Delicious Chocolate Recipe

Chocolate as health food?

Candy-maker Mars plans to launch a new line of products next month that are made with a dark chocolate the company claims has health benefits. Called Cocoavia, the products are made with a kind of dark chocolate high in flavanols, an antioxidant found in cocoa beans that is thought to have a blood-thinning effect similar to aspirin and may even lower blood pressure. But Bonnie Liebman is skeptical about the idea of chocolate as medicine. She’s a nutrition director for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Liebman says recent research hasn’t linked flavanols to a reduced risk of cancer or heart disease. And she says giving people the impression they should eat more chocolate is a bad idea when there are already so many overweight americans.

Ingredients:

- 8 oz. cream cheese at room temperature
- 5 oz. white chocolate
- 4 cups confectioner’s sugar
- 1 tsp. grated fresh ginger root 18 medium fresh strawberries
- 1/4 cup finely minced crystallized ginger (get it in a gourmet food store or well stocked supermarket)
- 1/2 cup toasted coconut
- 1/2 cup finely chopped pistachio nuts

Directions :

Melt white chocolate in the top of a double boiler, let cool. Beat together the cream cheese, sugar and ginger root until smooth. Add melted white chocolate and mix well. Chill for at least 1 hour or until easy to handle. Use a small melon baller (or small spoon) to scoop out the center of each strawberry, half way down each fruit. Pat strawberry dry. Put a little crystallized ginger into each strawberry. Shape the cheese mixture around the fruit. Coat one end in the toasted coconut, the other in the pistachio nuts. Place truffles in candy cups and chill until serving time.

Makes about 18 truffles

Walnut Chocolate Rum Balls

Ingredients:

- 1 c Walnuts, ground or finely chopped
- 2 c Grated “German’s sweet” or bittersweet chocolate
- 1 1/2 c Sifted confectioner’s sugar
- 4 tb Rum
- Cocoa powder

Directions:

Combine nuts, sugar, and chocolate. Moisten with rum to form a stiff dough. Form into small balls and roll in cocoa to coat. This recipe is not only simple, it’s flexible. It can be made with other kinds of liquor (amaretto, sherry, and Southern Comfort work well), nuts (almonds or pecans, for instance) and coatings (ground nuts, finely grated coconut, etc.) and always comes out tasting great. Adding small chunks of nut for texture is also effective.

Ingredients :

- 2 pounds of Belgian chocolate (or any brand of good quality chocolate) one quart of heavy cream 

- 1/4 lb. unsalted butter 

- 1/3 C liqueur of choice 

- cocoa powder

Directions :

Melt chocolate and cream over a double boiler. Whisk in butter and liqueur. Continue to whisk as the mixture cools and thickens. Pour into quart containers and refrigerate. To serve, scoop out with melon baller, roll in powdered cocoa. 

This makes over 2lbs. of truffles, but they are incredibly addictive