Enabling chocoholism

You know how it is so difficult to find gifts for some people? They have everything they want, they don't have any hobbies or obsessions you can fuel, they say, "oh I don't want anything, you don't have to get me anything" but they're your family member or friend and it's a holiday or birthday or you just want to give them something to let them know you appreciate them. That's why I love chocoholics. Sooo easy. Hand them a nice chocolate bar and you get a smile. Bring them some chocolate cookies and you earn a hug. Make them chocolate truffles and...

This is a ridiculously easy recipe. No melting chocolate on a double boiler. Just bring cream to a boil, remove from heat and add in chocolate chips or chopped chocolate. 3/4 c cream to 12 oz chocolate. I use dark chocolate because then it's healthy. Really. Stir until all the chocolate is melted and add flavorings. For example, I made a batch of lime-ginger truffles recently. Lime zest and finely chopped crystallized ginger to taste. Yesterday we divided the chocolate and made three types of truffles...cardamom, chile, and cumin.

Chile being added into the ganache. These have a bite!

A chocoholic hard at work sifting cardamom.

The finished result...subtly shaded and poorly photographed. The browns(cocoa) are cardamom, the orange (turmeric and cocoa) cumin and the yellows (powdered ginger) are chile. Thought about rolling the chile truffles in a mix of cocoa and chile powder to make them reddish, but I didn't have any weak enough chile powder in the cupboard. I'd had such a hard time getting the flourless chocolate chile cake to have enough of a kick to it, that I overcompensated this time when buying chile powder and got some powerful stuff. It was a little too painful to lick the chile chocolate bowl.