Even if you’re more cynical about the upcoming “holiday” or have no sweetheart to dote upon, Valentine’s Day is, at the very least, an excellent excuse to eat chocolate. Store-bought delights abound at this time of year, even for those avoiding dairy, but a homemade option will almost always trump the ready-made, in both taste and ingredients. Basic truffles can be whipped up in no time at all, giving them the added bonus of being a fantastic last-minute gift as well.
For me, however, I would much rather a bit more than just a nugget of intense, rich, and almost overwhelming chocolate- As decadent as they are, I must admit that I find them a bit… boring. Where’s the spice, the zest, the excitement? That’s why I immediately thought to revisit my chocolate cherry truffles from My Sweet Vegan. Composed primarily of fruit and cocoa, they’re actually a lesser evil when it comes to sweet confections!
A happy accident led me to use sweetened cranberries instead of cherries (I swear the bags looked exactly the same!), and going with the flow, I threw in a teaspoon of lemon zest as well. Rolling the slab of enriched fruit out between two silpats to a thickness of about 1/2 inch, a very small heart-shaped cookie cutter created a much more festive presentation than the standard hand-rolled spheres. After a quick dip into melted chocolate, I had a very sweet Valentine’s gift, indeed.
Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at the situation, these hearts were meant to be broken.
They’re so dear!
Wow, those look perfect!
Hannah, these are perfect! The cranberries is a fabulous addition!
Very Happy Birthday to your wonderful blog and many more years of happy blogging to come!
YUM!
Wow, these are just gorgeous! I love that you used a hot pink background for your pictures, it’s my favorite color.
Those turned out so well. And hey, I have your book so I can look those up!
they are superpretty :-)! have a great valentine’s day :-)! XOXO
These look so beautiful! Cherry ond chocolate is the most amazing flavour combination I can think of. Ok, cranberries are nice, too :D
They are gorgeous! I think I’m way too cackhanded to get anything looking that perfect!
Oh woow, those look delicious! How did I not think of that?))) I make similar chocolates, only I use cake scraps together with dried fruits :) I love them all :D
I have not been able to find any heart cutters anywhere in my town! It’s very disheartening -haha! Your pics are always so inspiring!!
Haha, cute closing line to the post :-D
I love the way you ended the post =)
But I love those little hearts even more! I will have to check out the recipe!
Love ’em! I was planning on making some truffles of my own in the next few days. These look perfect and I love how they are hearts!
Yummy! Those look so good. I’m going to have to make some of these.
These look excellent, especially with that hot pink background!
These look great! I too, have an accidental package of sweetened dried cranberries in my pantry!! So, essentially the centers of these are just cranberries and lemon zest?
Perfect – just perfect! And as I think you can sometimes have too much of good thing, the inclusion of cranberries/cherries amongst the dark chocolate sounds really nice!
What a delicious way to break a heart! :-)
fabulous!
fantastic!!! hahaha I LOVE the broken heart pic, looks delicious!
These are really pretty. Great picture!
Michelle
http://oneordinaryday.wordpress.com/
Wow, i want some. Need to go check out the book again.
Yum! I’m suddenly in the mood for some chocolate love!
[…] Sweet: Give Them Your Heart! by Hannah Kaminsky “Even if you’re more cynical about the upcoming “holiday” or have no […]
BRING ON THE CHOCOLATE!!!! I made some Raw vegan chocolates months ago in preparation for the upcoming Valentine holiday – haha, who am I kidding?? I’m always looking for an excuse to make chocolate and have them on standby in my freezer!
Cheers!
Kristen
LOL @ “meant to be broken.” Good one, Hannah and they do look so sweet. Sweet-hearts! :)
these should be illegal…
but then i would be jailed…
hmmm…let me rethink this one…
Oh my, how do you always take such professional photos!? Those truffles are so up my mum’s ali, I’ll certainly give the recipe a try this valentines day! (By the way, your cookbook helped my accomplish my ED because I didn’t want to keep making desserts that were to unsweetened, bitter, dry or flat! ;)
So beautiful!! Happy Valentines’ Day Hannah!
They are gorgeous! Poor broken heart, though (even if I would rather eat it than see it unbroken!).
Oh these look so delicious! I’ll be getting up to some of my own hearth shaped baking this weekend, I hope it looks as good as yours!
beautiful!!!! i love it! they look so tasty
oh, the broken heart!
Hannah, they’re beautiful! And dipped so perfectly, too.
BTW, I have nominated you for an award on my blog: http://www.aspoonfulofsugar.net/wp/2009/02/roasted-squash-dolcelatte-wrap/
Yummy! I’ll need to remember that when I revisit you book!! ^^
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They are yummy!!
Love the combination of dried fruits with chocolate. Your little hearts look just perfect!
So ridiculously cute.
Oh these look so wonderful! They look bite size to me, so I would never see them broken.
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