Friday, February 14, 2014

Happy Valentine's Day


Happy Valentine's Day!

I love chocolates, but besides being more health-conscious these days, I have food intolerances that keep me from buying the cute little boxes at the stores. 

So, this year I decided to make my own. 

The first batch I did were pretty simple; I made a mix of cocao butter, coconut oil, anise extract and honey, and spooned them into a heart shaped silicon mold. I let that harden for about an hour and placed a toasted almond on top and then spooned some melted dark chocolate over them to finish. I let them cool in the fridge overnight before popping them out of the molds. I had a little trouble with the honey separating out of this one, not sure if it's an issue with the cocao butter, .... anyone work with cocao butter?

Cute, huh?!?


The second batch I made was a variation from a recipe from the Chestnut School that I may have posted before; Naughty Lavender Truffles, the recipe is towards the bottom of the page.

I love, love, love these!

I substituted coconut milk for the cream and coconut oil for the butter. 

Here's the batch going into the fridge to chill:


and here are the finished truffles!



These came out great!

Really, it wasn't very hard to make my own chocolates, and I can put what I want in, or more importantly skip the ingredients in commercial chocolates that are unhealthy.

Hope your evening is filled with fun and love or at least chocolate!