My first miserable attempt was Maple Pecan Cinnamon Fudge. I thought about it driving to work one morning. Sounds good doesn’t it? Yep, that’s what I thought too. I started with a basic fudge recipe and added real maple syrup to the boiling sugar/butter/milk combination. So far so good. As I was boiling the mix waiting for it to get to the right temperature I thought, Damn! I should have used turbinado sugar (raw sugar). It has that nice hint of molasses and a really rich flavor, but-and this is when the brain went into stupid mode-I can just add some after the fact when I fold in everything else. I’ll like the nice crunch of the sugar crystals, I told myself. This might be really good. Foolish, foolish woman.  Then I substituted white chocolate for dark, added a couple teaspoons of cinnamon and a cup of finely chopped pecans, added about a half cup of raw sugar, then poured it into a parchment lined pan to cool.

When it cooled enough, I stuck in my spoon for a taste. All I can say is, Wrong-o, Bobby Flay. Instead of a pleasant crunch it was like eating sand. The texture of the fudge was more chalky than creamy, and the sugar was gritty not crunchy and sweet.  Bummer. Such a good idea. Next time I’ll substitute the maple syrup for part of the butter and used turbinado instead of regular granulated sugar and see what happens. It can’t be worse. Well, it probably can but it really is at its core a good idea, I think, so I’ll keep plugging along. Next on the list: White Chocolate Raspberry and Ginger Peach bars.

I love raspberries. More than strawberries, blue berries, boysenberries or any other berry, raspberries fill my mouth with happiness. Imagine my delight when I found out we had raspberry bushes growing on the property. They were planted on the property line by the previous neighbor, who is now long gone, and the current neighbor wants nothing to do with them.  Legally, I believe that makes them all mine, mine, mine! Joy times joy.

Raspberries have been around almost forever. They were gathered in the wild by the people of  Troy. The seeds have been discovered in the ruins of ancient Roman forts in Britain. They were already in on this continent being used by Native Americans by the time Europeans arrived. George Washington cultivated them in his gardens at Mt. Vernon. Today, the state of Washington produces about 70 million pounds per year. It’s clear I’m not the only one who likes them.

What I hate is the seeds; little, hard, black vexations that destroy the pleasure of the last few sips of anything raspberry. Itsy bitsy pebbles sinking almost to the bottom, waiting to ruin a perfectly lovely experience, like the ‘but’ (and what follows) after a wonderful compliment. There’s always a catch.

Well, some forward thinking culinary entrepeneur must be similarly disgusted because I’ve found seedless raspberry preserves: raspberries, sugar, fruit pectin, and citric acid without a single seed. Of course, I had to buy them immediately to make my next concoction, White Chocolate Raspberry Ganache because the bliss of any truffle experience would certainly be ruined by a rock hard seed just waiting to get stuck between your teeth. Thus I had the main ingredient for the WCRT’s.

Then right there on the shelf with the raspberry preserves were organic peach preserves. I mean, how can you go wrong? Who hasn’t spread fresh peach preserves on hot buttered toast and not closed their eyes in pure delight.  Or bit into a fresh peach, the juice running down your chin on a summer afternoon. Well it doesn’t get much better. So with those visions I began my journey which ended in the complete ruin perfectly good preserves in the quest for a ganache filled candy bar. Somebody just slap me now.

Like I’ve said, Doug wants these wonderful things translated into a candy bar. I bought some candy bar molds to make the process a little easier, the bars conforming in shape and size. They are relatively deep molds so after my first venture with the Havana Bar, Doug thought there was enough depth in the mold to actually do a ganache filled bar. I thought that if I made the filling and froze it in the candy bar molds then I could pop them out, dip them in tempered chocolate, and voila! candy bar extraordinaire. Isn’t there an expression about good intentions and the road to Hell?  Well, there I went.

