Luscious Valentine's Truffles

Our Valentine’s gift to you: our favorite truffle recipe. This originally appeared in the newsletter of the neighborhood in which Luscious resides. Because it contained none our typical references to alcohol and drugs or even a single 4-letter word, we thought it was, like, Sunday school conservative. Nonetheless, all the snarky bits got edited out and it sounded like Suzanne Sommers wrote the fucking thing. So here it is, in its entirety.

So. Some people think they’re too socially conscious or something for Valentine’s Day, because “it’s a hyped up Hallmark holiday and I show my love all year long, not just on one day, blah, blah.”  Ummm, whatever—did you say something about love, we stopped listening. Valentine’s day is about one thing: chocolate. Make your sweetie some of these easy, homemade, earl grey infused truffles, and then give him/her/it irresistible doe-eyed looks until they share them with you.

Ingredients:
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons salted butter, cut into a few pieces
4 Earl Grey tea bags; the better quality the tea, the more fragrant your truffles will be
6 oz. bittersweet chocolate
6 oz. semisweet chocolate
(use the best chocolate, like El Rey or Scharfenberger, you can get. Remember, the plan is to eat half of these yourself)

Coatings
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup finely crushed almonds
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Bring the cream and butter to a boil, then turn heat to low, a bare simmer at the most. Put the tea bags in the cream (dangle the tags off the side or snip them off) and let that steep for about 10 minutes. Take out the tea bags.

While you’re impatiently waiting for the tea to steep in the cream, chop up the chocolate very fine, or be lazy and put it a food processor. Have a whisk at hand. Put the chocolate in a sturdy glass bowl, then pour the warm cream through a fine mesh sieve over the chocolate and whisk like crazy until the chocolate melts and the mixture is smooth. At this point, try not to just grab a spoon start eating. Exercise restraint and place the bowl in the fridge. Then go find something productive to for about 30 minutes to an hour or more, until the chocolate is firm enough to roll into little balls, as that’s what you’ll do next.

Put the cocoa powder, crushed almonds, and powdered sugar into individual small bowls.  Lay out a sheet of wax paper on a baking sheet. Use a spoon or a small ice cream scoop, or a melon baller (okay, you probably don’t have a melon baller) and scoop out about a 1″ inch diameter hunk of the chocolate mixture, then roll around in your hand to make a ball. Then roll your little chocolate ball in one of your 3 coatings, put it on the wax paper, and voilá, a truffle. Continue until you use all the chocolate mix, varying your coatings. You may need to wipe your hand frequently, this can get messy.  During this process, eat at least two truffles for quality assurance purposes. Note: it’s best to keep the truffles refrigerated.

For a fancy presentation, you can get candy boxes and the little pleated brown candy cups at baking supply or art/hobby stores.

xoxo
Luscious

No sassy remarks today, kind readers, only a heartfelt note from gentle Jennifer. 
with love,
Anne-Charlotte 

Dear Friends,

A friend and former neighbor whom I admire and like a whole lot has been doing battle with cancer for some time. Needless to say, she is one pooped pup.  I have another friend and current (yea!) neighbor who is trying to arrange a super-fantastic rejuvenating healing massage for this lovely woman.  I would like to pitch in to pay for it.  So I’m looking for ways to maximize my giving.  I’m also always looking for ways to introduce my friends to luscious stuff. Here’s what I’ve come up with:  Giving Chai.  Luscious has been working on a chai mix that we like a lot.  It’s sweet, it’s a little spicy and it’s perfect for fall weather which we finally, thankfully have here in Austin.  Yea!  So, if you’re interested in trying the Chai mix we have individual servings for $1.  All proceeds go toward the massage.  We’ll be making this mix available for holiday time, so sample it now (give us feedback on any tweaks you’d recommend) and help a dear mama get some good hands on support.

So if you’re interested, give us a shout at yummy@lusciouspastry.com, and we will get your Giving Chai right to you.

Thanks and big love,
Jennifer

Super-short post this time, dear readers, due to the fact that non-baking, paying gigs and accountant school are taking up a lot of Luscious time this week. One Luscious gal in particular has tried to remedy this type of situation by requesting of her spouse that he try to bring home a tad more bacon so that she can simply become a trophy wife with an excessive baking habit. Unfortunately his response, while gentle and diplomatic, has basically been the politically correct equivalent of “get yo’ ass out there an’ bring home the benjamins, bee-yatch.” Apparently, one may not decide upon the career path of trophy wife when nearly forty years of age and already married. Consider that your tip of the day, friends.

Well, Luscious is just full of advice, because here’s another tip: save room for dessert. Today, Luscious will be at Violet Crown Supper Club from 4:30-5:30. (If you’re arriving later than that, we can set some aside for you, just email.) Prepare to have your mind blown by chocolate-cherry petite bundts and decadent piña colada bars. Hmm, one wonders who’s making what? One dessert sounds very elegant, while the other, well, the other brings to mind a 70’s pop song… oh, surely you saw this coming…

Watch out world! Luscious Pastry is on the way. Look for us at the next Violet Crown Supper Club event on May 6, and at the Brentwood Talent Show bake sale on May 8th.  mmmmm.