Perfect Lavender Truffles for Valentine's Day

With Valentine's Day less than a month away, I'd love to share a modified version of a recipe I found in a book called Chocolates and Confections at Home with the Culinary Institute of America

This recipe is great to prepare the day before, store in the fridge overnight. Gift them to your partner in a heart shaped box, or layer them in a pretty bowl to hand-feed them later by the fire! The best idea though, would be to make these truffles with your partner!

This recipe combines the wonderful flavors of vanilla and lavender with the smoothness of milk chocolate to create a rich, savory dessert.

Truffles are great because they don't have many ingredients, it's usually just chocolate and heavy cream. But after researching other recipes, I prefer this one the best:

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces of finely chopped pure chocolate, sold in 4 ounce bars in the baking aisle (not chocolate chips)

• 2/3 cup of Heavy (Whipping) Cream

• 1 tbsp dried culinary lavender petals

• 1 tbsp Unsalted Softened Butter. Optional but makes them amazing

• 1/2 tbsp Pure Vanilla Extract adds exceptional flavor to your chocolate truffles.

• Toppings: unsweetened cocoa powder, sprinkles, crushed nuts, coconut flakes, melted or tempered chocolate

Directions:

1. Place the chocolate in a heat safe bowl and set aside.
2. Heat the heavy cream with the lavender on the stove top until simmering, not boiling.
3. Add the butter to the chocolate and pour the cream on top through a strainer. Leave it alone to warm up and don't touch it for 5 minutes
4. Add the vanilla extract to the bowl and stir until smooth and melted.
5. Pour into a glass flat dish (if you can) and place a piece of plastic wrap on the surface to prevent condensation and cool them in the fridge for 2 hours. This will cool them evenly until firm but not hard.
6. Use a cookie scoop of your size preference, between 2 tsp and 1 tbsp to scoop mounds into your hands and roll into balls.
7. Gently roll the balls in the toppings, and serve at room temperature! You may store them in the fridge for up to two weeks, or even freeze them for 3 months, but they are best when eaten at room temperature.

We hope you enjoy this recipe! Please let us know how yours turned out!

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