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!