Chai Spiced Truffles

These chai spiced chocolate truffles are perfect for Valentine’s Day. They are dark and dense orbs, made using good quality 70 percent dark chocolate infused with cream and the gorgeous sweet spices ordinarily used in chai, including ginger, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves.

They can be made in advance, then refrigerated, leaving you more time to spend with your loved one.

They are perfect eaten after dinner and with a little dessert wine or just nibbled slowly all by themselves.

They don’t just have to be for your partner, either. Valentine’s Day is fast becoming a time to appreciate everyone you love — father, mother, siblings and friends.

Chai Spice Chocolate Truffles

Start to finish: 2 hours 25 minutes (25 minutes active)

Makes 48 truffles

8 ounces dark chocolate, roughly chopped

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground dry ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 cup cocoa powder

Set the chocolate in a medium bowl. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan over medium, combine the cream and butter.

Heat until the butter melts and the cream starts to bubble.

Be careful not to burn the cream.

Pour the hot milk mixture over the chocolate, whisking to melt the chocolate until you have a smooth mixture.

Add the cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and sugar.

Mix well, then refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or until firm.

To make the truffles, place the cocoa powder in a bowl to one side.

Using a melon baller or small cookie scoop dipped in hot water, scoop out a little of the firm chocolate mixture and shape into a ball.

To coat, roll around in the bowl of cocoa powder until well covered.

Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks.

Recipe from Meera Sodha for the Associated Press.

Nutritional information per truffle: 50 calories; 40 calories from fat (80 percent of total calories); 4 g fat (2.5 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 10 mg cholesterol; 0 mg sodium; 3 g carbohydrate; 1 g fiber; 2 g sugar; and 1 g protein.

Chai Tea Mix

My wonderful neighbor, Laura Davis, gave me this recipe.  It's perfect for rainy weather, like today.

Laura and her family are very religious Christians. They're mainstays of their church, Wesley United Methodist Church,  helping out at the weekly soup kitchen. Laura's husband Todd sometimes preaches, and he and their kids, Amelia, Evan and Marty, often play music for church functions.

Hanukkah fell soon after I moved in, around 2000. And soon after, small gifts from "The Hanukkah Man" started appearing each of the 8 days at my doorstep.  Sometimes I'd hear giggles right before the gifts appeared - Amelia, who was 4 around then, was too excited to keep a secret.

I started having the family over for latkes and gave the kids Hanukkah gelt every year during the Festival of Lights, and Laura helps me shop for the synagogue Hanukkah party every year - she's much better at finding tczakhas than I am!  And every Christmas morning, I stop by with gifts Santa carelessly loses from his sleigh as he crosses my yard.

I think it's fine proof that different religions can live in peace.

Ingredients:

1 C nonfat dry milk powder
1 C powdered non-dairy creamer
1 C French vanilla powdered non-dairy creamer
2 1/2 C sugar or splenda
1 1/2 C unsweetened tea (this is optional.  Personally, I prefer to make tea, and use the rest of this mixture as a sort of creamer.)
2 tsp ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp white pepper
1 tsp allspice

Combine ingredients in large bowl. Blend 1 cup at a time in a blender of food processor until it's a fine powder.

To serve: stir 2 heaping tablespoons into a mug of hot water.  Or tea, assuming you skipped the unsweetened tea ingredient.