I didn’t want to make a gazillion so I cut the ganache recipe in half using 3/8 cup hot cream to melt 1/2 pound white chocolate. I folded in the preserves. Again, no problem. Then I think the next step is what got me into trouble. I added 1 oz. Amaretto to the White Chocolate raspberry mix, and 1 oz. Ginger Brandy (plus some finely chopped crystalized ginger and a touch of ground cloves) to the peach mix and blended like crazy. Tasted them both. Yummy and yummy again. I poured the ganache into the molds filling them 3/4 full, then filled them the rest of the way with melted dark chocolate, then put them in the freezer to set up planning to pour tempered white chocolate over them when they were solid. When I did this with the Havana bars, they set up in 5 minutes and were ready to pop out of the molds. So I tested the bars after 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 12 hours and gee, about as fast as you can say, “basic chemistry” it dawned on me that the reason they were still in soft sticky form the next day is because alcohol doesn’t freeze. At least not at normal house freezer temperatures.

So now although wiser, I have 30 candy bar molds filled with delicious chocolate topped goo that will never get hard enough to dip. I could chopped them up and put them in homemade ice cream I guess, but they might prevent that from freezing too. Maybe eat them with a spoon and pretend this was the intention all along. I kind of doubt that will fly. I will try cooking the Amaretto or brandy in the cream next time to see if the alcohol cooks off enough (yet leaving the flavor behind) to allow the ganache to freeze. Or the other possibility might be to put enough tempered chocolate in the mold to create a candy shell the fill that with ganache. I’m not sure. I’ll see if I can find something written about it that dawns a little light on the subject.

In the mean time, being 0 for 3, I just hope chocolate making is more like baseball than basketball, because I don’t think I want 9,000 misses.

Curacao is a little hidden jewel in the Caribbean near Aruba. I sort of hate to let the secret out but, damn! what I great island. The temperature hovers in the low 80′s year round with a constant breeze from the trade winds. The economy is not tourist driven as there are several large oil refineries on the island so while the locals are happy to have you there, they are not obsessed with collecting every dollar from every tourist who crosses their path (as we have experienced on other islands in the area). The architecture gives you the feel of old Europe. It’s wonderfully clean. Plus they speak English, are courteous, and drive on the correct side of the road. Needless to say it was a magical five days.

Discovered by one of Columbus’s lieutenants, Curacao remained in Spanish hands until the Dutch conquered the island in 1634. Unfortunately, the Dutch were the international leaders in the slave trade and the small island became a major Caribbean slave depot, where kidnapped Africans were enslaved and sold to wealthy plantation owners across the Americas.

From the end of the seventeenth century until the early nineteenth there was a good bit of haggling over control between the British, Dutch and French, but in 1815 the Dutch regained permanent control. Curacao slowly evolved into a multicultural melting pot as international immigrants came to stay. In 1954, the island’s colonial status changed when Curacao became a completely self-governing commonwealth in the Netherland Antilles.

Curacao liqueur is the “International Ambassador of the Island of Curacao”. I mean, how great is that? The liqueur is a by-product of the failed attempt by the Spaniards to grow Valencia oranges on the island. Because of the soil conditions, the oranges produced were so bitter that even the local goats (who will even eat tin cans-so I’ve heard) would not touch them. Somewhere down the road of time, a creative soul, Senior Senior (no this is not a typo-Senior was last name-you could call him Mr. Senior if you’re not Spanish) had the brilliant idea that if we can’t eat them, maybe we can drink them, and began experimenting with the oils from the peels until he came up with the recipe and Curacao of Curacao (to delineate it from all imitations-they seem to love redundancy) was born.

A bottle was in our room when we arrived at the hotel and well, all I can say is Yum! One version of the liqueur is Rum Raison, my fav, a sweet orange-raison delight, not the original blue.  We bought numerous bottles to bring home to friends and still have a little left in the cabinet. Thus as the snow begins to melt here in the frigid north, I dream of wonderful islands where I would rather be and visions of Rum Raison Curacao liqueur, coconuts, pineapple, and macadamia nuts filled my head. And then my truffles.

Tropical Vacation Truffles

• 1 pound white chocolate
• 3/4 whipping cream
• 1/4 Rum Raison Liqueur
• 1 c. sweetened coconut, flaked
• 1 c. finely chopped macadamia nuts
• 1/4 ts. Pina Colada extract *

Heat the whipping cream to steaming and pour over white chocolate. Stir chocolate and cream mixture until chocolate is melted. Add Rum Raison and Pina Colada extract. Fold in coconut and macadamia nuts. Chill until firm. Form truffle centers then dip in

• 1 1/2 pounds tempered chocolate (I used dark, but I think white would also work well.)

