    Happy Valentine's Day!!!

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    Replies
    1. Thanks, Jackie, and they have more fun than the elderly people, I'm sure! Happy Valentine's Day to you, too!

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  3. Oh, Chocolate! How I love thee! Let me count the ways!

    Wait a minute - we're supposed to write love poems to our sweeties, not chocolate, right? But these look SO GOOD!

    And I know your family and your Valentines Day cards were appreciated! What a great way to teach your children to reach out to others :)

    Happy day after, everyone!

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    1. Yes, we'll celebrate it all weekend and all next week! The cookies are gone but we still have to mail some Valentine's to friends out of state.

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  4. Happy Valentine's Day After to Jan and everyone else. I didn't bake a single thing for the occasion, but there were peanut butter-chocolate chip cookies hanging around from earlier in the week anyway. These sound scrumptious so I might have to make a post-Valentine's effort here. :)

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    Replies
    1. Happy day after to you as well, Carol!

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    2. Ooooo, peanut butter and chocolate?? Two of my favorite pairings!

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  5. Oh, wow! Those look amazing! And that bottom gooey side is the most tempting part! :)

    Y'all are so sweet to go spread some holiday cheer.

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    1. We only live a few blocks away and it's on our "walking route" that we have every day in the summer. There's a cherry orchard on one side, and the river on the other. We walk through the grounds of the nursing home to go up on the levee and walk by the river, so, we see many of our "friends" out there every day in the summer. :) In the winter, we sure miss their faces, so we try to visit them inside.

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  6. All I have to say is YUMMY. Decadent. Delicious. And that picture of the underside. I love how your kids are always so involved in the process. Great helpers...and tasters.

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