Makes the world taste good

Mmm...say hello to chocolate chip cookies, chocolate truffles, and white chocolate-covered strawberries!

If you can't tell, I was in a baking mood yesterday, and I exercised it in the form of chocolate, chocolate, and more chocolate. (Infer from what what you will.)

The chocolate truffles are the ones I'm really proud of, actually - they taste like you could have bought them at a chocolatier! Here's the recipe, from my Four-Ingredient Cookbook:

Chocolate Truffles

(Makes 24)

Ingredients:

12 oz. semisweet chocolate
5 tbsp. heavy cream
2 tbsp. coffee liqueur (such as Kahlua)
8 oz. good quality white or milk dessert chocolate

1. Melt 8 oz. of the semisweet chocolate in a double boiler (or a heatproof bowl set over a pan of barely simmering water). Stir in the cream and liqueur, then chill the mixture for 4 hours (or until firm).

2. Divide the mixture into 24 equal pieces and quickly roll each into a ball. Chill for about 1 hour, or until the truffles are firm again.

3. Melt the remaining semisweet, white, or milk chocolate in separate bowls (4 oz. of each flavor). Using two forks, carefully dip eight of the truffles, one at a time, into the melted semisweet chocolate. (Repeat to cover the remaining 16 truffles with the melted white or milk chocolate.)

4. Place the truffles on a board or tray, covered with wax paper or foil. Leave to set before placing in individual mini paper cases or transferring to a serving dish.

Note: For this recipe, I used bags of regular mini chips for semisweet and milk chocolate, but I used a couple of bars of Ghirardelli white chocolate because I have had trouble with melting white chocolate before.

So, after doing the truffles, I had extra melted chocolate, so I decided to make chocolate-covered strawberries because they were on sale at Jewel and I have a 5-pound box of them.

I really don't know how we're not both 800 pounds! I did take some of these goodies to a friend, who much appreciated them. I think I'll foist them on coworkers on Monday, too... Everyone eats well when I get a baking craze.