Sprinkle just dipped chocolates with more flaked coconut. Close your eyes and eat slowly.

Almost heaven.

* If you wanted to be more authentic, you could steep fresh or canned pineapple in the steaming cream then discard the fruit instead of using the extract.

Mike was brought up in a household that neither swore nor drank. So when he first started dating my daughter and subsequently met me and found out that I did both, he had serious doubts about pursuing a relationship where the long term outcome could be that the future grandma (moi) would be a detrimental influence on future his children. As you can see, Mike is a long range planner.

Fast forward a few years (Mike chose to come to the dark side, married my daughter and now drinks occasionally and a swear word or two has crossed his lips-please don’t tell his parents). Daughter and son-in-law had dinner with the preacher and his wife because his wife had recently gone through the same surgical procedure that my daughter was about to go through. At the end of the meal, ice cream was served and preacher said to his wife, “Honey, have we got any Baileys Irish Cream to put on the ice cream.” Knowing that the preacher had Baileys Irish Cream, well to say the least, was life changing. Mike is still grinning. To say that Mike is a fan slightly understating the facts. It’s like saying the Detroit Lions have been less than successful in the past few years.

One more side note, Mike’s job is a combination of long hours, high stress, low pay, and long road trips. Tonight he and my daughter are coming over for dinner. Having just returned from an eleven day less than successful road trip, I thought B.I.C. Truffles might bring a smile.

Baileys Irish Cream Truffles

• 6 oz. Baileys Irish Cream
• 6 oz. whipping cream

Heat Baileys and cream to steaming hot. Pour over

• 1 1/2 pounds dark chocolate finely chopped

Stir until chocolate is melted. Blend in

• 2 ts. espresso powder

Allow to set up. When chilled and will hold it’s shape, form truffle centers, the dip in

• 1 1/2 pounds tempered milk chocolate

This is what I learned:

1. By increasing the chocolate, the ganache was quite stiff. While this was not a planned outcome, I did find out that this could be a good center for a chocolate bar, solving the chocolate seizing problem.
2. Baileys reduces considerably when heated. I believe this is because the alcohol evaporates. This also contributed to a stiffer ganache. So note to self: Increase the Baileys or reduce the heating time.
3. Espresso powder works well in chocolate. I was a little concerned that it might give the chocolate grainy texture. It didn’t. What it did do was add a nice coffee flavor, far better than trying to steep the coffee in the chocolate.

This morning I melted a pound of dark chocolate and added the Kona/Hazelnut mixture, then poured it into candy bar molds. The filled molds went into the freezer for 5 minutes to set up the I removed the finished bars and headed to the coffee shop for Doug to do the taste test. By the way, the pound of chocolate made 8 bars.

It was a typical semi-busy morning at the shop, so when he had a minute I had him taste. A couple customers got curious and also sampled. Reviews were pretty good. All comments were, “This tastes great,” and “Are you going to sell these?” so I think we have a winner. Doug and I, more critical and trying to get it right, thought I should try adding espresso powder to the chocolate to see if that would take the coffee flavor up a notch so that’s the next test.  We talked about packaging then worked out the numbers to see if it’s feasible to make them at a profit. Then he grinned. 

I think we’ve got a little cottage industry going.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I’m marinating pecans in rum. Chocolate, coffee, alcohol. Perfect food for thought.

My husband joined the Air Force to see the world. We not only never left the USA, but spent fourteen years in Texas. I was lamenting this fact one time in a little hole-in-the-wall town we were stationed in, and a good born-with-my-boots-on-gonna-die-with-my-boots-on friend, Jim, said, “Honey, if you’ve been to Texas, you have seen the world. This is God’s country.” And that’s the Texas mind set.

Well, a few years later, Jim and his wife were going to take a trip outside the Lone Star state up to Jackson, Wyoming. Now, I was born just on the other side of that “lil ol’ hill” called the Grand Tetons, so I knew it’s beauty and grandeur and said to Jim, “Now you’re really going to see God’s country.”

When they returned a month later, I asked Jim what he thought. He took me aside where no one could hear and said, “Well, hon, to my dying day I will swear Texas is God’s country, but just between you and me,” he looked around to make sure no one was in ear shot,”He did sorta run out of imagination when He made this place.” True story.

Back on track, I don’t know who thought of combining chocolate and peppers first, maybe the Aztecs themselves, but whoever did, good call! Who’dathunkit.

San Antonio Nights

• 1 pound white chocolate in chunks
• 3/4 c cream
• two shots tequila
  
• 1 jar hot pepper jelly
• red pepper powder to taste
• 1 1/2 pounds dark chocolate for dipping

Heat cream to steaming the pour over white chocolate. Wait one minute then stir until the chocolate is melted. Add tequila, hot pepper jelly and red pepper to taste. Chill until set.

Melt and temper dark chocolate. Form truffle centers and dip in dark chocolate. Allow to set.

Things I learned:

1. My ganache turned out sort of soft so I used candy molds. To do this you fill the mold about 1/3 with tempered chocolate and paint the chocolate up the sides of the mold so the whole thing is coated. Refrigerate until firm. Fill the shells about 3/4 full with ganache then pour more tempered chocolate to fill the mold. Refrigerate until firm-about 5 minutes then unmold onto parchment paper or a soft towel.
2. I’d read that you could re-use seized chocolate in ganache, just not for tempering so I used the pound of white chocolate that had seized earlier this week. Melting it with cream into ganache was not a problem but I tasted a bit of graininess in the candies which I didn’t like. No one else noticed so maybe it was just my mind looking for a problem.
3. How hot something seems is a matter of personal taste. What to me was barely perceptible, was hotter than the Fires of Hell to Jackie. Figure out who’s going to be the eaters and adjust accordingly.
4. Another ‘hot’ point: the heat comes as an afterburner, not when you initially bite into the truffle. Start with a small amount-taste, wait, adjust, taste, wait, adjust. I think you get the picture.

I learned something new this week. I didn’t know that Hazelnuts and Filberts are the same things.  I mean, the names don’t suggest any relationship at all. Hazel is such a Midwestern, old fashioned, everyday name, as in “Lookie 0′er there Herb. Isn’t that Hazel? D’you see her give Jimmy the what for? She’s such a firecracker, that girl.” Where as Filbert is far more aristocratic, a name a bit above us commoners. “Guinevere, have you met Filbert, second cousin, twice removed, of the Duke of Gloucester? He’s a bit dodgy but don’t mention it near the Duke. He loves ol’ Bertie. ” Who knew? Now you have a little look into the strange voices in my head.

Anyway . . .

As I mentioned, my husband claims to not like chocolate. He also loves flavored coffee. Hazelnut, to be specific. A single pump to be precise. Two flaws I willingly overlook because of his countless impressive non-flaws. So I thought it would be good to try to make a truffle that he might appreciate: a Hazelnut Kona Truffle, with white chocolate of course because of his supposed bias against the rich dark stuff. I tried some new techniques: steeping freshly ground Kona coffee in cream, blanching nuts, all in the name of science. Or chemistry. Sort of.

Well, I must say, and my arm does get a little tired from patting myself on the back so much, they are incredible! At this point, I am the only one who has tasted them and in fact, I’ve only tasted the ganache, (three times) but Damn! they are so good. If Hazelnut coffee tasted this good, I would definitely get myself pumped or maybe double pumped at the local java hut.

(Damn Fine) Hazelnut Kona Truffles

• One pound white chocolate in small bits
• 3/4 c. steaming cream
• 3 T. Kona (or other) coffee freshly ground
• 1/2 Organic Hazelnut extract
• 1/2 crushed Hazelnuts
• 1 1/2 tempered white chocolate for dipping

This is how I did it:

1. Place the chocolate bits in a medium sized bowl
2. Heat cream until steaming
3. Steep coffee in coffee for 5 minutes (I used a tea diffuser but you can used cheese cloth, a tea bag, whatever keeps the coffee grounds from escaping into the cream) then discard the grounds
4. Pour cream over chocolate then stir until melted
5. Add Hazelnut extract and nuts, then chill mixture
6. When cooled, form truffle centers, then dip in tempered chocolate

As usual, I learned a few things along the way:

1. Blanching 101: a process that makes the skin come off nuts. Place nuts in boiling water for one minute then immediately immerse the nuts in ice old water. Then “the skins will easily come off as you rub them between your fingers”. Liar, liar, pants on fire. Hazel didn’t read the instructions and held onto her skin like there was no tomorrow. I boiled, iced, rubbed, boiled again-according to directions-and nothing happened. So I did the next best thing: chopped the nuts with skin. I’m not sure if I broke some culinary law but there you have my confession.

2.Mr. One Pump didn’t think the ganache had enough hazelnut flavor so I thought I could add some flavoring to the dipping chocolate. After all, these were for him. Wrong-O! My flavoring, although organic is alcohol based and that has the same effect as a drop of water. I melted the chocolate, added about 1/4 ts. of flavoring and faster than you can say, “Nooooo!” it turned to paste. Damn and damn again. Fortunately, I had more white chocolate on hand, chopped and melted that and it all worked out in the end. Sans extra hazelnut.

3. You can make a truffle lover out of a professed chocolate hater/disliker/do not prefer-er if you figure what he does like and translate it into something awesome-like a white chocolate Hazelnut Kona Truffle

Not impressed with my wit, which is sometimes confused for smart-ass sarcasm, he answered, “Not quite. It’s rum, pecans and cinnamon.” So that’s where the idea for this truffle come from.

Havana Truffles

• 1 pound dark chocolate cut into small chunks
• 1 1/2 c. heavy whipping creme
• 4 T dark rum
• 2 ts. cinnamon
• 1/2 c. chopped pecans

Place the chunked chocolate in a bowl. Heat the whipping ceam to very hot and pour over the chocolate. Allow to set for a minute then stir the chocolate until completely melted. Add the rum, cinnamon and pecans. Allow to cool and completely set up.

Once firm, I scooped the chocolate into bite-sized portions and rolled them in a combination of 1/2 c. turbinado sugar, 1/2 c. white, and 1/2 c. crushed pecans. I thought this would add a nice punch of crunch and a little more flavor. This was a mistake which I will explain later. Then I tempered another 1 1/2 pounds of milk chocolate for dipping. Dipped away. Voila!

Big hit at the office and the coffee shop (Doug, coffee shop owner and chocolate lover is one of my official tasters). The emails at the office ranged from, “OHMYGAWD! This is the best thing I’ve ever tasted,” to “As it began to melt in my mouth, I closed my eyes and saw myself in red satin dancing the Tango.” Doug asked me to make them for his shop (and he was serious. Imagine that?) They were probably all a bit tipsy from the excessive rum but what the hell, an ego boost for sure.

These are the things I learned this time:

1. Rolling the undipped truffle in something with a lot of texture (pecans, turbinado sugar) will leave debris in the dipping chocolate causing it to become more and more difficult to use. I got more and more frustrated finally giving up on the dipping process about 3/4 of the way through and just rolled the remaining truffle centers in crushed pecans and cinnamon. (Nobody complained)
2. Using one pound of chocolate is a much more reasonable size recipe, making approximately 36 truffles instead of a small jillion.
3. When you add nuts to the melted chocolate mixture, it end up floating to the top so it is not evenly distributed if you do not continue to stir it as it cools. What ends up happening is that the truffle centers you scoop at the beginning have lots of nuts and when you get to the bottom half there are almost none. I figured, in the end, that it didn’t matter too much because . . . sing it with me now . . . sometimes you feel like a nut . . . sometimes you don’t. (that was almost too tacky for words-the picture is just as bad)

Sees Candies makes a perfectly perfect Orange Truffle, dipped in just the right blend of orange flavored white chocolate that crunches in your mouth before the creamy orange ganache melts in your mouth. The problem is finding it. I live in the Midwest and the only Sees outlet is at the local Plum Market, which sadly, most often does not carry the perfect orange truffle. Thus I content myself with Milk Bordeaux, Scotch Kisses, or Peppermint Patties. Excellent substitutes but not the perfect Orange Truffle. Thus I’ve begun my search for the perfect orange truffle recipe so that my indulgences are not limited by local availability.

I’ve Bing-ed and Google-d and Ask-ed and cook-book-looked to no avail. Every Chocolate Truffle recipe was for a dark chocolate orange recipe and I needed a white chocolate recipe to replicate my obsession. I finally settled on a basic recipe and planned to experiment by making some substitutions and adjustments. Ingredients required: Bittersweet chocolate, cream, orange liquors. Then I made the error of checking the ingredients on hand (something that should have been done at the start of the journey, not after you get in the starting blocks); an assortment of milk and dark chocolate, some white but not an abundance, orange oil, cream. Small problem: not enough white chocolate to switch the recipe out to go for the Sees rendition. Well, you’ve got to start somewhere, right? So Dark Chocolate Orange Truffle would be experiment #1 in my search to perfect the Orange Truffle. To orange it up a notch, I had a just opened jar of Orange Marmalade so decided to throw that into the mix. They turned out pretty damn fine (according to the hordes of willing testers at my office) even though they weren’t exactly what I was going for. I did, however, learn some valuable lessons a long the way.

1. If you are going to spend as much time experimenting with chocolate as I plan to this year, then you gotta do something to counter all the calories. Working out is my punishment. However, do not make truffles the day after working out your arms. When you pour the boiled cream on the chocolate, you must stir continuously for 2-3 minutes while the chocolate melts. If you have recently done a gazillion dumb bell curls, you arms will be screaming, “What the crap are you thinking?” as they burn with the fires of Hell and shake uncontrollably. They don’t understand that there will soon be chocolate to console them. They only know that someone should call 911 because there is a 5 alarm fire going on in the biceps.

2. Tempering chocolate. Chocolate must be tempered which means melted to the correct temperature then cooled then sometimes melted again. It has something to do with stabilizing the molecules. Whatever. Doing it right means the chocolate will be the right consistency to leave a nice coating and beautiful shine. There’s also the ‘snap’, or how the chocolate crunches when you bite into it. All very technical and maybe I’ll write something later but for now just know that it’s important. If it’s too hot, it will begin to melt the truffle as soon as you start to dip it and it will leave a very thin coating of chocolate. If it’s too cool, it will be too thick and it will be like dipping your formed truffle center into kindergarten paste. Either way, you will be frustrated at every turn.

3. A recipe that calls for 2 1/2 pounds of chocolate, while sounding decadently wonderful will not seem so when you are cutting and shaping the finished ganache into single serving sized pieces, then dipping for hours on end. Cut the recipe in half or thirds, especially if you plan to test one hundred and one recipes. Otherwise you could end up in a sugar coma or feeling extremely guilty for spending your entire retirement savings on chocolate. You’ve been warned.

4. You don’t need fancy ‘dipping tools’. You can just break the two center tines out of a plastic fork. It works great.

5. Do not be afraid to experiment. Great recipes are often the result of using what’s on hand and being bold (so are really, really bad ones but we won’t go into that now.)

This is the recipe I used exactly, more or less. Refer to Lesson #3 and reduce it proportionately, unless you have a lot of time on your hands.

Orange Truffles Experiment #1

Ingredients:

2 1/2 pounds chocolate (I used a combination of milk and dark. The recipe called for bittersweet.)

1 1/2 c. heavy whipping cream

1 ts. orange oil

orange marmalade (I used a 13 oz. jar of Marche du Monde Orange Marmalade-not that it matters)

Chocolate for dipping

How to:

Chop the chocolate into small pieces and place in a big bowl. Boil the cream. Pour the cream over the chocolate and stir (don’t whip-you don’t want a bunch of air bubbles in the chocolate) constantly (2-3 minutes) until all the chocolate is melted. Add the orange oil and marmalade and mix thoroughly.

Next you want to chill the ganache. There are a couple options here depending on what shape your truffles will be. You can leave it in the bowl to set up, then scoop the out and roll into balls or pour it into a parchment line pan if you want to cut the ganache into squares. When the ganache is workable, shape into single size pieces. If rolling by hand, dust your hands with cocoa powder as you work to keep the chocolate from sticking. Chill the finished pieces until you are ready to start dipping.

Temper your dipping chocolate. Dip truffles and place on parchment paper to set up. The recipe said that these will keep for two weeks in the refrigerator or a month in the freezer.

Not in my house. The truffles were gone by noon the next day.

One night Molten Lava Cake was one of the dessert choices-an obvious pick for most of the girls, Uncle Randy included-and there were other inconsequential things that the guys went for, especially Larry who claims to hate in one degree or another from all out hate to ‘do not prefer’ which is his current level. More on that another time. Desserts arrived and the Molten Lava Cake was perfect, light almost souffle-like cake that oozed rich chocolate-y wondrous goo when you cut into it. One bite and my daughter was a goner. She closed her eyes and sighed. Think of the dinner scene from the movie What About Bob. Spontaneous, uncontrolled ummmms, and oh mys. Her rapture so involuntary, so uncontrived, so . . . visceral, well, our server procured a copy of the recipe from the chef for her. She was thrilled. She renamed it The This-Will-Change-Your-Life Molten Lava Cake. Only one problem, the chef cooks on a cruise ship-the recipe quantities were in liters, the yield 100 servings. She tried to make it once, doing the math, converting the measurements, reducing, subtracting, recalculating, but it just wasn’t the same.

Fast forward 13 months. It’s Valentine’s Day. The perfect day to start my year long chocolate odyssey. Where to start? The Molten Lava Cake, why not. We’re planning to have dinner with daughter and husband tonight and I’m bringing dessert. Add to that, she recently had jaw surgery so is still limited to food that require only the most minimal chewing so this, if done right, is just the ticket. So I began my search googling recipes, perusing the ingredients, studying the process, reading the reviews, searching for the perfect one to get back to that change-your-life chocolate experience in a reasonable six-ish serving size. The basics are all the same: chocolate, butter, eggs and a little sugar. I finally settled on parts from two different recipes, decided that vanilla ice cream topped with chocolate mint sauce will be the ideal accompaniment, and sallied forth, beginning my confectionery peregrination with Julia Child-like enthusiasm, sans pearls.

Molten Lava Cake (6 servings)

• 2 tablespoons plus 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, divided
• 8 oz. chocolate (semi-sweet, bittersweet-your preference) broken into pieces
• 3 large eggs
• 3 large egg yolks
• 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• Powdered sugar

Directions:
PREHEAT oven to 425° F. Butter six 6-ounce ramekins or custard cups with about two tablespoons butter. (I didn’t use this much) Dust ramekins with powdered sugar.

STIR 3/4 cup butter and chocolate in medium-sized heavy saucepan over low heat until chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Beat eggs, egg yolks, sugar and vanilla extract in large mixer bowl on medium speed until thick and pale yellow. This takes 6-8 minutes depending on your mixer.  Slowly blend 1/3 of chocolate mixture into egg mixture. Next, mix in the remaining chocolate mixture and flour until well blended. Divide batter evenly among prepared ramekins. Place on baking sheet.

BAKE** for 8 to 9 minutes. Remove from oven to wire rack.

TO SERVE, run a thin knife around top edge of cakes to loosen slightly; carefully invert onto serving plates. Lift ramekins off of cakes. Sprinkle with powdered sugar or serve with vanilla ice cream topped with Satin Mint Chocolate Sauce. (Recipe follows) Serve immediately.

**Don’t bake these until you are about ready to serve. You can make them ahead of time and refrigerate. Either bring to room temperature before baking or add an extra minute or two if baking straight from the fridge.

Satin Mint Chocolate Sauce

• 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
• 4 1/2 ounces semisweet chocolate
• 1/4 cup light corn syrup
• 1/3 hot water
• 1 teaspoon mint extract

Combine both chocolates and melt over low heat stirring constantly. When completely melted, whisk in the syrup, water, and mint extract while still on the heat. Whisk until smooth and shiny. (The sauce can be made up to 48 hours in advance and refrigerated. To rewarm, stir over low heat or heat in a microwave.) Drizzle this over the cake, ice cream and plate just before serving. This is really a decadent addition for the serious chocoholic. The Molten Lava Cake alone is very rich and, as my daughter says, life changing. And do you really need your life changed and have extra chocolate sauce and ice cream too? Probably not.

But it is Valentine’s Day.